Minsthorpe Community College Additional Needs Register Protocol
Introduction
At Minsthorpe Community College we believe that early identification and meeting of additional needs is crucial to giving all children and young people (CYP) the best opportunity to achieve their potential. There is no legal guidance on when a child or young person (CYP) should be added to or removed from a schools register that records that they are receiving provision additional to and/or different from their peers.
It is important that CYP with additional needs should have their provision and level of need recorded to inform staff of their needs and to ensure there is a detailed knowledge of their educational experiences and the impact on their progress.
Legal and Regulatory information
The legal definition of a special educational need
A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:
• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
• has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.
The legal definition of a disability
A physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. This definition provides a relatively low threshold and includes more children than many realise: ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’.
(SEND Code of Practice, 2015, pp 15-16)
As well as using this information to inform our decision making to enable us to have clarity about all CYP level of need we also identify those that are receiving additional provision and/or support but do not meet the legal thresholds above.
The categories used are:
- Inc – In college support and/or provision
- K – Special Educational Needs and Disabilities support without an Education, Health and Care Plan.
- E – Education, Health and Care Plan
Only those students at “K” and “E” should be recorded for census information as having SEND.
The primary need of the CYP must also be recorded. The current options are:
- Specific Learning Difficulty
- Moderate Learning Difficulty
- Severe Learning Difficulty
- Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty
- Speech, Language and Communication Need
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder
- Visual Impairment
- Hearing Impairment
- Multi-Sensory Impairment
- Physical Disability
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health
- Physical Disability affecting mobility
A CYP can have a secondary need recorded if it is felt that there needs are explained by more pervasive difficulties than one specific area.
Protocol for adding and removing CYP from the register
The Inclusion Team oversee the day to day management of CYP with additional needs and decides on changes to the additional needs register applying the legal duties and adopting the practice set out in the SEND Code of Practice (2015) of initiating a graduated approach to meeting a CYP needs.
They will use their knowledge of the CYP and the available options of provision and support to personalise the curriculum. They will identify what would come under category “Inc” and what would be under category “K”. Category “E” is determined externally for all CYP with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Each Autumn term CCTLs and Specialist Support staff will review their year groups to ensure accuracy of support and placement on the register for their cohort. The additional needs register will be reviewed twice a year to make certain that it is accurate and reflects the needs of the CYP within the school. This information will be shared with the Senior Leadership for approval before any changes are made to the additional needs register.
There is a legal duty on the collegeto inform parents and carers that their CYP has been identified as having SEND and therefore any identified as “K” will have a letter sent to parents/carers informing them of this. They will also be provided with information regarding what additional provision and/or support is being put in place and whenthis ends and if they are removed from the Additional Needs Register. Where a CYP is identified at “Inc” a letter will also be sent home informing that additional support is being provided.