How to use this toolkit
The Graduated Response, or Graduated Approach, is the process which must be carried out when there are concerns about a possible special educational need.
The Equality Act (2010) and The SEND Code of Practice (2015) places strong emphasis on reasonable adjustments and early intervention.
It states that to enable the child and young person to participate, learn and make progress, we should:
- remove barriers to learning, and
- put effective special educational provision in place.
- High quality adaptive teaching (including differentiation) should be the first reaction to any possible special educational need.
Torbay’s Graduated Response
Torbay's Graduated Response will ensure all partners work together to get the “right support in the right place at the right time” by the right people for every child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities.
Our commitment is to:
- Work with families in partnership to identify needs early and act collaboratively (across education, health and social care) in order to provide the right help and support at the right time
- Regularly revisit the additional support in place for a child/young person making sure that all organisations are accountable for the services they deliver.
- Make available a Graduated Response toolkit which is easy to find and uses clear and shared language so that everyone can understand what support is available.
Universal, Targeted and Specialist Provision
Universal provision means the support and provision which is ordinarily available to every child or
young person in every educational setting in Torbay.
Some children and young people need more support – this is called targeted and specialist
provision. This support is needs led which means that the child or young person gets the right
support in the right place and at the right time. The support may be needed right away or at a
point in the future, for short or for extended periods of time.
Our approach to Support and Inclusion
For children and young people in Torbay to thrive we know that every setting should have in place:
- Quality first teaching and differentiation recognising that every teacher is a teacher of
special educational need - SEND-focused Continuing Professional Development for teachers
- Opportunities for the development of the understanding and resources to identify
specific learning needs
We believe our children and young people can thrive when quality first teaching is accessible to
all.
Legal Duties for SEND
The SEND Code of Practice 2015 is a statutory document and is very clear in setting out the responsibilities of educational settings in identifying and meeting the needs of all children and young people.
The Children and Families Act 2014, The Equality Act 2010 and the SEND regulations 2014 underpin the principles within The Code of Practice 2015.
These key principles are:
- Having regard for the views, wishes and feelings of the children and young people and their parent and carers.
- Children and young people and parent carers participate in partnership as fully as possible in decision making and are supported to participate
- early identification of children and young peoples’ needs and intervention to support them
- Greater choice over and control for children and young people and parent carers over support
- Collaboration between education, health and social care services
- High quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people and a focus on inclusive practice and removing barriers to learning
- Successful preparation for adulthood, including independent living and employment.
Every school is required to not only identify the SEN of the children and young people, but also address it. Section 6 of the Code of Practice (2015) clearly sets out the statutory duties of
mainstream schools (including, maintained schools and academies that are not special schools, maintained nursery schools, 16-19 years academies, alternative provision academies and Pupil Referral Units). You can find how your child or young person’s school supports SEND by viewing the SEN Information Report on the school’s website.
Do I need a diagnosis to access support?
No, you do not need a diagnosis to access support.
Support and Inclusion is needs led and not determined by any formal diagnosis. This means your child or young person can be supported through the Graduated Response toolkits as soon as a need is identified.
These needs may be identified by anyone working or knowing your child or young person. For example; a parent carer, a teacher, a health visitor or a support worker.
Once identified, needs will be supported using the Assess, Plan, Do Review cycle below.
The Assess, Plan, Do, Review Cycle
The Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle is how the Graduated Response is put in place. It can be repeated as many times as needed to help the child or young person progress.
If a child or young person is not making the expected progress, the first step is to collect the right information and find the right people to be able to plan support. This will include the views of the child or young person and their family, information from their teachers and the views from any other service or organisation involved in the life of the child or young person. This is the Assess stage of the cycle.
The second step is the Plan stage of the cycle where the child or young person and their family agree, with their teachers and the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO), on the new interventions and support that will be put in place. They will also agree the expected outcomes. The agreement will be recorded on the school’s systems and explained to the involved teaching staff.
The Plan stage of the cycle is when the plan is put into practice with the child or young person’s class or subject teachers being responsible for checking that the plan is working on a daily basis.
The impact of the plan is reviewed by the child or young person and their family, teachers and the SENCO. This is the Review stage of the cycle.
At this stage, progress may have been made which means the child or young person no longer requires special educational needs support. In this case the child or young person will continue to receive Universal Provision.
This cycle is reviewed continuously which means some children and young people no longer require support and some may continue with different or additional support and provision.
The following diagram shows the cycle described above as a picture.
The five toolkits and how to use them
The five Graduated Response toolkits are:
Cognition and learning
Cognition and learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs and abilities. Cognition and learning difficulties may affect all areas of the curriculum, as with pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties or Severe Learning Difficulties. However, cognition and learning difficulties may only impact on specific areas such as reading, writing, spelling and/or numeracy.
Speech, Language and Communication
Speech, Language and communication needs cover a range of difficulties such as: producing speech sounds accurately, stammering, voice problems, such as hoarseness and loss of voice, understanding language (i.e., making sense of what people say), using language including words and sentences and interacting with others (e.g., difficulties understanding and using the non-verbal rules of good communication, using language in different ways to question, clarify or describe things, or taking into account other people’s perspectives)
Social, Emotional and Mental Health
Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs are a type of special educational needs in which children and young people have difficulties in managing their emotions and behaviour. They may often show inappropriate responses and feelings to situations.
This means that they may have trouble in building and maintaining relationships with peers and adults; they may also struggle to engage with learning and to cope in the classroom without additional strategies and interventions. Children with SEMH will often feel anxious, scared and misunderstood.
Physical and sensory
Sensory impairments can be defined as an impairment that affects a child or young person’s ability to access auditory or visual information. Physical impairments usually originate from neurological or metabolic causes and can require specific intervention.
Neurodiversity
All human beings can be described as neurodiverse. We vary in the way our brains work. We take in information in different ways. We process it in different ways and therefore, we behave in different ways.
When we talk about neurodivergence, this covers a wide range of neurological differences which may either enhance or be a barrier to learning. These differences can affect a number of developmental areas and be observed as characteristic that are indicative of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, Classic Tic disorders, developmental coordination disorder, intellectual disability and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).
For children under 5 years old an Early Years toolkit has been developed.
Many children and young people will have needs that do not fit in just one toolkit. Therefore, it may be necessary to refer to more than one toolkit to support the child or young person.
The Torbay Belonging Strategy
The Torbay Belonging Strategy has been created to support children and young people to maintain their school places by recognising and meeting need.
Funding
Please find information about funding for children and young people with additional needs here.
SEN funding for Children and Young people in mainstream Schools, Academies and Free Schools
Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
For the majority of children and young people, their needs can be met through the Graduated Response at SEN Support.
A small number of children and young people may need an Education, Health and Care Plan to ensure their inclusion. This may be in a mainstream setting or more specialised provision – to find out more visit the SEN Provision pages to find some helpful leaflets on EHCPs.
Getting more help
You might feel that even with the support or provision provided, your child or young person’s needs are not being met. In the first instance, arrange to contact the SENDCo (Special Educational Needs & Disability Coordinator) at your child or young person’s educational setting. You can find out their contact details by visiting the website for the educational setting.
For guidance on resolving disagreements about SEND provision see:
For free impartial support contact: Sendiass Torbay
To find out more about how our SEND local area partners (e.g health, education and social care) work with parents and carers, contact SEND Family Voice Torbay (SFVT), our Parent Carer forum.