A taxonomy for SEND reforms

From the 2015 Code of Practice, local authorities created ordinarily available provision as a PDF, SEND toolkit, or ranges document.

The new SEND reforms need a different approach, because the strategies and interventions must be evidence based, and up to date.

Our online directory, Belong, will help all local authorities achieve this.

Categories

But first we need some new categories.

For the old areas of need, the new development areas, we've got a list, still to be confirmed.

For the universal, whole school strategies, I'm drawing on the SEND reform documents to create something that will be useful for local authorities and schools to have a shared language.

Universal categories

• Leadership and governance
  • Inclusion strategy
  • National Inclusion Standards
• Evidence based support
  • Early intervention
• High quality teaching with inclusive curriculum
• Beyond the classroom
• Safe and respectful culture
• Strong partnerships with families and wider services
  • Parent carers
  • Wider services
    • Health
    • Care
    • Virtual school
    • Children looked after
• Inclusive environments
  • Inclusive by design
  • Emotional environment

Notes

1. Maybe "emotional environment" belongs in "safe and respectful culture"?
2. I'm not sure what's going to be in the National Inclusion Standards, so that's a bit of a placeholder.
3. How to break down "beyond the classroom"? Breaks, before and after school, extra-curricular, trips?
4. "Strong partnerships" probably needs something around the new "groups" of schools.
5. Got any ideas? Send me an email.

Development areas categories

• Executive function
  • Attention
  • Working memory
  • Managing impulses
  • Planning, sequencing and organisation
  • Cognitive flexibility
• Motor and physical
  • Gross motor
  • Fine motor
  • Interaction of fine and gross motor
• Sensory development
  • External senses
    • Vision
    • Hearing
    • Touch
    • Taste
    • Smell
  • Internal senses
    • Body awareness
    • Internal body signals
    • Balance and movement
  • Sensory processing
• Social and emotional
  • Understand and manage emotions
    • Form relationships
    • Navigating social interactions
    • Navigate learning at school
  • Regulating emotions
    • Identifying and expressing feelings
    • Social cognition
• Speech, language and communication
  • Speech
  • Language
  • Communication

Notes

1. I wonder if I've broken things down enough here.
2. There's a lot missing in terms of literacy and numeracy, compared to the 4 broad areas of need and local authority OAP or SEND toolkits.

Show, don't tell

Get a working prototype of Belong for your local authority

Send me your ordinarily available provision or graduated approach documents and I'll make a sample prototype for you to share with colleagues.

• No obligation prototype
• Sample of your graduated approach
• Share across your authority with logins for council and SENCOs

Send your graduated approach documents to me, Jonny Holden, jonny@poppop.studio