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Introduction to Warrington's Graduated Approach

Contents

Introduction to Warrington’s Graduated Approach Framework

This document provides practical guidance and information for schools, educational settings and other professionals who work and support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Warrington. It intends to build on the excellent practice in educational settings and schools in Warrington, and promote positive outcomes for pupils’ with SEND.

This document aspires to ensure children and young people (CYP), families and schools feel confident that needs can be met in all of our local setting and schools, at all levels of need.

The tool is reflective of the necessary legislation and needs to be read in context of the SEND Code of Practice 0 -25 years, (2015) www.gov.uk/government/publications/send- code-of-practice-0-to-25 and Children and Families Act 2014. Important information is not duplicated here.

SENCO’s are advised to use advice in the Warrington SENCO Handbook which describes in detail the legislation, responsibilities of the SENCO and how school systems link with SEND systems in the Local Authority.

Information for families can be found here - Graduated response guide for families | warrington.gov.uk

How to use the toolkit

This toolkit is intended to inform the processes used in schools and settings in Warrington when meeting the SEND needs of the children in their school community. It is intended that the school senior leadership team, including the SENCO, will build on the key principles and suggested actions at each level of support and modify it according to their own schools approach to SEND.

What is a Graduated Approach to SEND?

Education, Health and

Care Plan

SEN Support

plus

Ordinarily Available Provision(OAP): universally available,

quality first teaching with reasonable adjustments

When schools and settings take a Graduated Approach to meeting the SEND needs of CYP, it ensures that the right support is provided at the right time and in the right place, and that the vast majority will go on to succeed (SEND review 2023).

It is a structured approach used by educational settings to identify and support children and young people with SEND. It involves a continuous process of Assess, Plan, Do, and Review, ensuring that the level of support provided is appropriate to the child's needs and that interventions are regularly evaluated and adjusted. In this way a more accurate

understanding of a CYP’s SEND is developed over time, in partnership with family and the CYP.

The graduated approach starts at the whole school level, as all teachers are continually assessing, planning, implementing (doing) and reviewing (APDR) their approach to teaching for all children. However, for some pupils a need may emerge that requires an increasingly personalised approach. If this persists despite teacher intervention this may be identified as being a special educational need.

As the APDR cycle is repeated some children will progress from their provision being that which is universally available to all children (Ordinarily Available Provision) to being more targeted and personalised (SEN Support). Many will not need this higher level support for the duration of their education as their needs are met and progress regained. A small proportion of children will need a higher level of support than can be provided from the resources available in a mainstream setting, for these few children an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment can be requested.

When SEND is identified for a CYP it becomes increasingly important to include them and their family in the process, and it may also become necessary to include advice from others in school (e.g. SENCO, specialist teachers) or service providers in the local area (Educational Psychology, Sensory Team, outreach teachers).

Key principles of the Graduated Approach in Warrington

Person centred approaches - working with children and their families.

Involving children and young people, and their families in planning SEND provision is a key principle of the SEND Code of Practice. When CYP and their families are involved in early identification, decision making and review processes good outcomes are more likely.

“Person centred planning aims to put children and young people at the centre of planning and decisions that affect them. When children are meaningfully involved, this can change their attitude, behaviour and learning and make them active partners who work with adults to bring about change”. Council for Disabled Children

The child or young person will remain at the centre of any assessment or planning process and they should be involved in any decisions that are made about them. Schools and settings are advised to seek the child or young person’s views and use these to inform the assess, plan, do, review cycle. The child or young person should be

involved in setting their outcomes and planning the provision and strategies that will be used to support them from the earliest ages. They should also be involved reviewing the impact of this support, and contribute to decisions that are made about next steps.

Schools and settings will develop their own approaches to empowering CYP to identify and share their views. This may involve creative approaches including observations, drawing, making, taking photographs, talking, card sort activities and even role play (where appropriate). See ‘Listening to Young Children: The Mosaic approach’ by Alison Clark and Peter Moss (2011) for way to help young children share their views.

For more info see: – National Development Team for Inclusion Preparing for Adulthood: Person- centred Planning Tools - NDTi – Council for Disabled Children: What is Person Centred Planning? – Helen Sanderson Associates: Person-Centered Thinking Tools - Helen Sanderson Associates CYP can also be facilitated to share their views via their parents/ carers who can frequently act as advocates for their children. Working collaboratively with families from the start of the SEND journey will be reliant on openness, trust and respectful listening – with each party acknowledging the importance of learning from the other.

See Warrington Parents & Carers Forum | Warrington and Warrington SENDIASS | warrington.gov.uk for organisations which support parents to be involved and empowered in this process.

Assess, Plan, Do and Review

Teachers continually use a cycle of assessment, planning, intervening and reviewing progress of the CYP in their classes. This forms the basis of all good teaching. When

SEND is identified, this process continues but becomes more formalised and focussed on identifying ways in which barriers to learning and development can be removed. Through this APDR process a more accurate understanding of the child’s additional needs can evolve, and therefore the support provided can be more carefully matched to the child’s needs and aspirations.

Assess

Teachers ordinarily use a wide range of approaches to assess the skills and abilities of the children in their classes. This will form the basis of most assessments and will include:

  • Gathering the views and aspirations of the pupil and their family through conversation or more developmentally appropriate/ creative approaches.
  • Universal and targeted in-house assessments which may be standardised or give indication of strengths and/or gaps in skills and knowledge.
  • Observations carried out by a range of school staff whilst mediating learning experiences or working alongside the CYP.
  • The pupil’s rate of progress over time, across the curriculum, or with particular areas of skill.
  • Tracking of data and comparisons with national data.
  • Specialised assessment materials such as emotional literacy, language or social skills checklists.
  • Any relevant assessment information provided by external agencies e.g. Health, Educational Psychology and Social Care Services.

The individual, detailed assessment should be formative and result in clear picture of the child’s strengths and areas of need, and priorities for future learning. A holistic approach to the child’s development will be most effective, but sometimes a teacher may be confident that a focussed assessment only is needed. A holistic assessment will include needs beyond the curriculum, relating to language, social, emotional and physical development also.

Plan

The next phase of the graduated approach is to plan the provision that is most likely to be effective in meeting the child’s needs. Pupils and parents/ carers must be consulted when planning provision so that their views and aspirations are taken into account. It is also likely that the class teacher will seek support and advice from the SENCO and, when appropriate, advice from specialist services. Two areas need to be considered when planning provision:

  • High quality class / subject teaching adapted to meet individual needs
  • Targeted provision or intervention programmes.

The SEND Code of Practice (2015) states that “Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.” It is vital that class and subject teachers, supported by the SENCO, determine how they will adjust their day-to-day teaching in order to meet the needs of pupils with SEN within their class. Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools | EEF Use of targeted provision or interventions should have clear expected outcomes. Schools should use the latest research detailing the impact of interventions and only choose programmes that have a strong evidence base of effectiveness. If interventions take place outside the classroom, communication between class/subject teacher and the member of staff delivering the intervention should also be planned. Plans will need to be made to ensure specific skills and strategies taught during intervention can be generalised during the day to day teaching in the classroom. Selecting interventions | EEF The plan will be outcome focussed and should include:

  • Smart (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) targets
  • Details of the adjustments, equipment, support, and interventions that need to be put into place to fulfil the plan.
  • Details of who will be running the programme and when
  • Details of success criteria, including how progress will be measured, when and by whom
  • A date for review, typically 6-8 weeks.

The plan will be recorded in an accessible manner and circulated to everyone involved before it begins. Any training needs should be identified and addressed. Schools and settings name this plan differently, in some schools it may be an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and in others it may be a SEN Plan for example.

Do

In this phase the plan is put into action by teachers, CYP, and parents working together, with support staff where appropriate.

The SEND Code of Practice makes it clear that it is the responsibility of class or subject teachers to implement the plan on a daily basis and plan appropriate work for the child. Where interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class, teachers should still retain the responsibility. They should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved to plan and assess the impact of support and interventions on pupil progress and how skills taught within intervention can be generalised back in the classroom. This should be supported by the SENDCo. Guidance about effective use of teaching assistants is recommended to teachers and schools, Deployment of Teaching Assistants | EEF.

Through a process of monitoring and evaluating impact it will be possible for the teacher to make adjustments, communicate with the CYP and their family about progress and to gather robust information to inform the review meeting.

Review

A timely review will support confidence that the planned support has been correctly identified and effectively implemented. The views of the child, their parents/ carers, teacher, support staff/ specialist services (where appropriate) and SENCO will all inform the review. The review may happen more regularly depending on the needs of the child, but no less than 3 times each year.

The review will consider:

  • Whether the pupil achieved the agreed short term outcomes
  • Evidence from day-to-day/ week to week intervention tracking
  • Whether the child is generalising the skills to class, across subjects or settings? Can they apply the skill independently?
  • How the pupil has responded to the provision?
  • How the outcome of the review will feed into the analysis of pupils’ needs? Are further specific assessments needed? Is there a need to refer to a specialist outside agency?
  • Whether any changes to support, provision and targets are needed?

At the end of each cycle there will be a reflection on what has been learnt (e.g. regarding learning preferences, motivation, approach, strategies that support and those which do not). This learning will explicitly inform subsequent APDR cycles and/ or Ordinarily Available Provision creating a clear thread linking subsequent plans and approaches.

A written record of the review will be made and shared with all those involved. This will also describe the agreed next steps. If it is agreed that the pupil would benefit from further support, then a further round of ‘assess-plan-do- review’ should begin.

Levels of support

There are rarely clearly defined moments when the level of support provided to a child moves from that which can to described as adaptive teaching, to an adjusted expectation or provision which is ordinarily available, to a level of support which can be defined as a SEND provision. Good teaching practice moves smoothly through these levels in a flexible, responsive and timely manner.

In this toolkit strategies and approaches are defined as :

  • Ordinarily Available Provisions. This includes universally available, whole school approaches, quality first teaching (QFT), and Ordinarily Available

Provisions (OAPs). This level of support is provided by the school, from within their own resources.

  • SEN Support. Children working at SEN Support are identified as having SEND

requiring provision that is additional to and different from the mainstream curriculum. These children will continue to also be supported by the whole school provision, QFT and OAPs. For most children this support will also be provided by the schools, from within their own resources.

A very small number of pupils with complex and severe needs will require very high levels of individualised SEN Support and this need will have persisted over time despite carefully planned and reviewed interventions. In these cases, the school have a duty of care to apply for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) and the local authority has a duty to respond within the statutory timeframes, (SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years - Gov.UK).

For some of the children who have undergone an EHCNA, and Educational, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is made. This is a legal document which sets out a description of the special educational, health and care needs and the provision required to meet the identified needs and enable the pupil to make progress. It is crucial that the pupil and their family are fully informed of the EHC needs assessment process and supported throughout it. It is the duty of all SEND professionals to have a robust and working knowledge of the process so that the pupil and parents/carers can be supported through the process. For more information about his process locally see: Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan | warrington.gov.uk

Four areas of need

Children’s development occurs holistically in response to within child and environmental factors. However the DfE and SEND CoP define four broad areas of special educational need and these areas have been used to organise strategies and approaches at the OAP/Universal and SEND Support levels in this resource. The CoP describes the four areas of need in the following way.

Communication and interaction

Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN): Pupils with SLCN have difficulty in communicating with others; this may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to and being understood by others, difficulty understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Pupils with ASD, including Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism, are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction. They may also

experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.

Cognition and Learning

Support for learning difficulties may be required when pupils learn at a slower pace than their peers. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD) where pupils are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with mobility and communication through to profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) where pupils are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment. In addition, specific learning difficulties (SpLD) affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This includes a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Social, emotional and mental health

Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other pupils may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.

Sensory and/or physical needs

Some children and young people require special education provision because they have a diagnosis or difficulty which impacts on their access to educational facilities.

Many children and young people with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or habilitation support. Children and young people with an MSI have a combination of vision and hearing difficulties. Additionally, some children and young people with a physical disability (PD), require additional ongoing support and/or equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers. These difficulties can be age related and may fluctuate over time.

Supported by Committed to Inclusion

The Warrington Committed to Inclusion Award aims to continually improve the quality of provision for pupils with SEND across Warrington schools and to capture and celebrate this work so that everyone can learn from it. The Warrington Committed to Inclusion Award is used as a key driver in improving SEND provision and practice for pupils in our area and sets out a school’s intention around inclusive practice. When taking part in the Committed to Inclusion Award scheme schools are invited to benefit from Peer to Peer reviews of SEND and Inclusion, SENCO mentoring, a wide training offer, and opportunities for SENCo to learn together in termly network meetings and the annual SEND conference.