Transitions

If you think your child may have Special Education Needs (SEN), the first step is to speak to your GP or Health Worker. If the child is in a nursery or Early Years setting, you could also speak to the SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) about your concerns. They will speak to your child’s key worker if they have one and, even if they don’t, the SENCo will be supported by the Early Years Area SENCo Team for BANES.

Special educational needs should be documented in an SEN Support Plan, which the setting will develop and review by working together with you. You can find out more about the process at: https://livewell.bathnes.gov.uk/special-educational-need-or-disability-send/age-categories/information-0-5-years/early-years-sen

Your child’s setting can also ask the SEND and AP (Alternative Provision) Advice Service for guidance on what support is available and how to access it. The SEND and AP Advice Service supports professionals working with children and young people, prior to a formal assessment, from Early Years all the way through to FE Colleges. Requests for support can be made by professionals supporting your child through this link: https://livewell.bathnes.gov.uk/special-educational-need-or-disability-send/send-and-alternative-provision-ap-advice-service

For parent carers, there is Sendias Bathnes, which provides impartial, confidential advice and guidance and can offer support throughout your child’s journey through education. For example, did you know that it isn’t necessary for a child or young person to have a formal diagnosis to receive special educational support? If your child is waiting for or undergoing an assessment, or appears to be developing, behaving or learning differently from other children their age, they should receive “support based on their individual needs”. You can find out more about Sendias, what they offer, and how to contact them at: https://sendiasbathnes.org.uk/

In our area, we have Bright Start Children’s centres in Bath, Radstock and Keynsham, offering outdoor play sessions and more specialised courses and programmes. They can also offer one-to-one support for parent carers and families. They’re a great place to start if your young child has already had SEND needs identified, or if you’re waiting for an assessment and want to access some support for your family. You can find out more at: https://thehub.bathnes.gov.uk/Page/20101

Please also remember the Parent Carer Forum support line 01761 502515 if you’d like some friendly advice on how to get the support you need.

One of the early major hurdles for parent carers is supporting our children from nursery or home into their first primary school. If you or your child’s nursery think your child will struggle with the transition into school you can, through the nursery, request a supported transition. Contact Sendias on how to do this: https://sendiasbathnes.org.uk/

Some very young children will already have an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) before they start school, meaning they already have a legal right to access tailored support, but most children with additional needs won’t. You might want to request an Early Help Assessment (EHA), which gives you a chance to have a lead professional and a more joined up approach, so that you don’t have to give the same information several times over to different people and organisations. If you would like an EHA for your child, you can contact any professional who may already be working with them. Alternatively, call the Integrated Working Team (IWT) who can help you identify someone, on 01225 395448, or email . Find out more here: https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/early-help-assessment

Reception Year teachers understand that for many parents (especially with their first child) it’s a big step when their child moves into formal schooling. It’s usually possible to talk to your child’s class teacher privately after the school day if you have any concerns. Likewise, the teacher may ask to speak to you after school if they’ve noticed anything your child is struggling with. If the class teacher doesn’t seem concerned, but you are, you could have a chat and both agree to keep monitoring the situation informally. But if you are still worried about your child, you can ask to speak to the school’s SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) – every school has one. For example, if a child is struggling with learning to read and write, or with establishing friendships, the SENCo should be able to advise you on how the school will source suitable support and assessment. 

If you have any serious concerns about your child that haven’t been addressed by your GP or the nursery school (if applicable), or in the Reception class, it may be necessary to consider getting an assessment for an EHCP. You don’t need the school to do this for you: parents have the right to request a “Statutory Needs Assessment” themselves. In our area, you can do this by writing directly to the SEND Team at the Local Authority, and you might find it really helpful to ask Sendias for help with this. See here for contact details and lots of useful resources: https://sendiasbathnes.org.uk/ 

Another very important, and often challenging, transition happens between year 6 (the last year in primary school) and Year 7, the first year in secondary school. Secondary schools are generally much larger than primaries; class sizes are bigger, and children with SEND will need additional support to adjust to being in a very different environment. Parent carers, too, find the transition to secondary hard, as we don’t have the easy access to class teachers or even SENCos that we’ve been used to in a primary school. Sendias have a helpful “top tips” guide on supporting children with the transition to secondary, available as a download from this page: https://sendiasbathnes.org.uk/sen-support/sen-resources?field_media_resource_type_target_id%5B25%5D=25

Within BANES, the SEND and AP Advice Service has been working with volunteers and school professionals to discover what types of support are most beneficial. One outcome has been to develop a SEND Transitions Pro Forma: basically, a standardised set of questions that will be completed by primary schools towards the end of Year 6 and shared with the secondary school . This should provide the child’s new school with details and evidence of what support has been in place to date. The work is ongoing, and not yet publicly launched, but a lot of valuable information is being collected and shared with schools. 

Another important transition is the transition from Year 9 to Year 10 – basically, the point at which secondary education becomes geared primarily towards learning and preparing for GCSEs. Some young people find the change in teaching styles and approaches even more challenging than the raised level of the learning. If you have any concerns at this stage, you should be able to get help and advice by contacting the school’s SENCo. If you don’t feel that your concerns are taken seriously enough you can always ask Sendias for advice. Their website has a lot of good resources, including guidance on what SEND support should look like in mainstream secondary schools: https://sendiasbathnes.org.uk/get-support/get-sen-support

Sendias will also be able to advise you on how to take the matter forward if that is what is needed. Preparations for transitioning to independence should have started by the time someone reaches 14 as this should be a long, carefully planned  process that looks to the long term.

A young person’ s EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) covers them from birth to the age of 25. This means that the statutory responsibility of the Local Authority to provide suitable support should continue, being reviewed at least every 12 months, with the EHCP being treated as a “live” document which should be updated after each Annual Review. Usually, the young person’s educational setting is responsible for organising the Annual Review, whether this is a mainstream or a specialist setting. If the young people is being educated outside a formal setting, the SEND Team will organise the Review in co-operation with you.

At post-16, preparations for moving towards independence should have started already, with the EHCP updated annually to record the changing outcomes that are desired by the young person and their parent carer(s). The EHCP will continue while the young person is in education or training up to university level. If they leave education, or if for any other reason the EHCP lapses, it can be difficult if other parts of the provision aren’t already planned for, so it’s worth making sure you have already transitioned them into Adult Social Care. See our report on our recent Transitions event, here.

If a young person goes into Further Education (anything at Level 3, like an A level, or apprenticeship or similar) the EHCP should continue. You can find out more about the general planning advised for all young people across BANES here: https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/planning-post-16-transition-further-education

The education element is the key aspect of an EHCP and many forms of training and learning can fall within that broad definition. However, it’s worth being aware that as soon as a young person moves into Higher Education (anything at Level 4, like an undergraduate degree, a Foundation degree, or a Level 4 Apprenticeship), the EHCP will lapse, regardless of whether they are able to complete their studies. It’s always possible to apply again for an EHCP if the programme of study doesn’t work out, but it won’t be easy, as you’ll need to be able to demonstrate the need for resuming  formal education in light of the last placement not being appropriate despite it appearing to be the right direction at the outset. You can read our report on the successful session on transitions to adulthood which we co-hosted with Social Care recently, here. It has a lot of information about the Care Act and the Mental Capacity Act and is a good start to thinking about the way a young person’s legal status changes as they turn 16. It’s especially important to be aware of this if your young person is likely to move out of education so that the other parts of the support provided by their EHCP – anything provided and funded by Health and Social Care – can continue uninterrupted.