SENCO and practitioners' resources

Introduction

The resources in the left-hand menu and linked below can be used to help practitioners support families of children and young people with SEND.

If you feel there is missing or incorrect information on this page, please let us know through our Feedback form.

Accessibility Strategy

The requirements for Local Authorities to put in place a written Accessibility Strategy are specified in Schedule 10 (Accessibility for Disabled Pupils) of the 2010 Equality Act.

The aim of the strategy is to increase participation in the curriculum and improve the physical environment in schools for disabled pupils. It replaces Surrey County Council's Social Inclusion Framework for Schools and Educational Settings.

Read the latest Surrey County Council Accessibility Strategy (PDF).

Admission Arrangements

For information on Surrey's school admissions process for children with an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan, please see the Surrey County Council web page Applying for a school place for a child with an EHC plan.

Alternative Provision

Alternative Provision (AP) is "education outside school, arranged by local authorities or schools, for pupils who do not attend mainstream school for reasons such as exclusion, behaviour issues, school refusal, short- or long-term illness". It can be for children who have social, emotional, or mental health needs, complex health needs or for whom an academic pathway of GCSEs is not appropriate.

Read Surrey County Council's Alternative Curriculum Pathways and Reintegration Support (revised July 2023) (PDF).

Section 19 says that it is the duty of the local authority to 'make arrangements for the provision of suitable education to children of compulsory school age who, by reason of illness, exclusion from school, or otherwise, may not receive suitable education unless such arrangements are made for them.

Read Surrey County Council's Section 19 statement of duties.

For more information about Alternative Provision information, see the Alternative Provision in Surrey webpage.

Annual Reviews (EHC plan statutory reviews)

All Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans must be reviewed at least annually.

By law, it's the Local Authority's (LA) responsibility to complete the review process, but we delegate some steps to the school/setting/or other education provider, who are known as the host.

The Annual Review (AR) is more than just a meeting, it is a complete process, including actions that must be taken before and after the meeting. This process must be completed on or before the anniversary of when the EHC Plan was first issued or the anniversary of the last review. This is laid down in law and in the SEND Code of Practice (CoP).

For more information about the annual review process (including interim annual reviews), see the EHC plan statutory review process and documents.

Children's crisis service

The Children's Crisis Service is a county-wide service for children aged 4 to 18 with behaviours of concern or behaviours that challenge carers because of a Learning Disability (LD) and/ or Autism (ASC), who are at risk of placement breakdown.

Who the service is for:

To access this service, the child must have met the criteria below:

  • a formal diagnosis of ASC and/ or a Learning Disability,
  • behaviours of concern/ that challenge carers.
  • be at risk of placement breakdown,
  • have an allocated Social Worker
  • subject to a Child in Need (CIN)/ Child Protection (CP) plan/ a child within Local Authority Care at risk of placement breakdown.

Contact the Children's Crisis Service

  • Telephone: 01483 517187
  • Email: CCS@surreycc.gov.uk
  • Address: Fairmount House, Bull Hill, Leatherhead, KT22 7AH

Directed off site and managed move protocol

The Surrey directed off site and managed move protocol (PDF) provides guidance for schools who are considering a Managed Move for a child of compulsory school age.

You can also download the Directed off-site provision notification form (DOC). This form allows schools to communicate information to Surrey County Council when Directed off-site provision has been agreed between schools and parents/ carers. This form should be returned to managed.moves@surreycc.gov.uk.

Schools may also wish to consult the UK government guidance Suspension and Permanent Exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement (PDF).

Disabled children and the Equality Act

The Council for Disabled Children have published an updated guide to the duties schools have to their disabled students under the Equality Act 2010 Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do.

This guide is designed to help teachers understand the legislation and how it applies to their work with disabled pupils in their school.

Educational Psychology Advice templates

Statutory Educational Psychology Advice template

The template below is used for statutory psychological advice:

Quality Assurance Guidance for Private Educational Psychology Advice

Education Health and Care (EHC) plan templates

Educated Other Than at School (EOTAS)

Occasionally there are circumstances when children/young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) need to be educated outside of traditional education settings such as schools or colleges.

To ensure that all children/young people can receive an efficient and effective education, the Children and Families Act 2014 allows for education outside of traditional education settings. EOTAS is education otherwise than at school, including post-16 settings. It is education arrangements that meet the needs of children or young people who, for whatever reason, are unable to attend any mainstream or specialist education setting.

For detailed information on EOTAS provision in Surrey read the EOTAS policy (published May 2024) (PDF).

Graduated Response for Early Years settings

Information and documents to help special educational needs coordinators (SENCO), early years practitioners, home-based child carers and playworkers support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families.

Access the Graduated Response Early Years.

Inclusion and additional needs service schools offer

The purpose of the Surrey Inclusion and Additional Needs service offer is to help schools and settings understand our service offers available to support schools to meet pupils needs as they emerge.

Read the Surrey Inclusion and Additional Needs service offer.

Local Area SEND Inspection 2023

From 11 to 29 September 2023 Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) undertook a three-week inspection of the local area partnership in Surrey to evaluate the effectiveness of these arrangements for children and young people with SEND.

For further details including a publication of the inspection findings visit Local Area SEND Inspection 2023.

Learners Request for Statutory Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment (0 to 25 years)

Occasionally, children and young people's needs are so complex that a statutory assessment of their Education, Health and Care needs may be appropriate.

If you are a professional supporting a child or young person where you feel a statutory assessment may be required, please complete:

Once completed, please submit these to our new team in the L-SPA, using the online Learners request for assessment form.

Before submitting your application, you will also be prompted to supply any other additional evidence that may support your request for statutory assessment.

Our team of multi-agency professionals will review your request and make a recommendation as to whether a statutory assessment is required, based on the child or young person's needs. We will always let you know the outcome within 6 weeks of the request being made.

There may be occasions that we do not agree that a statutory assessment is required, however, we will always provide you specific and individual reasons for this, as well as signpost you to services that may be more appropriate.

For information about how we use the data, please see the Children, families, lifelong learning and culture privacy notice.

Learners Request for Support (0 to 25 years)

Learners Request for Support has been devised to help learners across Surrey access support when they need it.

This will ensure that we obtain a holistic view of a child or young person's needs, to help us better focus on where we need to direct support for an individual. The forms below should be used by any professional working with a child or young person, should they have a concern about their learning and/or development.

To make a request for support, please complete:

Once completed, please submit these to our new team in the L-SPA, using the online Learners request for support form.

Our team will review your request for support and ensure that appropriate next steps are taken, based on the child or young person's individual needs.

For information about how we use the data, please see the Children, families, lifelong learning and culture privacy notice.

Mainstream banding SEND framework

Following our Schools and Public Consultation earlier this year, Surrey County Council will implement changes to the way in which children and young people with an EHC plan are funded in mainstream educational settings.

For more information, please see the Mainstream School (SEND) Banding Framework document (PDF).

Ordinarily available provision in schools (new September 2022)

This guidance document sets out expectations, strategies and support available to schools to support children with additional needs.

It replaces the old Graduated Response for Schools document and the SEND Profiles of Need.

Please see the Ordinarily available provision (schools).

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) Joint Position Statement

Read the Surrey Joint Position Statement regarding Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDF).

Personal Budgets policy and form

Personal budgets are one element of a personalised approach to supporting children and young people with SEND and should be seen as an integral part of the coordinated assessment and EHC planning process where there is a clear focus on improving outcomes for children/young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Process for under 18s with SEND who are in, or leaving youth custody

Since 1 April 2015 new laws and statutory guidance have been in place that apply to how young people with SEND are supported in youth custody. These changes have been designed to improve how Surrey work with children, young people and their families and to further joint working across agencies.

Surrey's guidance documentation sets out the SEND process for young people with SEND who are in, or leaving, youth custody and are aged 18 and under.

Request for Educational Psychology Involvement (REPI)

Schools can request educational psychology support by completing a Request for Educational Psychology Involvement, also known as a REPI.

When considering whether to submit a REPI please refer to the Inclusion and Additional Needs Service Offer which can be found here Surrey Inclusion and Additional Needs service offer. This document contains helpful flow chats to assist you in deciding which service may be best placed to offer support.

You can request support for whole school development activity. The Surrey Educational Psychology team have developed a suite of bite-sized training modules which focus on the top eight psychological frameworks and approaches requested by schools and recommended by Educational Psychologists (EP). These have a strong evidence base and are impactful in meeting the needs of the whole school community including those with additional/ special educational needs. The modules are 60 to 90 minutes in duration and can be delivered at a time which minimises disruption to schools. If you are concerned about a number of students, we would recommend this route. To request support for school development training, please complete the form 'Surrey EP Service - Request for EP Involvement (REPI) School Training 2024/25', which is available on Surrey Education Services.

You can request support when you are concerned about individual pupils. We will prioritise support for children who might be described as care experienced, child in need, at risk of suspension, permanent exclusion and placement breakdown, and pupils who are experiencing difficulties in accessing academic and social education including emotionally based school non-attendance. To request support for an individual pupil, please complete the form 'Surrey EP Service - Request for EP Involvement (REPI) Individual 2024/25', which is available on Surrey Education Services.

School Transport

You can find details of how to apply for school transport for children with and without an EHC plan on the Transport to educational settings web page.

SEND Support Arrangements (previously known as Pathways Plans)

If a child or young person does not make the progress expected for their age, starting point and particular circumstances, it may be appropriate to consider with parent/carers whether an EHC plan is needed.

Below are all the documents required for Surrey's SEND Support Arrangements process:

Example paperwork

Schools can use the documents below for pre-statutory stage meetings. However, they can use their own paperwork instead if they choose.

Supporting children and young people with medical conditions

Guidance for schools and educational settings in Surrey based on the Department for Education (DfE) statutory guidance Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions December 2015.

Access 2 Education (A2E) is the council's provider of interim education support for children and young people who are medically unfit to attend school. Referral to A2E can be made by completing the A2E Request for Involvement form (DOC).

Surrey Inclusion and Additional Needs strategy (2023 to 2026)

Surrey's Inclusion and Additional Needs strategy replaces the previous SEND Strategy 2019 to 2022. This strategy is also available in Easy Read format:

Teaching Children and Young People with Literacy Difficulties

Read the Surrey County Council Teaching Children and Young People with Literacy Difficulties Practice Guidance.

Did you find this information helpful?

Rating Did you find the information helpful?