SEND in the Early Help Process
A child my be identified as having additional needs when they are very young. It may be clearly evident what the child's primary need is. However, for the majority of children identified early, it takes time for this to be recognised through ongoing observation and assessment. A child in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) with additional needs becomes known to The Local Authority via the Early Help Process (EHA), initiated by their Early Years setting or a health professional.
Some children need support for SEN and disabilities at home or in informal settings before, or as well as, the support they receive from an early years provider. Provision for children who need such support should form part of the Local Joint Commissioning arrangement which can be found below.
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SEND and the Graduated Approach
Where a child or young person is identified as having SEN, educational providers should take action to remove those barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place. This SEN support should take the form of the assess-plan-do-review cycle through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refine and revised with a growing understanding of the pupil's needs and of what supports the pupil in making good progress and securing good outcomes. This is known as the graduated approach. It draws on the more detailed approaches, requires frequent reviewing and more specialist expertise in successive cycles in order to match the interventions to the SEN of the children and young people.