Glossary

A

Academy

A school which receives funding directly from the Government and is not controlled by the local authority. Most academies are secondary schools, but some primary schools are also academies.

Additional Needs

Additional needs describe children or young people who require additional support to help them make improved progress, which may be a short-term or a longer-term intervention.

Alternative Provision (AP)

Education in a setting that is not a mainstream or a special school. The education should be based on the child's needs and can be provided through various routes, including pupil referral units (PRUs).

Annual Review (AR)

Once a year, a meeting is set up to review the Education Health and Care Plan. At this meeting the needs of the child or young person and what support they require. After this meeting, the LA then decides whether an EHCP is still needed and whether any changes should be made to the Plan.

Areas of Need

The SEND Code of Practice 2014 sets out four broad areas of special educational need that include a range of difficulties and conditions:

• Communication and Interaction (CAI).
• Cognition and Learning (CAL).
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMHD).
• Physical and Sensory Needs (PASN).

Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome is a form of autism. People with the condition usually have difficulties with social communication, social interaction and social imagination.

ADHD

ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and is a neurodevelopmental condition. It is characterised by three main features - inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. It is also associated with difficulty with emotional regulation and executive functioning skills.

AAC

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) are different methods that can be used to help people with disabilities communicate with others.

Autism

Autism is a lifelong developmental disorder. It affects how a person communicates with and relates to the people around them.

C

Carer

A family member or paid helper who continually looks after a child or a sick, elderly or disabled person.

Care Plan

A record of the health or social care services that are being provided to a child or young person to help them manage a disability or health condition. The Plan will be agreed with the child’s parent or the young person and may be contained within a patient’s medical record or maintained as a separate document.

CAMHS

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) that are provided by the NHS for children and young people up to the age of 18 who need support with their emotions, their behaviour or their mental health

Cambridgeshire Therapeutic Thinking

A approach to behaviour management which provides schools and settings with a wide range of tools and approaches used to support positive behaviour development.

CYP

Refers to a child or young person. It can also mean children or young people.

Cognition and Learning

The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgement.

Code of Practice

The revised Special Educational Needs Code of Practice was published by the Department for Education and Skills in January 2015. The code provides guidance on policies and procedures intended to enable pupils with SEN to reach their full potential.

Communication and Interaction

Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they do not understand or use social rules of communication.

Comprehension

Understanding of spoken or written material or practical situations.

D

Disabled

A person is disabled if he or she has a physical or mental impairment, which has substantial and long-term effect on his or her ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

Disagreement Resolution

Local authorities must provide independent disagreement resolution to help parents and young people resolve disputes with local authorities, schools and other settings about SEND duties and provision.

Dyscalculia

A condition associated with specific learning difficulties in Maths.

Dyslexia

A learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling.

Dyspraxia

A common developmental disorder affecting fine and/or gross motor coordination in children and adults. It may also affect speech.

E

Early Help Assessment

A social care assessment of a child and his or her family, is designed to identify needs at an early stage and enable suitable interventions to be put in place to support the family.

Early Support Programme

The Early Support Programme co-ordinates health, education and social care support for the parents and carers of disabled children and young people from birth to adulthood. A key worker is assigned to families that join the Programme.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The foundation stage begins when children reach the age of three. The foundation stage continues until the end of the reception year and is consistent with the National Curriculum. It prepares children for learning in Year 1.

Early Years Provider

A provider of early education places for children under five years of age. This can include state-funded and private nurseries as well as child minders.

Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment

Local Authorities must carry out an EHC needs assessment if a child or young person has or may have special educational needs and they may need support for these needs. The assessment is a detailed look at the special educational needs that the child or young person has and what help he or she may need in order to learn.

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

An EHC plan describes the special educational needs that a child or young person has and the help that they will be given to meet them. It also includes the health and care provision that is needed.

Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)

The ESFA is the government agency that funds education for learners between the ages of 3 and 19, and those with learning difficulties and disabilities between the ages of 3 and 25. The ESFA allocates funds to local authorities, which then provide the funding for maintained schools. The ESFA directly funds academies and free schools.

Educational Psychologist (EP)

An educational psychologist looks at how a child or young person can be better supported to learn. This includes children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Epilepsy

A health condition that affects the brain and causes seizures.

Expanded Rehearsal Technique (ERT)

ERT is an evidence-based intervention aimed at improving children’s phonics skills and word reading fluency. It starts with the building blocks of word reading - phonics and progresses to whole words.

G

Graduated Approach

The SEND Code of Practice says that schools should follow a graduated approach when providing SEN Support:

• Assess.
• Plan.
• Do.
• Review.

H

Hearing Impairment (HI)

Pupils with a hearing impairment range from those with a mild hearing loss to those who are deaf.

Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA)

An experienced teaching assistant who plans and delivers learning activities under the direction of a teacher, and assesses, records and reports on pupils’ progress.

I

Inclusion

The principle of Inclusion is that children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) or a Disability have the right to be educated alongside other children from their community rather than being educated in Special Schools.

Independent School

Independent schools are schools that are not funded, organised or controlled by central government or Local Authorities (‘LAs’). Instead, they are funded through a combination of tuition fees, gifts and endowments.

Independent Special School

Is an independent school that is ‘specially organised to make special educational provision (‘SEP’) for students with special educational needs’. For the purposes of EHC plans, it is the Secretary of State who defines whether a school is an independent special school or not and a school must agree to this designation before it can be treated as such.

K

Key Stage

A key stage is a stage of education:

• Key Stage 1: 5 to 7 years old - School years 1 to 2.
• Key Stage 2: 7 to 11 years old - School years 3 to 6.
• Key Stage 3: 11 to 14 years old -School years 7 to 9.
• Key Stage 4: 14 to 16 years old - School years 10 to 11.
• Key Stage 5: 16 to 18 years old - School years 12 to 13.

L

Learning Disabilities

A learning disability affects how someone understands and remembers information. It is different from person to person.

Learning Mentors

School staff who work with school and college students to help them engage more effectively in learning and improve achievement.

Local Authority (LA)

The local government body of a county or city that provides services, including education, for local people.

Local Offer (LO)

A local offer is published by every local authority and provides information about the support and services that children and young people who have SEND and their families can get. It includes information about education, health and care provision. It also gives information about training, employment and independent living for young people with special educational needs or disabilities.

M

Mainstream School

This is a school that provides education for all children, whether or not they have special educational needs or disabilities.

Maintained School

Schools in England that are maintained by a local authority - any community, foundation or voluntary school, community special or foundation special school.

Makaton

Makaton is a unique language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate.

Mental Capacity Assessment (MCA)

A mental capacity assessment is conducted to see if someone is able to make decisions. If someone cannot decide by themselves, they should still be supported to have their say.

Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD)

Describes a general level of academic attainment that is significantly below that of other children of the same age. Pupils should only be recorded as having a MLD if additional educational provision is being made to help them access the curriculum.

O

OAP

Ordinarily Available Provision is for children and young people whose special educational needs can be met using the money, staffing, space, and equipment available to the school, without the need for an Education Health and Care Plan. The SEND Support toolkit explains what provision should be “ordinarily available” for children and young people with SEND.

OFSTED

Office for Standards in Education, a non-Ministerial government department established to take responsibility for the inspection of all schools in England. His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) form its professional arm.

P

Peer Support

Peer support is when other pupils provide emotional, social or practical help to each other. Pupils are usually trained to provide this support.

Personal Assistant

Personal assistants are approved support staff who offer a range of individual support and care to disabled children and young people.

Physical and Sensory Needs (PAS)

Sensory needs, which can be hearing loss or visual impairment or sensory processing difficulties and physical difficulties, can occur for a variety of reasons. The degree to which the difficulties impact on a child’s or young person’s ability to access educational opportunities is important.

Physical Disability (PD)

Disabilities that limit mobility. Among the causes are congenital conditions, accidents, or injury.

Pinpoint

Are a local Parent Carer Forum and hub for information, signposting and events for all things SEND. They offer free information, professionally supported workshops and events.

Provision Map

A provision map is a way of documenting the range of support available to pupils with SEN within a school.

R

Reasonable Adjustments

Reasonable adjustments are changes schools and other settings are required to make.

S

Safeguarding

The process of identifying children and young people who have suffered or who are likely to suffer significant harm, and then taking the appropriate steps to keep them safe.

School SEN Support

People who need extra specialist support but not an EHC plan. This may take the form of additional support from within the school or require the involvement of specialist staff or support services. The purpose of SEN support is to help children achieve the outcomes or learning objectives that have been set for them by the school.

SEND OAP Toolkit

The SEND Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP) Toolkit is a resource for schools and other education settings. It has provisions that should be available for children and young people with SEND.

SEND Code of Practice

It tells local providers and others what they must and should do to identify, assess and provide for children and young people with SEN or disabilities.

SEN Information Report

All schools must publish on their websites information about their policy and arrangements for supporting children with SEN.

SEMH

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) needs are a type of special educational needs in which children and young people have severe difficulties in managing their emotions and behaviour. They often show inappropriate responses and feelings to situations.

SENDIASS

Special Education Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) offer free information, advice and support to parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs, and the young people themselves.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

A child or young person who has special educational needs may:

• find it harder to learn than other people their age
• face challenges that make it hard to go to school or college
• need extra or different support to learn.

Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)

The SENCO is the person at a school who oversees making sure students who have special educational needs or disabilities get the support they need.

Special Educational Provision (SEP)

Special educational provision is a provision that is different from or additional to that normally available to pupils or students of the same age, which is designed to help children and young people with SEN or disabilities to access the National Curriculum at school or to study at college.

Special School

A school which is specifically organised to make special educational provision for pupils with SEN. Special schools maintained by the local authority comprise community special schools and foundation special schools, and independent special schools.

Specialist Services

Services provided by the local authority or health service to provide specialised services for children with acute or high-level needs.

Specific Learning Disabilities (SpLD)

An umbrella term used to cover a range of frequently co-occurring difficulties, usually dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADD and ADHD.

Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)

A wide range of difficulties related to all aspects of communication in children and young people. These can include difficulties with speech, understanding what others say, and using language socially.

Statutory Assessment

A process of the assessment referred to as education, health and care need assessment is conducted by the Local Authority for a child or young person 0-25. An EHC needs assessment is a detailed look at a child’s special educational needs (SEN) and the support her or she may need to learn.

T

Teaching Assistant (TA)

Is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities.

Y

Young Person

A person over compulsory school age. From this point, the right to make decisions applies to the young person directly, rather than to their parents.