Southwark’s vision for children and young people with SEND:
Our vision for children with special educational needs and disabilities is the same as for all children and young people – that they achieve well in their early years, at school and in college, and lead happy and fulfilled lives.

The duties set out below are best achieved when parents/carers and all involved professionals work in partnership, and in the best interests of the child. Parents/carers are equal partners in the education of their children and co-working and coproduction are the principles under which the following is expected and required:
All schools MUST have regard to the SEND Code of Practice.

• All schools MUST have arrangements in place to identify and address the SEN of the pupils they support.
• All schools MUST admit any child with SEND and make provision for them using their delegated resources (unless they are the subject of and Education, Health and Care Plan that describes a specialist setting)

Mainstream Schools (including academies, alternative providers and PRUs) MUST:

• Use their best endeavours (do everything they possibly can) to make sure that a child with SEN gets the support they need. The responsibility for meeting the SEN of children attending the school is shared by all staff;
• Ensure that children with SEN engage with the activities of school alongside children who do not have SEN;
• Designate a teacher to be responsible for coordinating SEN provision (SENCO role);
• Inform parents whenever SEN provision is being made for a child;
• Ensure that for children with EHCPs that the provision needed to meet outcomes is in place;
• Prepare an SEN information report and their arrangements for the admission of disabled children, steps being taken to prevent disabled children being treated less favourably than others, disabled access and improvements to be made to this over time.

There should be a member of the governing body or a sub-committee with specific oversight of the schools arrangements for SEN and disability.
It is expected that school leaders should regularly review how expertise and resources used to address SEN can be used to build the quality of whole-school provision as part of their approach to school improvement.

The Code and Southwark LA would expect:

• The quality of teaching for pupils with SEN and the progress made by those pupils to be a core part of the school’s performance management arrangements and its approach to professional development for all teaching and support staff.
• The identification of SEN should be built into the overall approach to monitoring the progress and development of all pupils.
• A mainstream school’s arrangements for assessing and identifying pupils as having SEN is set out in the Southwark Local Offer ( see ‘SEND guidance for Schools’). Each school has then published its own information on the individual school website (the school information report) which can be accessed via the school’s own website or the Southwark Local Offer.

Special Schools

Special Schools should:

• Ensure that the identified needs of pupils are met and the outcomes in EHCPs are worked towards and progress monitored;
• Publish the School information Report on the individual school website and link to the Southwark Local offer;
• Ensure that the responsibility for meeting the SEN of children attending the school is shared by all staff and that systems are in place for the monitoring of pupil progress and outcomes.

Last updated: 12 June 2020