Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

1. Purpose

Many young people referred to us have special educational needs or disabilities that have not been fully identified or met, and children with SEND are excluded disproportionately in Sheffield. Communication needs often show up as anxiety, refusal or aggression rather than as a learning difficulty.

This policy sets out how we find out what each learner needs, plan and teach so they can make real progress, work with the school or local authority that keeps its legal duties, make reasonable adjustments, and involve parents, carers and the learner in every decision.

2. Scope

This policy applies to every learner in Care Cove Alternative Provision, whoever commissions the place, and to all staff, agency staff, partner staff and volunteers. It covers learners on SEN support at their school, learners with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), learners whose needs have not yet been identified, and learners who are disabled under the Equality Act 2010, whether or not they also have special educational needs.

Care Cove is not a school and is not registered with Ofsted as an independent school. Every placement is part-time (2 or 3 days a week) and sits alongside the learner's main education arrangement. We do not take over the statutory SEND duties of the school or local authority. We support them, and we meet our own duties under the Equality Act 2010 and our contracts.

3. Law and guidance

• Children and Families Act 2014, Part 3. The legal framework for SEND, including EHCPs and the duty to have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of children, young people and parents (section 19).

• SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25 (2015). Statutory guidance on identifying needs, SEN support, the graduated approach, EHCPs and annual reviews. Its four broad areas of need are communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health; and sensory and/or physical needs.

• Equality Act 2010. We must not discriminate against disabled learners, must make reasonable adjustments (including auxiliary aids) and must plan ahead rather than wait to be asked.

• DfE Alternative Provision statutory guidance (2013). Good AP identifies and meets each pupil's personal, social and academic needs.

• JCQ Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments (published each year).

3.1 Who keeps which duty

Where an EHCP specifies provision that falls on a day the learner is with us (for example speech and language therapy), the SEND lead agrees with the local authority and school who delivers it and where. We do not quietly drop it, and we do not promise to deliver it ourselves unless that is agreed in writing.

4. Roles and responsibilities

• The SEND lead is a teacher with Qualified Teacher Status, named in Appendix A. They review referral information, oversee the baseline, write the SEND parts of each Mini-PATHs plan with the key mentor, keep the SEND register on Care Cove Connect, act as the main contact for school SENCos and local authority SEN officers, coordinate annual review contributions and exam access arrangements, advise staff and report to the Social Work Management Committee (SWMC) each term. The SEND lead does not replace the referring school's SENCo.

• The Head of AP makes sure the curriculum, timetable and staffing meet learners' needs, including 1:1 or 2:1 staffing where a plan requires it, and raises early with the commissioning local authority any case where needs go beyond the core offer, so that any bespoke provision can be agreed.

• Teachers (all QTS) adapt lessons to each learner's assessed needs and record progress.

• Key mentors and learning support assistants know their learners' plans, use the strategies every day and record what works.

• The DSL makes sure communication needs are considered whenever there is a safeguarding concern, because disabled children face a higher risk of abuse and can find it harder to tell.

• The Clinical Advisor advises on health conditions, individual healthcare plans and medicines.

• The Director is responsible for premises accessibility and funding reasonable adjustments; the Head of AP owns the Accessibility Plan.

• The SWMC gives independent challenge on SEND and EHCP alignment and audits a sample of plans each term.

5. Identifying needs

5.1 At referral

When we contact the school or local authority and parents within 5 working days of referral, the SEND lead asks for the EHCP and latest annual review or the SEN support plan; specialist reports (educational psychology, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, CAMHS, paediatrics); attainment data and reading ages; attendance and exclusion history; existing exam access arrangements; and what has and has not worked. Everything is recorded on Connect, and SEND and EHCP status show on the learner header.

At the initial meeting and site visit before day one, we ask the learner and family what helps: how instructions work best, sensory needs and worries about the building or travel. The SEND lead makes sure agreed adjustments are ready on day one, such as a staggered arrival, a known adult at the door or a visual timetable.

5.2 Baseline within 2 weeks

Staff also observe the learner in different settings during the first 2 weeks: in core lessons, during Move, at Family Table and at break.

5.3 When we think a need has not been identified

1. The teacher or mentor records what they have seen on Connect the same day and tells the SEND lead.

2. The SEND lead gathers evidence over no more than 4 weeks: assessments, observations, Boxall results and conversations with the learner and parents.

3. The SEND lead shares the findings in writing with the school SENCo (or the local authority's SEN officer) and with parents, with a clear recommendation: SEN support, a specialist assessment, or a request for an EHC needs assessment.

4. We describe what we see and what helps. We do not diagnose.

5. Teaching is adjusted straight away. No learner waits for a diagnosis or a plan to get support.

Speaking English as an additional language is not a special educational need in itself, and behaviour is not an area of need. We look for the need behind the behaviour, and we assess learners new to English carefully so that language is not mistaken for a learning difficulty.

6. Planning: the graduated approach within Mini-PATHs

Every learner has a Mini-PATHs child plan within 4 weeks of starting. Targets work backwards from the young person's own picture of their future. For learners with SEND, the plan follows the Code's graduated approach. We call it Plan, Do, Assess, Review and the Code calls it assess, plan, do, review; it is the same cycle.

For a learner with SEND, the plan also records needs by area, what helps in their own words, staff strategies and adjustments, access arrangements, staffing ratio, communication and sensory needs, any individual healthcare plan and any phone exception for disability.

6.1 Learners with an EHCP

• The EHCP outcomes are copied into the plan, and every relevant target is linked to the EHCP outcome it serves.

• If provision in the EHCP is not being delivered on our days, the SEND lead tells the local authority's SEN officer and the school in writing within 5 working days of noticing.

• If the EHCP no longer reflects the learner's needs, we ask the local authority for an early review.

• For each annual review, the SEND lead writes a report covering progress against outcomes, attendance, Boxall and SDQ change, the learner's views, strategies that work and any changes we recommend. We send it in time for it to be circulated at least 2 weeks before the meeting. The SEND lead or key mentor attends when invited, and the key mentor helps the learner prepare their own contribution.

• Any change of placement for a learner with an EHCP is a decision for the local authority.

7. Teaching and support

Every lesson starts from good teaching adapted to the learners in the room. Core subjects are planned and led by QTS teachers in groups of 6 or fewer with at least 2 adults, and 1:1 or 2:1 where a plan requires it. Each key mentor holds no more than 4 key learners. These approaches, named in the RESET curriculum, run through the day:

Everyday adjustments include instructions in short steps backed by visuals, key vocabulary taught in advance, extra processing time, text-to-speech on managed laptops, larger print, movement breaks, a quiet workspace or ear defenders, and the regulation space. Nobody is made to read aloud unless they choose to.

Before a behaviour pattern goes to Review, staff ask whether an unmet need is driving it and change the plan if so. We do not exclude, and no placement ends without first consulting the referring school and the commissioning local authority.

8. Access arrangements for exams

Exam access arrangements are approved by the exam centre, which is either our partner exam centre or the learner's own school, under the JCQ rules or the awarding body's rules.

1. The SEND lead identifies learners who may need arrangements (such as extra time, a reader, a scribe, a word processor, rest breaks or a separate room) as soon as an entry is planned.

2. Arrangements must be the learner's normal way of working, so we use them in lessons and mock exams and record this on Connect.

3. The SEND lead sends that evidence to the centre's SENCo or exams officer before the centre's deadline. Any formal assessment is arranged by the centre with a qualified assessor.

4. Before each exam series, the SEND lead confirms in writing with the centre which arrangements are approved.

9. Working with parents, carers and learners

• Parents and carers help write the plan, attend reviews and see the plan and progress on the Family portal. Meetings are held at times families can manage, with interpreters, easy read or information read aloud where needed, and home visits are offered.

• The key mentor is the family's first contact, supported by the Family Liaison Worker.

• We point families to the commissioning local authority's Local Offer and its SEND information, advice and support service (SENDIASS).

• The plan starts from the learner's own future, targets are in their words in the Student app, and they attend reviews or contribute in the way they choose.

• A disagreement about our support goes to the SEND lead, then through our Complaints policy. A disagreement about an EHCP is with the local authority, and we explain its mediation and tribunal routes.

10. Staff training

• SEND awareness and the SEND Code of Practice: all staff by 18 December 2026, new staff within 8 weeks of starting, renewed every 2 years.

• Equality, diversity and inclusion: on the same timescale, renewed every 2 years.

• Nurture UK, Thrive and Boxall administration: as set out in the training matrix (Boxall by 14 December 2026).

• Learner-specific training (for example SCERTS strategies or a medical condition) before a member of staff works with that learner unsupported.

Training is recorded on the Connect training matrix. Agency and cover staff are briefed on each learner's plan before they work with them.

11. Premises and accessibility

37 Townhead Street has three floors and no lift. There is a step-free rear entrance. During the school day the AP uses all three floors: learning spaces on the ground and first floors, and therapy and one-to-one rooms on the second floor. The ground floor is reached step-free through the rear entrance.

• An accessibility review against the Equality Act 2010 is completed before learners use the building. The Director keeps an accessibility plan (physical access, curriculum and information) and reviews it every year.

• Before a learner with a mobility, sensory or other access need starts, the SEND lead and the Director agree an individual access plan with the family: arrival by the step-free rear entrance with a member of staff, rooms on a lower floor where the zoning plan allows this safely, timetable changes, where therapy takes place, toilets and equipment.

• We never refuse a referral because of access. Any concern goes to the commissioning local authority at once as decision maker, with our proposal for meeting the learner's needs.

• Anyone who may need help to leave the building in an emergency (mobility, sensory or cognitive need, severe anxiety or temporary injury) has a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP), written by the Head of AP with the learner and family before their first day, held on Connect and practised in fire drills.

• Regulation spaces are low-stimulus, and accessibility is checked in every off-site risk assessment.

12. Transition and reintegration

• The written strategy guidance for a receiving school includes SEND strategies, adjustments, access arrangements, the communication profile and the RESET Passport. The SEND lead speaks to the receiving SENCo before discharge and attends the reintegration meeting, and SEND strategies are part of the 6 weeks of outreach afterwards.

• For Year 11 leavers, the post-16 plan includes, with consent, the SEND information the next provider needs. For learners with an EHCP, we work with the local authority on the post-16 transfer review, which must be completed by 31 March of the year the learner moves on.

13. Monitoring and review

• Monthly: the SEND lead checks the SEND register, and the plan audit checks that every plan is in place within 4 weeks and reviewed on time.

• Half-termly: the SEND lead compares the progress of learners with SEND with other learners (attainment, Boxall, attendance, incidents) and reports to the Head of AP; findings go into the monitoring report to the commissioning local authority.

• Termly: the SWMC audits a sample of SEND plans, including EHCP alignment and the learner's voice.

• This policy is ratified by the SWMC and reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident, a change in law or statutory guidance (including any change to the SEND Code of Practice) or a contract change. It is available to the commissioning local authority at any time.

14. Related policies

• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 07 Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice
• 10 Mobile Phones and Digital Devices
• 13 Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment
• 14 Therapeutic Practice and Clinical Governance
• 15 Health and Safety, including Fire and First Aid
• 18 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• 19 Complaints
• 24 Supporting Medical Needs and Administering Medicines
• 30 Referrals, Admissions and Ending Placements
• 36 Accessibility Plan

Appendix A: Who's who

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.