Special educational needs (SEN) can be any learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made. Children might have a learning difficulty if they:

• have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children their age,
• have a disability which hinders them from using the schools generally provided for children in the area,
• are under school age and fall within either of the definitions above, or would do so if special provisions were not made for them.

If you think that your child has special educational needs you should contact us or your child's school for an assessment of special educational needs.

We have a duty to enable pupils with special educational needs to:

• reach their full potential,
• be included fully in their school communities, and
• make a successful transition to adulthood.

Some pupils will require additional help from special educational needs services or other agencies. A very small minority of children will have special educational needs  of a severity or complexity that we will determine and arrange the special provisions they need.

Special Educational Needs Co-ordination Service

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordination Service is responsible for the administration and co-ordination of the process for determining and arranging specialist provision. The process is referred to as Statutory Assessment. This includes the management of:

• Requests for assessment of special educational needs by schools and parents.
• The production of statements of special educational needs - the statutory document describing the needs of the pupil.
• The production of notes in lieu of statements – this is not a full statement but is a note giving useful advice to help ensure that a pupil's needs are met.
• Allocation of provision for statemented pupils, including school placements, support and equipment.
• The annual review of statements - a statutory requirement.

These services are free of charge to parents, carers, schools and other professionals.