Information & Advice

Schools must record absences as authorised where pupils cannot attend due to illness (both physical and mental health related). There is no need to routinely ask for medical evidence to support recording an absence as authorised for mental health reasons.

In instances of long-term or repeated absences for the same reason, however, seeking medical evidence may be appropriate to assist in assessing whether the child requires additional support to help them to attend more regularly, and whether the illness is likely to prevent the child from attending for extended periods. If a parent proactively seeks out a note from a GP, it does not imply a need for absence unless this is explicit in their letter.

Once a parent / carer has provided evidence from a medical practitioner, local authorities should not demand continuing evidence without good reason, even where a child has long-term health problems.

Click here for the Government Guidance “Summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance”.

Click here to read guidance on “Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs”.

All pupils are entitled to a full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. In some circumstances their full-time education may be provided part at school and part at another educational setting or alternative provision.

In very exceptional circumstances, where it is in a pupil’s best interests, there may be a need for a school to provide a temporary part-time timetable. For example, where a medical condition prevents a pupil from attending school.

A part-time timetable should not be used to manage a pupil’s behaviour.

A part-time timetable:

• Should have the agreement of both the school and the parent.
• Should be reviewed regularly and only be in place for the shortest time necessary.
• Should have a proposed end date.
• Can be extended as part of the regular review process.

If the pupil has an education health and care plan, the school should discuss the part-time timetable with the local authority so that any support package that is in place can be reviewed as swiftly as possible.

Where a child cannot attend school because of a physical or mental health need, and cannot access suitable full-time education, the local authority is responsible for arranging suitable alternative provision.

Alternative provision must be suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitude, and any special educational needs they have.

There is no statutory timescale in which alternative provision must be arranged, for pupils who cannot attend due to medical needs guidance dictates that local authorities should ensure that such education is arranged as quickly as possible.

Alternative provision must be full-time unless a pupil’s medical condition makes full-time provision inappropriate. The law does not define full-time. In the case where alternative provision in one-to-one, the hours could be fewer than in school as the education may be more intensive.

For more information; Click here to read guidance on “Alternative Provision”.

The Department for Work and Pensions has a series of helpful videos on YouTube to help parents and carers wanting to find out more about claiming DLA for a child.

Click here to view the video.

More information on DLA rates, eligibility, how to claim and post 16 is available on the gov.uk website.

Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) are used to pay for work that is needed to help a disabled person live more independently in their own home.  The grant is not means tested if the application is for adaptions for a disabled child.

For more information please visit your local offer website.

The Local Offer website has an up to date list of organisations that offer grants or funding for both individuals and groups that can be used towards short breaks, experiences, equipment and other things.

Organisations available to help you in understanding and applying for benefits include:

• Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA)

You can contact the Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA)’s Benefits Advisor, if you have any questions, concerns, or just need some help regarding benefits.

• Citizens Advice 

Citizens Advice are experts in all kinds of benefits and have lots of useful information on their website.  They will advocate on your behalf with authorities to help sort out benefits and other financial issues.

Citizens Advice have advisors online of you can search for your local centre.

Further information is available on your local offer.

• Barnardo’s – Young Carers
• Carers Together 
• Carers Trust 
• Contact 
• Down’s Syndrome Association
• Family Action
• Family Assist
• Jointly is an app developed by Carers UK
• Kinship
• Mencap
• Mind
• Sibling Support 
• Swan (syndromes without a name)

EHC plans are for children and young people aged 0-25years old who need more support than their school or other setting can provide.

You can read more about the support that schools and other settings should provide in the ‘SEN Support in nurseries, schools and colleges’ section of this website.

The first step is to ask the LA to carry out an EHC needs assessment. A parent can request an assessment for their child at any time. Young people can request an assessment for themselves. Or, nurseries, pre-schools, schools and colleges can make the request.

Click here to make a request for an EHC Needs assessment.

The LA must agree to assess your child’s need if:

• your child has or may have special educational needs; and

• they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan.

The LA must write to you within 6 weeks to notify you of their decision to assess or not assess your child. If they decide that it is not necessary to carry out a needs assessment, they must also tell you about your right to appeal this decision.

During an assessment, the LA must find out about your child’s educational, health and social care needs. They do this by asking for your views and those of any professionals who work with your child e.g. teachers. They will also arrange any specialist assessments that are necessary to fully understand your child’s needs e.g. assessment by educational psychologists. Everyone will be asked:

• the needs you child has,
• the help required to meet those needs,
• and the outcomes that your child could achieve with that help

The LA must complete the needs assessment within a maximum of 16 weeks from the request for assessment.

An EHC plan must be issued if the assessment shows that your child has SEN or disabilities and they need special education via an EHC Plan. This means that they’re needs cannot be met through ‘ordinarily available provision’, also called SEN Support (see the SEN Support section of our website for more information on this.)

The LA must write to you to notify you of their decision. If they decide that it is not necessary to make an EHC Plan to meet your child’s needs, they must also tell you about your right to appeal this decision.

If your LA decides to issue an EHC plan following an EHC needs assessment, it must first send you a draft version.

A draft EHC plan must not include the name of a particular school or educational setting. It must:

• set out all of your child’s educational, health and social care needs in sections B, C and D and,
• specify the provision required to meet those needs in sections F, G and H

You will receive a letter with the draft plan telling you that you have 15 days to make comments about the plan. It will tell you that you have the opportunity to request a meeting with the LA to discuss the draft plan. And it will ask you to name your preferred education setting/school when you respond to the draft plan.

IPSEA have great resources to help with all this: what an EHC plan should contain, and EHC plan checklist.

SENDIASS also have a detailed guide to checking a draft plan and run fortnightly draft plan workshops that you can drop into if you have questions about checking your child’s plan.

When you make a request for a particular school, college or other institution, the LA must consult with that institution to decide whether to name it in the final EHC plan (unless your request is for a wholly independent school, where different rules apply). For more information on your rights to request a particular school or other institution, see IPSEA’s advice on choosing a school or other setting.

The LA must issue an EHC plan no later than 20 weeks from the request for assessment.

An EHC plan is a legal document. The special educational provision described in an EHC plan must be provided.

An EHC plan must name an educational setting or type of setting in section I.

The LA must write to you when they issue the final plan telling you about your right to appeal if you disagree with:

• the special educational needs described in section B
• the special educational provision in section F
• the setting or type of setting named in section I

Please see the appeals section of our website for more information.

The aim of this planner is to help students who struggle with planning, prioritising and organisation (executive function skills) to be able to engage well in class.

This is a frequent issue for autistic students and those with ADHD. It is often the case that these students are unable to demonstrate their brilliant ideas, opinions and knowledge as the tasks get in the way. (Pooky Knightsmith)

DOWNLOAD | Student Class Task Planner – Dr Pooky Knightsmith

A Student Passport can include the young person’s needs and worries and how teachers can assist them with these. Co-produced by the child or young person, their parents, and the school. The document is then kept centrally, to be available to all teachers and support staff.

Downloads | Autistic Girls Network

If your child or young person are having difficulties at nursery, school or college we strongly encourage parents to listen to the feedback received from both the school and the child and piece a picture together in order to better understand the difficulties a child is experiencing and assess where support and accommodations can implemented.

Here are some links to organisations who have created resources with extensive lists of possible adjustments.

• The Autistic Girls Network Downloads | Autistic Girls Network
• ADHD Embrace have created this document of Reasonable-Adjustments-for-ADHD-September-2021.docx (live.com)
• Supporting Children with Dyslexia in the Classroom | Dyslexia UK
• How can I support a learner with dyscalculia? – British Dyslexia Association (bdadyslexia.org.uk)

Spectrum Gaming is an autistic led UK based charity who aim to create a world where every autistic young person knows who they are, is ok, and they can be themselves, whilst developing meaningful relationships and achieving personal goals.

They have created resources to support young people to reach their full potential.

Including: Autism and Sleep, Sensory Toolkit, The Nest Approach – understanding and supporting dysregulation amongst others. Resources | Spectrum Gaming

• ADHD UK is run by people with ADHD for people with ADHD ADHD UK – Homepage – ADHD UK
• Autistic Realms – autisticrealms | Linktree
• Reframing Autism – Teaching Autistic Students: An Educator’s Guide – Reframing Autism
• PDA Society – Information sheet for teaching professionals | PDA Society Resources
• Tourettes Action – Support in school (tourettes-action.org.uk)

You may have heard of the Armed Forces Covenant:

The armed forces covenant sets out the relationship between the nation, the government and the armed forces. It recognises that the whole nation has a moral obligation to members of the armed forces and their families and it establishes how they should expect to be treated. The Covenant states that the children of service personnel should have the same standard of, and access to, education (including early years services) as any other UK citizen in the area in which they live. (SEND Code of Practice April 2015)

The SEND Code of Practice (COP) states:

‘All those with statutory responsibilities towards Service children with SEND should ensure that the impact of their policies, administrative processes and patterns of provision do not disadvantage such children because of their Service-related lifestyle’ (COP 10.55).

This means that the LA should consider the impact on your child of having an enlisted parent when they assess them for services.

Additionally, Please also note ‘When carrying out an assessment of a Service child’s needs or making an Education, Health and Care (EHCP), local authorities must seek advice from CEAS, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence’ (COP 10.57)

If your child is receiving SEND support in a school and you have to move, In respect of Service children, schools and other education providers should:

‘Ensure that mechanisms are in place to enable effective and timely receipt and dispatch of all relevant records for Service children with SEND moving between schools in the UK and overseas, to enable effective planning’ (COP 10.56).

This means that if your child has SEND but no EHCP and you move, their previous school is required to transfer your child’s school records within 15 school days of your child no longer being registered at that school. However, when transfer arrangements are made in advance, it is good practice for the information to be provided in time for the new school to plan ahead for your child’s needs, such as arranging the teaching methods, equipment or special help that is detailed in your child’s existing Individual Learning Plan.

All special needs records and documents for your child should be transferred to the new school, including any detailed background information gathered by the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo), copies of

• Individual Learning Plans
• Advice of any specialist teachers
• Advice from other professionals such as Educational Psychologists, Occupational or Speech and Language Therapists working with your child.

It is likely that the new school would want to review your child’s Individual Education Plan as soon as possible; to fully understand your child’s special educational needs and the help they need in order to provide and meet those needs.

You may wish to request a copy of your child’s SEND records if you are moving overseas as your child’s previous school will not be able to transfer records out of England. This will ensure that any new school has the information they need to provide the right support to your child as soon as they arrive.

If your child has an EHCP and you move LA, The legal requirement for the new LA to start making the provision in the EHCP is set out in Regulation 15 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.

This will not happen automatically. Under the law, it happens either on the day of the move or within 15 working days of the new LA becoming aware of the move, if later. Therefore it is best for parents or young people to notify the new LA (usually the SEND team within Children’s Services) in advance that they are going to be moving into the area.

The new LA then has six weeks to notify the parent or young person that the EHCP plan has been transferred and to let them know when it is going to review the EHCP plan.

If you have to move and you are in the middle of the EHCP process, The new LA can apply the legal test set out in the law (section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014) which states an LA must consider;

• whether the child or young person has or may have special educational needs (SEN); and
• whether they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHCP.

If the answer to both of these questions is yes, they must carry out an EHCP needs assessment.

This means that even if the assessment process has been started in one LA, the new LA still has to apply the legal test themselves. If they agree to assess, they should use any reports already generated by the previous LA. Having said this, all LA’s must have regard to the Armed Forces Covenant and should not cause undue delay to the process to not unfairly disadvantage the children of serving personnel.

As soon as the EHCP plan has transferred the new LA has the same legal duties as if they had issued the EHCP plan themselves. The most important duty is to ensure the child or young person receives all of the special educational provisions specified in Section F of his EHCP plan.

If the child or young person’s EHCP names a school for which fees must be paid in Section I, ‘the new authority may not decline to pay the fees or otherwise maintain the child at an independent or non-maintained special school or a boarding school named in an EHC plan unless and until they have amended the EHC plan’ (9.159 COP).

If it is no longer practicable for the child or young person to attend the school or college named in Section I (perhaps because it is too far away) then the LA must arrange for them to attend another appropriate school until they review and amend the EHCP.

The new LA must review the EHCP within either 12 months from the EHCP being made or last reviewed, or 3 months from the date of the transfer, whichever is the later.

If the new LA wants to carry out a new EHCP needs assessment it can do so. After a review or re-assessment the new LA could decide to:

• Keep the EHCP the EHCP the same.
• Make changes to the EHCP. (You will have a chance to make representations about these changes and object to any amendments you disagree with in the same way you would after an annual review.)
• Cease to maintain the EHCP.

Whichever decision the LA makes, if you disagree with it you can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. You can see how to lodge an appeal via our appeals section on our website.

Where a child or young person with an EHCP moves to Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland:

The old authority should send a copy of the EHCP to the new authority or board, although there is no obligation on the new authority or board to continue to maintain it. However the COP 10.57 states, When considering provision for Service children with SEND or disabilities, LAs must use all relevant evidence, including statements made for Service children in Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as Co-ordinated Support Plans made for them in Scotland and the Service Children’s Assessment of Need (SCAN) completed for them by SCE who are now part of the Ministry of Defence.

Useful links:

SSCE Cymru :: Supporting Service Children in Education in Wales

Children & Young People – Forces Children Scotland

Education in the UK for service children – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Moving to a new health authority:

Where the move between local authority areas also results in a new clinical commissioning group becoming responsible for the child the old CCG must notify the new CCG on the day of the move or where they were not aware of the move for at least 15 working days prior to that move or within 15 working days of becoming aware. Where it is not practicable for the new CCG to secure the health provision specified in the EHCP the new CCG must within 15 working days of becoming aware of the change of CCG, request the new local authority to make an EHCP needs assessment or review the EHCP. The new local authority must comply with the request.

The NHS has publishes how they will support Forces Families here.

If you have an appeal registered with the SEND tribunal service

You must inform the tribunal immediately if you move house. The tribunal service will then contact the new local authority to tell them about the appeal.

The new local authority may be substituted as a party to the appeal as if they had made the decision. Your appeal will be against them, unless there are good reasons why they should not take over the appeal. If the case is transferred to the new local authority, there will be a new case management process and a new timetable for supplying evidence. The old local authority will take no further part in the appeal.

Defence Children’s Services provides mainstream education for Service children in some overseas locations. As the education, health and social care resources available overseas are different from the UK, MoD services complete an MoD Assessment of Supportability Overseas (MASO) for all Service children with complex needs before an overseas posting is agreed.

It is always a good idea to contact CEAS for advice in the first instance but you are still welcome to contact Hampshire SENDIASS at info@hampshiresendiass.co.uk or call 0808 164 5504.

You may wish to request a copy of your child’s SEND records if you are moving overseas as your child’s previous school will not be able to transfer records out of England. This will ensure that any new school has the information they need to provide the right support to your child as soon as they arrive.

If you are transferred abroad, your child’s EHCP will no longer have any effect as they are not recognised overseas. If your posting is for a limited time and you expect to return to England you may ask that the LA allow your child’s EHCP to become ‘dormant’ rather than ceasing it so it can be reviewed and an updated version be put back in place once you return.

SSAFA have created an extensive guide on having a child with additional needs and what support they will get in MOD schools overseas. You can find this here.

All schools in England receive a pupil premium for the children of serving personnel from The Department for Education (DfE) to help schools address the specific challenges children from service families face and as part of the commitment to delivering the armed forces covenant. This is called the Service Pupil Premium or SSP.

State schools, academies and free schools in England, which have children of service families in school years reception to year 11, can receive the SPP funding. It is designed to assist the school in providing the additional support that these children may need who meets the eligibility criteria.

Pupils attract SPP if they meet one of the following criteria:

• one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full time reserve service)
• they have been registered as a ‘service child’ on a school census since
• one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme

Children have to be flagged as service children ahead of the autumn school census deadline. Service parents need to make the school aware of their status by talking to the head teacher or school admin staff.

In addition to this there is the DfE’s ever 6 service child measure which states that that any pupil in reception to year 11, who has been flagged as a service child since the 2016 autumn school census, will continue to receive the premium.

Ex service personnel should tell the school if they left the armed forces within the last 6 years. Under the DfE’s ever measure, schools will continue to receive SPP for up to 6 years for children whose parent(s) left the armed forces, provided the children were recorded as service children in a school census from 2016 onwards (prior to their parent(s) leaving the forces). The ever measure also applies when service parents divorce or separate or when a service parent dies in service.

Eligible schools receive the SPP so that they can offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact on service children of family mobility or parental deployment.

For other ideas on what your child’s school could spend the SSP on go to: Service Pupil Premium.

If you have a query about the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) Please direct your query to: People-AFFS-Mailbox@mod.gov.uk

The government have created the wraparound childcare scheme which funds out of school hours childcare for eligible children.

The Wraparound Childcare (WAC) scheme funds wraparound childcare during term time for eligible Service children aged 4 to 11 years old (up to capped rates).

You can apply for up to 20 hours per week, term time only (39 weeks per year) of wraparound childcare funding for 4- to 11-year-old children attending before and after school clubs in the UK.

Eligibility criteria

At least one partner (or single parent) must be serving as an Armed Forces Regular (including Full Time Reserve Service Full Commitment).

Dependent children aged 4 to11 must attend school (including home schooled children) and be living with the serving person for the majority of the time unless separated due to service commitments (deployment, residential courses), or when on serving on unaccompanied assignments overseas involuntarily with the family in the UK.

Adopted children, children of long-term relationships and domestic partner children, where they meet the eligibility criteria, are eligible. Where the child is normally resident elsewhere for example with another natural parent or relative, the Service person will be unable to claim WAC funding.

Foster children are not eligible, as WAC eligibility is based on Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) criteria set by HMRC, part of the eligibility criteria for TFC is that the parent has responsibility for the child. Fostered children are ‘looked after children’ and the Local Authority (LA) is responsible for them. The way the LA delivers its responsibility is by employing foster carers, but the LA remains responsible for the child.

• The partner of the Service person must be in paid employment, starting or restarting work within the next 31 days (earning the equivalent of 16 hours at national minimum/ living wage). Both partners must each have an adjusted net income of £100,000 or less per
• The WAC provider must be Ofsted, or equivalent, registered, including schools and childminders.
• A Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) account must be set up with HRMC for each child that Service Personnel wants to claim the funding for.
• The childcare provider must also be signed up to the TFC
• The Service parent has either an assignment order to a UK based unit or is serving on an unaccompanied assignment overseas involuntarily with the family residing in the UK.

Service families can check if they are eligible and how to claim WAC funding by visiting the Discover My Benefits website.

Contact your unit HR team or admin office for any queries about claims. If you have questions about the policy contact PEOPLE-AFFS-WAC-FRO­ mailbox@mod.gov.uk.

Under The Equality Act 2010, a school must take positive steps to ensure that disabled pupils can fully participate in the education provided by the school, and that they can enjoy the other benefits, facilities and services that the school provides for pupils, including extracurricular activities and after school clubs. You can read more about what this might look like here.

Reasonable adjustments during the before/after school club is down to the company providing this service but access to the club is the school’s responsibility. So any company that a school permit to provide clubs must be willing to admit all children and to make reasonable adjustments.

Your child should not be denied access to wrap around childcare due to their SEND needs.

• Little Troopers 
• Service Children in State Schools
• Forces Additional Needs and Disability Forum (FANDF)
• Army Families Federation (AFF)
• Army Benevolent Fund
• Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI)
• Royal Naval Benevolent Trust (RNBT)
• Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund
• RAF Families Federation
• The Veterans Outreach Service 
• Help for Heroes
• Naval Families Federation

• Check that your current school has the young person on the SEN Register which identifies them has having SEN and being eligible to SEN support.
• Has the current school had their planning meeting with the new school where they talk about the needs of your child and what support will need to be put in place. You can ask to be involved in this meeting.
• Support plan, learning levels and SATs scores – has this been forwarded?
• Obtain printed versions of the support plan prior to leaving
• Contact details for the SENCo/Pastoral support within the new school

• Your child’s particular profile, such as with mobility, communication, concentration, etc.
• The special measures that support their learning, like extra time for tasks, one-to-one support, visual timetables, handwriting aids.
• Strategies that help them cope with school life, such as movement breaks, time out, or a buddy system in the playground.

• Check what transition activities they already have planned for the Year 6 pupils. Transition schedules will normally be published on the secondary schools website and may include things like SEND tours, SEND visits, induction days and summer schools. Find out how to book onto these activities if you think it will help your child.
• Obtain a social story Social stories and comic strip conversations (autism.org.uk) including any pictures of the setting and key staff members such as their tutor, year lead, pastoral or support staff they will be interacting with.
• Consider how they can make the school accessible to your child, for example by providing them with a colour coded map to look at over the summer break with clear markers for pastoral/support areas, toilets and lunch areas.
• Have they received pupil profile, and any materials supplied by you, their current school, or other professionals involved in their care
• Can you arrange a meeting with you and your child to get to know them better and discuss their needs and how they can be catered for.
• They should prepare all the staff who will be involved with your child so they understand their needs and can make them feel welcome and included.
• Ensure they have observed your child on induction days to see how they cope with the new environment and teaching practices.

• Try a walk or drive by to familiarise your child with the busy start and end of day.
• Rehearse the expected travel route to and from school together at first, then following them at a safe distance.
• Spend time with your child looking at the school map learning where everything is.
• Practice wearing the uniform/ PE Kit and if there any sensory concerns are there alternatives that could be discussed with the school.
• Create a checklist for all the equipment your child will need. This could be laminated and used daily as a tick list.
• Your child is likely to have their own questions about starting secondary school, so encourage them to write them down and ask a member of staff at the induction days or for you to email to the contact at the new school.
• Finally, try working through this booklet or one similar to look at what moving up to secondary looks like for your child – My moving up to secondary school booklet : Mentally Healthy Schools

• Continue to refer back to any transition resources your child used to help prepare them for the move.  For example, remind them of who they can talk to if they need more help, continue to talk to them about their worries and what they can do help themselves solve these worries.

• Make sure you know who to contact if your child starts to experience difficulties with school.  There may be areas of concern that emerge that were not considered during the transition period, and it is important to raise these with the school as early as possible to address them.

• Ask for a meeting to be arranged in the first term to review the support plan for your child, so that you can talk about any concerns early on and make any adjustments as needed.

You can resolve many issues by talking to your child’s school or setting. Speak to the class or form teacher and the SENCo and involve senior school leaders if needed. When a child or young person is receiving SEN support, schools should talk to parents to set clear outcomes and review progress towards them. They should discuss activities and support that will help achieve outcomes. They should identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school.

Guidance

The SEND Code of Practice states that schools should meet parents at least three times each year (paragraph 6.65). But parents can request more meetings than this if needed.

If the school are finding it hard to implement any of the ordinarily available support they may seek support via a referral to the Inclusion Support Service (ISS) for Hampshire

If you are still not happy with the action taken by the school, a copy of every school’s complaints procedure should be available and is often published on the school’s website. The school’s SEN Information Report should include arrangements for handling complaints.

The local authority have some useful resources detailing what schools in your area are committed to achieving for your young people, if your transition is hitting a few obstacles here are some useful links of what level of support you are entitled to.

Local Offer  (fish.hants.gov.uk)

• SEN Threshold Guidance
• Ordinarily Available Provision Guidance
• Inclusion Toolkit
• Reasonable Adjustments

External resources include:

Supporting children’s transition to secondary school: guidance for parents and carers | Anna Freud

Reasonable Adjustments Possible at School | Autistic Girls Network

BITESIZE CPD: EBSA/School Anxiety – Starting the Day Right – Dr Pooky Knightsmith

Education Support | Autisticrealms