Graduated Response

Definition of special education needs

A child or young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:

has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post 16 institutions A child under compulsory school age has special educational needs if he or she is likely to fall within this definition when they reach compulsory school age, or would do if special educational provision was not made for them

What is special educational provision?

Special educational provision is educational provision that is additional to or different from that made generally available for other children or young people of the same age by mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools, and mainstream post 16 institutions or by relevant early years providers.

Ordinarily Available Provision

Ordinarily available provision is made from funding ordinarily available to the setting through their core or delegated budget. The education setting must always consider their graduated response and show evidence of interventions over time, before they consider that it may be necessary for an EHC assessment to take place.

The following documents explain what provision should be available in all mainstream schools:

We are in the process of updating Wokingham’s Ordinarily Available Provision guidance. The new guidance should be available from January 2025.

Using the graduated approach to identify SEND

When a learner is making less than expected progress – academically or socially – your first response is to employ quality first teaching strategies targeting the learner’s area of weakness. Where a pupil is identified as having SEN, schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place. This SEN support should take the form of a four-part cycle (Assess, Plan, Do, Review) through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refined and revised with a growing understanding of the pupil’s needs and of what supports the pupil in making good progress and securing good outcomes. This is known as the graduated approach. It draws on more detailed approaches, more frequent review and more specialist expertise in successive cycles in order to match interventions to the SEN of children and young people.

SEN Support

When a learner is accessing special educational provision in school, they are placed on a school’s SEND Register as SEN Support. For learners with a special educational need or disability, schools need to take action to remove barriers to learning and provide effective provision that supports their access to and progress in the curriculum.

The role of the SENCO is to plan and oversee this provision, working alongside class and subject teachers to determine appropriate provision through the graduated approach. The SENCO will support teachers by providing advice on teaching strategies and resource adaptations to meet the needs of the learner.

A school’s SEND register is not fixed. There will be times when some learners may no longer need additional support because their needs are being effectively met through quality first teaching. There will also be times when a learner on SEN Support will need provision in addition to what the school ordinarily has on offer. The SENCO, together with yourself and the family may determine additional specialist support is needed, and/or the need for an Education, Health and Care Assessment to take place.

Education Health and Care Plans

Learners with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) have learning needs that require provision in addition to that which is available through SEN Support. EHCPs are legally binding documents that specify the educational, health and social provision that must be in place to meet a learner’s needs.

At least once every twelve months, a learner’s EHCP is reviewed in an Annual Review meeting.

It is important that the progress of learners with an EHCP is reviewed continually, in addition to the Annual Review process.