SEND Acronyms & Phrases
The public sector loves using acronyms.
There’s been plenty of times when phrases or acronym’s have been thrown into discussions or emails with us, and left us scratching our heads trying to work out what they mean….
Here’s a full A-Z of the ones we regularly come across!
ADHD- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder
A group of behavioural symptoms. These include inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Diagnosed by Health professionals.
AP - Alternative provision
Education arranged by a school or local authority for pupils of compulsory school age (or post 16 with an EHCP) outside of mainstream or special schools. It may include full or part time placements in pupil referral units, AP academies, or a range of other providers on the approved providers list within the LA.
AR- Annual Review
A review of an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which the local authority must undertake at least every 12 months (or every six months for children under 5).
ASC - Autistic Spectrum Condition
A neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people relate to and interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them. Also known as ASD or autism.
ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
See ASC
BSP – Behaviour Support Plan
A plan to support children who are exhibiting behaviours that challenge, to help those who work with them to understand the behaviours and to support the development if positive behaviour patterns. This should include proactive strategies (to make sure a child / young person has what they need) and reactive strategies (to keep the child / young person and those around them safe.
CAMHS - Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
These services assess and support children and young people with a learning disability, emotional, behavioural, or mental health difficulties.
CaFa - Children and Families Act 2014
A law that covers duties regarding children with SEND, among wider duties relating to children and families. Part III of the Act introduced significant changes to the SEN and disability system including new assessment arrangements, joint commissioning duties, a local offer, and increased engagement with children, young people and families.
TCA - The Children Act 1989
The act brought together and simplified existing legislation relating to the care of children and young people. A key principle of the Act is that children are best looked after within their families, with their parents playing a full part in their lives. It also values children as individuals with their own interests and rights.
CIN Plan - Child in Need Plan
A plan that is written by a social worker to support parents / carers to look after their children.
CP - Clinical Psychologist
A professional who focuses on the treatment and diagnosing of mental and emotional disorders.
CoP - Code of Practice
Guidance from the Department for education (2015) on the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system for children and young people aged 0 to 25, from 1 September 2014. It explains the duties of all organisations (education, health and social care) to provide for children and young people with special educational needs under part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
CQC - Care Quality Commission
Independent regulator of health and social care in England.
DCD – Developmental Coordination Disorder
Also called dyspraxia, a condition affecting physical co-ordination. It causes a child to perform less well than expected in daily activities for their age, and appear to move clumsily
Developmental delay
A delay in reaching the normal stages of development.
DfE – Department for education
A ministerial department responsible for children's services and education, including early years, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
Direct payments
Money that is paid to you (or someone acting on your behalf) on a regular basis by your local council so you can arrange your own support, instead of receiving social care services arranged by the council. See also: Personal budget.
DLA - Disability Living Allowance
A benefit that is paid to families with children with disabilities.
DLD – Developmental Language Disorder
A type of speech, language and communication need (SLCN) that affects the way that children understand and use language which is not associated with another condition e.g. autism, down syndrome etc.
DRP – Disability Resource Panel
A multi-disciplinary panel of professionals that approves short break care services for children and young people.
DSL - Designated Safeguarding Lead
Someone in a school, setting or organisation with responsibility for safeguarding children and child protection.
Dynamic support registers
(DSRs)
Dynamic support registers (DSRs) and Care, Education and Treatment Reviews are key to identifying, understanding and supporting children and young people who are autistic and/or have a learning disability. Dynamic support registers (DSRs) are the mechanism for local systems to identify children and young people who are at risk of admission to mental health inpatient services without access to timely dynamic support.
EP - Educational Psychologist
A professional who helps in assessing your child’s special educational needs and giving advice to schools and settings.
Exclusion
When a child is removed from school by the head teacher for either a fixed period of time (fixed term / suspension), or
permanently (expelled)
EOTAS - Education other than at school
The education or special educational provision of children or young people outside of a formal educational setting.
FE - Further Education
Any study after secondary education that is not a degree at university. Also referred to as Post 16
First Tier Tribunal
You can appeal to the First Tier Tribunal
(Special Educational Needs and Disability)
if you disagree with the local authority’s decisions about your child’s special educational needs in relation to EHCPs. The tribunal is independent of government and will listen to both sides of the argument before making a decision.
Learning difficulty
When it is significantly greater in difficulty to learn than other children and young people of the same age, or a disability which hinders use of general educational facilities. A learning disability is different from a learning difficulty as a learning difficulty does not affect general intellect.
Learning disability
A reduced intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities – for example household tasks, socialising or managing money – which affects someone for their whole life. People with a learning disability tend to take longer to learn and may need support to develop new skills, understand complicated information and interact with other people.
Legislative
Having powers to make law
LA – Local Authority
A Council in England.
Local Offer
Provides information about services available locally for children and young people with SEND including Short Breaks, activities and events, support and advice services, education options and health services.
LSA - Learning Support Assistant
See also Teaching Assistant (TA).
LSS - Learning Support Service
4 teams of specialist teachers, teaching assistants and mobility officers. These are Cognition and Learning Team, Autism and
Social Communication Team, Salford Deaf
Education Team and the Visual Impairment Team. The team support children, young people and staff in settings, schools and college in a wide range of areas of SEND.
Mainstream School
A school teaching pupils of a wide range of abilities and aptitudes offering a wide range of academic subjects.
MAM- multi-agency meeting
A meeting to review a child’s needs and progress and work out what the next steps should be to make sure they get the support that they need. At these meetings, there may be a team of professionals such as Early Help Practitioner, Community Nursery
Nurse, Social Worker, Speech and
Language Therapist and Physiotherapist.
MAT - multi-academy trust
A group of academies working together under a shared academy structure.
Mediation
This is a statutory service commissioned by local authorities which is designed to help settle disagreements between parents or young people and local authorities regarding EHC needs assessments and plans.
MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulties
A student with moderate learning difficulties is understood to display significant delay in reaching developmental milestones and may have much greater difficulty than their peers in acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills. They may also have associated speech and language delay, low levels of concentration and underdeveloped social, emotional and personal skills.
Neurodiversity
This term used to describe a range of neurological differences including:
Dyslexia
Dyspraxia (also called Developmental Coordination
Disorder, or DCD)
Dyscalculia
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)
Ofsted - Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills
This is the body which inspects and regulates services which care for children and young people and those providing education and training for learners of all ages.
PEP - Personal Education Plan
An element of a Care Plan maintained by a local authority in respect of a child who is looked after, which sets out the education needs of the child. If a child who is looked after has an EHC plan, the regular reviews of the EHC plan should, where possible, coincide with reviews of the Personal Education Plan.
Physical disability
There is a wide range of physical disabilities. Some children and young people are able to access the curriculum and learn effectively without additional educational provision. They have a disability but do not have a special educational need. For others, the impact on their education may be severe. Similarly a medical diagnosis does not necessarily mean a pupil will have SEN. It depends on the impact the condition has on their educational needs. There are a number of medical conditions associated with physical disability which can impact on mobility, such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida and muscular dystrophy.
Residential Care
Care in a home with or without nursing, for older people or people with disabilities who require 24-hour care.
Risk Assessment
An assessment to identify possible risks and to plan what can be done about them.
Safeguarding
Policies and practice aim to ensure that that adults and children are not being abused, neglected or exploited.
Section 17
Section of the Children Act 1989 which gives Local Authorities a general duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are 'in need'.
This includes children with SEND.
SENCO - Special Educational
Needs Coordinator
SENDCO - Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Coordinator
The person with responsibility for the planning and monitoring of the special educational provision within your child’s early years setting, school or college.
SEND Code of Practice
A document from the government which provides practical advice to those carrying out their statutory duties to identify, assess and make provision for children’s special educational needs.
SEMH - Social, Emotional and
Mental Health
(Four broad areas of need)
Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder
SEND Provision
The additional help/support/resources given to children with special educational needs
SEND Reforms
The new Children and Families Act came into force on 1st September 2014. The vision for the SEND reforms is that the views of children, young people and parents are at the heart of the system and that education, health and care services are joined up to help them achieve the best possible outcomes, including the skills for work and living independently.
Sensory and/or physical needs
(Four broad areas of need)
Children with sensory or physical needs may have a disability, such as
physical disability
vision impairment
hearing impairment
multi-sensory impairment (both hearing and vision difficulties)
Some children and young people require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. Many children and young people with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multisensory impairment (MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or habilitation support. Children and young people with an MSI have a combination of vision and hearing difficulties.Some children and young people with a physical disability (PD) require additional ongoing support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.
Statutory Guidance
Statutory guidance is guidance that local authorities and other local bodies have a legal duty to follow.
TA - Teaching Assistant
Support teachers in schools and help children with their educational and social development.
TAC / TAF - Team Around the
Child / Family
Team Around the Family meetings are where the family and practitioners come together to review the family’s plan. TAF meetings allow a family and practitioners to share and celebrate success, review the desired changes and agree next steps.
TAC Meeting - Team Around the Child Meeting
This is a meeting that can be called by a health, educational or social care professional working with a child when the child is not allocated to a social worker.
Parents can also request these meetings.
EHCP Transition Plan
A plan drawn up after the Annual Review of the EHC plan in year 9 and beyond that draws together information from a range of individuals to plan for the young person's transition to adult life, with a focus on PFA outcomes.
Universal Services
Services such as transport, leisure, health and education that should be available to everyone in a local area.