FAQ’s

What is Special Educational Provision?
This is defined in Section 21 of the Children and Families Act 2014 ("CFA") as:
"(1) Special educational provision", for a child aged two or more or a young person, means educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in -
(a) mainstream schools in England,
(b) maintained nursery schools in England,
(c) mainstream post - 16 institutions in England, or
(d) places in England at which relevant early years education is provided.

What are SEN (Special Educational Needs)?
This is defined in Section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014 as:
"A child or young person has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her."

SEN or SEND?
We use SEND but the short answer to this is, either is fine!

The Children and Families Act 2014 ("CFA") defines "Special Educational Needs" and includes reference to "disability"
The current "Code of Practice" is the "Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years" to give it its full title - so "SEND" is clearly an abbreviation of "Special educational needs and disability".

"SEND" could therefore be seen as more inclusive than "SEN" - but in reality the terms are used interchangeably so both are fine.