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CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT

36. The identification and assessment of special educational needs is not an end in itself. Its aim is to provide a better understanding of a child's or young person's learning difficulties. Its purpose is to provide a basis for the adoption of appropriate forms of education for a child or young person; and, thereafter, to establish how best to monitor his or her progress.

Identification of Children and Young Persons with Special Educational Needs

37. Before education authorities can effectively assess those children and young persons who may have special educational needs, they must first be able to identify who and where those children and young persons may be. Education authorities must, therefore, put in place strategies for identification. To be effective, strategies will involve many different persons and several organisations. They must also come into effect early in a child's life. Good practice suggests that each education authority should set down its strategy in writing, that this document should be generally available, and that the effectiveness of the strategy should be monitored to facilitate review (see also, paragraph 19).

Early Identification

38. Education authorities should discover, at the earliest opportunity, the whereabouts of those for whose special educational needs they are likely, ultimately, to have to ensure provision. This will help them assess and plan the provision they propose to make and to implement that as soon as it is appropriate to do so. Some conditions. which are likely to give rise to special educational needs can often be recognised, at or before birth or in the first few days or weeks of a child's life. Other learning difficulties including, in some circumstances, physical, sensory, social and behavioural or intellectual disabilities, may not be identified until later, perhaps months or even years after birth.

Dissemination of Information

39. Education authorities have a statutory duty under section 60(l) of the 1980 Act to disseminate in their area information as to the importance of the early discovery of special educational needs and as to the opportunity for assessment under the 1980 Act. The range of possible sources of learning difficulties and the extended period within which identification of learning difficulties may occur means many individuals may need to contribute to an effective strategy for early identification of children with special educational needs. These will include parents and various professionals, such as general practitioners, doctors in clinics, health visitors, pre-5 carers, therapists, teachers, and social workers. In short, every person who regularly comes into contact with a child may have a crucial part to play and education authorities should, whenever they can, establish formal or informal contacts with such people and try to increase awareness of the need to alert the authority to any concerns they may have in connection with that child. They may have particular problems in doing so for children under 5 - especially one and two year olds. The benefits of the earliest identification possible will, however, reward the effort.

40. It is essential that each education authority establishes a strategy for disseminating information about the arrangements for assessment. It should aim to make any and all of the following:

parents;
teachers - particularly those in pre-5 provision,
playgroup workers,
child carers,
doctors,
paediatricians,
health visitors,
social workers,
speech and language therapists,
occupational therapists,
physio-therapists and others working with pre-school children:

aware of the need to bring to the attention of the education authority any pre-school and other children whom they suspect might have special educational needs. The strategy adopted should provide accessible and well-established means of communicating the names and whereabouts of such children. In areas where there are users of first languages other than English, information should, wherever possible, be made available in those languages. Securing the co-operation of voluntary and private providers of services and facilities, will be important if comprehensive arrangements are to be put in place. Authorities will wish to involve relevant bodies operating in their area in any strategy they develop.

41. However efficient the early identification policies of education authorities may be, the difficulties of many children will not become apparent for the first time until they begin school- usually primary school but for a few, at secondary stage. Strategies for identification of special educational needs must therefore continue to operate at all stages of school education.

AGES AT WHICH IDENTIFICATION MAY OCCUR

Under Two's

42. Within our society, monitoring and assessment of children takes place, in one way or another, as a continuing process, beginning at birth and continuing in the home and family environment. It involves contact with health services and social work departments as well as education authorities whose early involvement is particularly important for the educational development of children with special needs. As a matter of good practice, the education authority should seek to establish early contact with a family containing a child who has been identified as possibly having special educational needs. Even if it is thought unlikely that circumstances will require an immediate educational assessment, education authority action during infancy should provide a useful background to assist their understanding of the child, when formal assessment of special educational needs is undertaken.

43. The first signs of conditions giving rise to special educational needs are likely to be noticed by the medical profession- hospital doctors and general practitioners, nurses,. midwives and health visitors, community paediatricians- and, most importantly, by a child's parents or extended family. Where social workers, carers and teachers are involved with children of this age, they too can play a crucial part in the identification process.

44. There is, therefore, a clear need for social work authorities and health boards and trusts to provide information which will help their professionals who come into contact with very young children with disabling conditions to identify whether there are educational implications which should be drawn to the attention of the education authority. Additionally, through a variety of settings, such as ante-natal clinics or through the health and education services, education authorities should support and encourage parents whose children are likely to have learning difficulties to know how to help their children: to assist them to acquire sufficient knowledge of their child's needs so that they can, at a later stage, co-operate with the education authority in implementing appropriate provision. Where a child also has social care needs, referral, in partnership with parents, should be made to the social work authority who have a duty to provide services to support children in need, including disabled children. (See also, paragraphs 242-246).

Age 2 to School Age

45. Between these ages, children may be attending nursery schools, nursery classes, day nurseries, play groups or other day care facilities where staff members will be well placed to identify any signs of special educational need. This can particularly be so in cases of delayed development. Appropriate training should be provided to ensure that staff can carry out this role effectively. It is also at this stage that authorities can often best establish regular reporting of a child's development which will help them monitor progress and ensure effective and timeous referral for assessment. (See also, paragraphs 247-249)

School Age

Identification in School

46. Paragraphs 42 to 45 of this Circular set out arrangements for children under school age. For the child at, or approaching, school age, whose special educational needs have not previously been identified, it will, in most cases, be the school which will, identify a child's difficulty and decide how that child's individual needs should be assessed and met. Most often a teacher in the child's first class, or perhaps a learning support teacher attached to a school will be the first to notice the child may have special educational needs. Effective mainstream and special schools have policies which ensure that class teachers adopt consistent and rigorous approaches to the identification of pupils facing difficulties in learning and to the assessment of their special educational needs.

47. Once a child has been identified as possibly having special educational needs, the education authority should establish contact with the parents with a view to explaining to them what that might mean for their child and to explain at this early stage what educational options are made available by the authority, including those provided by other organisations or, where relevant, other authorities.

Involvement of Learning Support Staff

48. Where the support normally provided in class does not seem to meet the child's needs, schools will need to consider whether extra assistance and advice are required. It is at this stage that the headteacher, or promoted member of staff with responsibility for special educational needs, will decide whether to involve learning support staff. The learning support service will be able to advise on a suitable educational programme and may suggest who may assist in implementing it. In some cases, however, the school may look further afield for assistance and involve experts, such as an educational psychologist, a medical officer or a speech and language therapist, to carry out assessments or to help to devise a programme to be carried out and monitored by the school. Where a child comes from a minority ethnic or linguistic background, a school may wish to seek advice from an ethnic minority liaison worker.

49. The Warnock Report and the 1978 Report by HM Inspectors of Schools on the education of pupils with learning difficulties (see Bibliography, Annex 4) concentrated mainly on school-based approaches to the identification of educational problems, including those of children whose needs may not be overt but who nevertheless have learning difficulties. This group may include some children who will have been overlooked by even the most efficient pre-school identification strategies. The Manual of 'Essentials of Good Practice' (see the second part of the package described above in paragraph 5) will give practical advice on school-based approaches. It is clear that all teachers should fully understand the importance of their role in identifying and alerting the education authority to the presence of such children in their school class and they should be trained to do so.

Young Persons

50. Only very rarely should a situation arise where pupils have not had their special educational needs discovered until after they have ceased to be of school age and have become, for the purposes of the 1980 Act, young persons. This situation is most likely to arise through accident or other trauma, recently acquired illness or a deteriorating condition. All the usual avenues of discovery through the medical and school systems will normally alert education authorities to the young person's needs but, additionally, ways should be available for young persons themselves, or parents on their behalf, to bring to the authorities' attention particular learning difficulties which they may be experiencing.

Assessment

51. For children and young persons who have special educational needs, but who are not likely to require the opening of a Record of Needs, all the stages of the statutory assessment process discussed below may not be required. Nevertheless, the substance of the assessment should be no less thorough. In such cases, it will often be possible to carry out an assessment within school using only the resources of the school in which the child's or young person's learning difficulties were first noticed. In other cases, additional assessments involving educational psychologists or other professionals may be required. Much of the practical advice on assessment given below will be relevant.

52. Where it seems that a child's or young person's learning difficulties might require the opening of a Record of Needs, the statutory procedures for assessment, outlined in sections 60 to 62 of the 1980 Act should be followed. The education authority will generally initiate an assessment:

(a) as a result of school-based assessment;
(b) following a recommendation by the education authority psychological service;
(c) through referral from another source, such as medical or social work personnel
(d) at the request of parents;
(e) at the request of a young person.

53. Under section 61(6) of the 1980 Act, a parent may ask an education authority to carry out an assessment of his or her child to ascertain whether the child should have a Record of Needs, and the education authority must do so unless in its opinion the request is unreasonable. The 1980 Act does not define what is or is not "unreasonable' in this context but the refusal of a request for initial assessment can be expected to be justified where for example no evidence or no relevant evidence for the need for assessment is put forward by the parent or where there has been no change in circumstances following a recent assessment in the light of which it has been decided not to open a Record. As a matter of good practice, education authorities should respond expeditiously in writing to a request for a statutory assessment. A substantive written response is particularly important where an authority is refusing a request.

54. The duties of an education authority in relation to identification and assessment are not restricted to those attending schools under its, or another authority's, management. These duties also apply to children and young persons belonging to an authority's area who, for example, are educated at home or who are cared for by a social work department (see also, paragraphs 195 - 202).

55. An education authority may learn of a child or young person with special educational needs who is newly arrived in its area when it receives a copy of the child's or young person's Statement of Special Educational Needs from an education authority in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. In such circumstances the authority, where it is satisfied that the child or young person belongs to its area, should immediately consider assessing the child or young person to help it decide whether to open a Record. Where an authority is aware that a child or young person newly arrived in its area has had a Statement of Special Educational Needs it may consider applying to the authority keeping the Statement for a copy to inform its consideration of the individual's special educational needs. However an education authority should not decide to open a Record of Needs simply because there is or has been a Statement of Needs for the individual in question, nor should it merely adopt the Statement's terms. Statements have a different legislative background and the authority must make its own decisions based on appropriate assessments.

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