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CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

CONTENTS OF RECORD OF NEEDS

118. Every Record of - Needs must be in the form set out in the Schedule to the Education (Record of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 1982 (""the 1982 Regulations") and must contain the following 10 specific parts:

• PART I - details of the child or young person and information about the transfer, discontinuance or preservation of the Record;
• PART 11 - details of the parents and Named Person;
• PART IIIA - an assessment profile;
• PART IIIB - a summary of the child's or young persons impairments;
• PART IV - a statement of the special educational needs arising from those impairments;
• PART V - a statement of the measures proposed by the education authority to be taken to meet those needs;
• PART VI - where appropriate the nomination of the school to be attended;
• PART VII - the views of the parent or young person;
• PART VIII -a summary of reviews of the Record;
• PART IX - information about disclosure of the Record.

PART I - details of the child or young person and information about the transfer, discontinuance or preservation of the Record

119. Part I of a Record must identify the child or young person, giving -his or her name, date of birth, sex, address, etc., It must also contain a certification by an officer of the education authority that the Record of Needs has been properly opened. Where, during the currency of the Record, a different education authority becomes responsible for the child or young person, for example because a child's family has moved to the area of the new authority, it will set out details of any transfer of the document from one authority to another. If a Record of Needs has been discontinued, for whatever reason, and is being preserved, details of that too will be noted in Part 1.

PART 11 - details of the parents and Named Person

120. Part 11 of the Record identifies the child's or young person's parents or guardian, and should include a note of the relevant social work authority of a child who is in care. Where a parent or guardian is a member of the armed forces, his or her rank and number and the arm of service in which he or she serves must also be noted here. Also to be included in Part 11 is the name, contact address and telephone number of the Named Person, where the parent or, as appropriate, the young person has agreed one should be appointed.

The Named Person

121. Section 62(2)(c) of the 1980 Act requires an education authority, whenever a Record of Needs is opened, to appoint a person, described in the 1982 Regulations as the Named Person, to provide advice and information to the parents of the recorded child or young person, or to the young person directly. However, an education authority must also comply with a request from the parents or, as appropriate, the young person not to appoint a Named Person. The 1980 Act does not go into detail about the function of the Named Person beyond saying that, on application by the parent or, as appropriate, the young person, he or she is to provide advice about the child's or young person's special educational needs. However it is generally agreed that the Named person should have a proactive role in helping the parents or young person to understand the special educational needs for which provision is to be made, to understand how the provision proposed relates to those needs and to help the parents or young person to participate fully in discussions about needs and provision. In some cases the Named Person's main contribution will be as a technical adviser; in others he or she may have more of an advocacy role. Each case should be considered individually and the Named Person should be carefully chosen to ensure he or she can be helpful to parents or the young person. The choice is primarily for parents or the young person themselves but it may be helpful to discuss potential areas where they may need help or advice. The aim should be that a person with relevant experience or aptitude, who is likely to be available when needed, and who also has their confidence should be appointed. Often, of course, parents or the young person may not need help to understand what is happening or require assistance to make their views known. Nevertheless they may find it helpful to have someone they can talk to about their problems as a friend or counsellor and may wish to have a Named Person appointed.

122. Usually discussions will result in a mutually agreed name, but where a parent or, as appropriate, a young person expresses a preference for a particular person, education authorities should, other than in exceptional circumstances, accept that.

123. Successful Named Persons can have a wide variety of backgrounds. Very often it is their personal qualities- which fit them to become effective Named Persons rather than their occupation or any specific knowledge. For example, the ability to communicate with professionals and with parents and young persons forming a pathway of understanding between them is obviously a very desirable quality. However where, for example, special educational needs arise from a complex medical condition, parents may regard someone with an appropriate technical background as the most suitable Named Person. Where parents or, as appropriate, the young person express a need for someone who will be able to represent their interests in discussions with the education authority, they may have to be advised that because of possible conflicts of interest, it may not be possible to appoint such a person from among employees of the authority who are directly involved in assessing or delivering provision in the case concerned.

PART III the assessment profile and summary of impairments

124. Parts III to VII of the Record should be seen as a series of logical -steps leading from one to the other. Part 111, which must include both an assessment profile and a summary of impairments, leads to the identification of special educational needs (Part IV) and the relevant aims and objectives of provision and the services to be provided. Those, in turn, suggest the contents of the statement of provision (Part V) and the recommendations for location leading usually to the nominated school (Part VI); with (Part VII) being where parents, or the young person, may give their own views about the recording process, the Record and the provision that should flow from it, and express any reservations and concerns that they may have.

125. Part III has 2 separate parts: Part IIIA - the assessment profile and Part IIIB - the summary of impairments giving rise to special educational needs. Part IIIA should summarise a child's or young person's strengths, development to date and difficulties. The assessment profile should contain a brief description of the child or young person in terms which are understandable to parents or, as appropriate, the young person. . It is particularly important that references should be made to the child's or young person's strengths as well as to the learning difficulties giving rise to special educational needs.

126. In cases where the advice from the multi-disciplinary team is agreed and accepted by the parents, the education authority will usually adopt this as the foundation of its assessment.

127. Following the recommendation of the Warnock Committee, categories of handicap were discontinued as the basis for describing special educational needs or determining provision. This does not mean however that precise diagnostic terms should not be used where they may be helpful in describing specific disabilities. However, Part IV of the Record should then explain, in ordinary terms, the nature of the child's or young person's special educational needs arising from that particular condition.

PART IV - statement of special educational needs

128. Authorities should aim to refer in Part IV to all special educational needs arising from the impairments described in Part IIIB. Such needs will not always have equal implications for a child's or young person's progress and, where appropriate, authorities should aim to identify from the totality of the individual's special educational needs those which are most enduring and crucial to educational progress and those which might be looked at more closely at the next review. In drafting Part IV, the authority should also bear in mind that the statement of special educational needs should be so set out as to assist in defining the list of measures proposed by the authority which comprises Part V of the Record.

129. In compiling Part IV, the authority should ensure that the special educational needs, as they describe them, are clear and unambiguous, and can be seen to flow logically from the assessment profile contained in Part III. Where there is conflicting professional advice in Part 111, or there is some doubt about the nature of a child's or young persons special educational needs, it will often be helpful to explain this in Part IV, giving reasons for the description of the special educational needs ultimately adopted.

130. Part IV should set out the broad developmental and educational aims for a child or young person under the terms of the Record. These will normally provide the basis of a pupil's individualised educational programme (IEP).

Adapting the Curriculum

131. Where it is decided to adapt the content of curriculum to meet the needs of the particular child or young person, the decision should be summarised in Part IV of the

Record with any consequential need for provision noted in Part V. Any decisions involving a departure from the recommended curriculum to meet special educational needs should also be recorded in Part IV of the Record.

PART V - measures proposed by the education authority to meet the special educational needs of the child or young person

132. In Part V of the Record, education authorities are required to give information as to the measures proposed by them to meet the special educational needs of the child or -young person concerned. This enables an education authority to set out a strategy for the provision of appropriate education for each recorded child or young person. Part V should, therefore, specify the educational approach which the authority considers necessary to fulfil its statutory obligations (those obligations are as discussed in paragraphs 12-14). It is important that this information should be clearly presented so that everyone involved in the child's or young person's education, including the parents, can appreciate what is intended and so that the strategy that is set out in Part V can be translated into the individualised educational programme which will guide the daily provision for the child or young person.

133. The strategic framework for provision set out in Part V may specify for example the form of education (integrated or discrete) that is considered appropriate for the individual, recommended teaching and learning strategies, any specialist learning support or therapy that will be required and particular materials or equipment that should be required. Where relevant, arrangements for physical access to the school identified in Part VI and if necessary, for transport to the school, should also be specified. -'It is reasonable that parents and others should normally expect to find all of the specifications contained in Part V reflected in actual provision.

Individualised Educational Programme

134. Part V need not include detailed quantification of the various elements of the strategy to be delivered day to day where these are likely to change over time. These should be contained in the individualised educational programme (the IEP). Nevertheless, like Part IV, Part V should be sufficiently clear and specific to allow the IEP to be drawn up. Since the IEP will quantify the provision that is to be made, it will be of interest to the parents and young persons concerned and it should be discussed with them, particularly when the programme is first drawn up, following the opening of a Record, and their views should be taken into account.

135. Within the strategy set out in Part V, the IEP should be flexible enough to respond to the -changing needs of the individual child or young person. The IEP will also specify modifications to the quantity of provision, required or allowed by changes in the condition or development of the child or young person. It is essential that any variation in the provision proposed for a child or young person's education must continue appropriately to provide for his or her needs.

Measures which involve Use of Other Services

136. Measures proposed by an education authority to meet the special educational needs of a particular recorded child or young person may well involve the use of services obtained from others and not merely the authority's own services. It may not be possible or practicable for an authority to deliver the necessary measures without obtaining services from others. The particular services involved may be essential for the child or young person to be able to participate in an appropriate educational programme or may be essential in other respects as regards the education of the child or young person. The authority may not be able, or indeed may not wish, to provide such services directly. Part V of the Record of Needs must contain information both as regards services which the education authority will provide directly and those which it will provide by obtaining from others.

137. It is also essential that the description of services to be obtained from others should be formally agreed by the relevant agencies so that the satisfactory delivery of provision may be monitored.

138. Where authorities make arrangements for some elements of the provision they are required to make for the special educational needs of a recorded child or young person to be made through the services of another person or organisation, e.g. therapy or prosthesis by a health board, the terms of that arrangement should be clearly stated in Part V. The other person or organisation delivering the services will be doing so on behalf of the education authority -responsibility for provision will remain that of the education authority (see the discussion at paragraph 14 concerning the statutory duties of education authorities in relation to provision for the special educational needs of a recorded child or young person).

139. Contributions by other services can include:

(a) assessment and monitoring;
(b) involvement with the planning of educational progress;
(c) interaction, as appropriate, with the child or young person along, or in collaboration, with a teacher or other person(s);
(d) assistance in compiling the educational programme;
(e) provision of advice to parents; and
(f) provision of advice and training to teachers and other professionals.

Arrangements for Speech and Language Therapy

140. Where speech and language therapy is a special educational need of a recorded child or young person, under the 1980 Act (section 62(3) - see the discussion at paragraph 14), education authorities are under a duty to arrange that suitable provision to cater for that need is delivered. Where any doubt arises regarding the scope of an education authority's statutory duty in relation to such therapy, such doubt can only be decided by the Courts. Having regard to the terms of the Scottish statute, and to the decision in the English Courts based on similar legislation (in particular that of the Court of Appeal in the case of R v Lancashire County Council Ex Parte M [1989] 2 Fam Law Rep 279, the substance of which seems equally relevant to Scotland) the Department is of the view that speech and language therapy should, in certain circumstances, be regarded as a special educational need. Much will depend on the individual case.

141. In the case of provision of speech and language therapy for recorded children and young persons, additional resources have been made available to education authorities to enable them to enter into specific contracts with health boards under which health boards will provide speech and language therapy services. Where speech and language therapy is a special educational need of a child or young person who is not recorded, education authorities would normally arrange for this to be provided without money passing.

142. Circumstance's 'may arise where the relevant health board for the area may be unable to give assurances of services sufficient to satisfy the education authority that it will be able to fulfil its statutory obligations. In such circumstances, there is, in the Department's view, nothing in the education or local government legislation to prevent education authorities either employing speech and language therapists or other specialists directly or acquiring such services on a private basis. Equally, it would be open to authorities contracting for services to make arrangements with health boards or trust hospitals other than those normally responsible for the area of the education authority seeking speech and language therapy support. The acquisition of such services, of course, would be to ensure suitable provision for the special educational needs of the recorded child or young person concerned.

PART VI - nomination of the school to be attended

143. Where it is appropriate to nominate a school to be attended, the education authority must state in Part VI the school it considers the child or young person should attend, even if it has already made such a statement in Part IV (where it states the special educational needs of the child or young person concerned). Where appropriate, any special provision which may be needed to make that school suitable for the recorded pupil's education should also be noted in Part VI. Very often, the named school will be the school presently attended by a pupil, or, in cases where a child is transferring from primary to secondary education, the secondary school in whose catchment area the child lives. If the child or young person is to be educated otherwise than at school- for example at home or in hospital- it is recommended that details of appropriate arrangements be set down in Part VI.

144. Before nominating a school, as a matter of good practice, the education authority should identify and describe to the parents or as appropriate, the young person the full range of educational options that are relevant to the special educational needs of the child or the young person. The education authority should take account of the views of the parents or young person, as appropriate, in relation to these options and, when nominating a school, should explain to them why in the authority's opinion the provision at the nominated school is most appropriate to the particular special educational needs of the individual child or young person.

Placement in Education Authority Schools

145. It is important that the school nominated in a Record is very carefully chosen and is capable, albeit with support, of providing for the pupil's special educational needs. The nominated school may be -a school under the management of the education authority, or may, by arrangement, be a school operated by another education authority. Such schools may be primary, secondary or special schools.

Placement in Other Schools

146. In some circumstances, however, an education authority may not be able to provide appropriately for some children or young persons at schools or units under its own, or another authority's management. To fulfil its duty to a recorded child or young person it may wish to consider placement in a self-governing, grant-aided or independent school in Scotland or in a suitable school elsewhere in the UK or a suitable establishment overseas. In the Department's view, where an education authority decides to place a child or young person at a school not under its management, it must meet any fees and other necessary costs of the child's attendance (see paragraph 149 in relation to placement overseas) (sections 23(2), 28A(l) - as set out in Schedule A2, 50, 64(3) and 65(7) of the 1980 Act).

Appropriateness of a School

147. In pursuing any of these options, an education authority should first be satisfied that the proposed school or other establishment is:

(a) suited to the age, ability and aptitude of the child or young person;
(b) able to provide for his or her special educational needs and;
(c) satisfactory to the family as regards location having regard, for example, to arrangements for travelling or home visits.

148. Also, authorities need to establish, at an early stage, that the managers of the school or other establishment in question are willing to accept the pupil, and that the parents, or the young person, as appropriate, are content for that option to be pursued. It will help parents or the young person to reach a view if -they are given the opportunity to visit and talk to the staff there.

Assistance To Attend Establishments Abroad

149. Education authorities also have an additional way of providing for children or young persons with pronounced, specific or complex special educational needs. Section 65G of the 1980 Act (inserted by section 71 of the Self-Governing Schools etc. (Scotland) Act 1989) gave them the power to make arrangements for such children and young persons to attend a school or other establishment outside the UK which makes provision wholly or mainly for persons with special educational needs. These powers are available to help any child or young person with special educational needs and are not restricted to those with Records of Needs. Arrangements that education authorities may make under section 65G of the 1980 Act include payment of all or some of the fees and other expenses of attendance at an establishment abroad, including the cost of accompanying parents or, alternatively, another person who is not a parent. The involvement of authorities is not restricted simply to assistance with fees etc. and they may wish themselves to arrange for attendance rather than looking for parents to arrange it.

Children in the care of a Local Authority

150. Close consultation between education and social work is necessary in respect of recorded children in the care of a local authority, to ensure that decisions about educational provision for special educational needs and school placement are in the child's best interest.

151."Another Kind of Home - a review of residential child care", produced by The Social Work Services Inspectorate for Scotland in 1992, highlighted the importance of close collaboration to ensure that children in residential care had their educational needs met. That report recommended that local authorities should review, their arrangements for overseeing the educational needs of children in care, including those excluded from school. Authorities should consider designating senior staff in education and social work to oversee the education of children in care. The responsibilities of education authorities to children with Records of Needs are discussed at paragraph 14 of this Circular. The duty under section 62(3) of the 1980 Act is not dependent on where the child is being educated. In the case of a child of school age, for example, that duty applies where the authority is already making provision of school education under that Act whether at one of its own schools or elsewhere, for example at a self-governing, grant-aided or independent school. The position would be different where, by private arrangement, the child was attending a school not under the management of an education authority.

152. The education of children in the care of local authorities may be disrupted because of change of placements and change of schools. Such disruption should be minimised by the effective communication between education and social work about a child's educational needs and progress in order to prevent unnecessary educational reassessments. For children in care, or children for whom the social work authority has undertaken statutory or voluntary responsibility, close consultation is essential in reaching decisions about educational provision for special educational needs and school placement. Whether responsibility for placing the child in a school not under the education authority's management, for example a grant-aided special school, has been assumed by the education authority or by a social work authority, the education authority must nevertheless continue to keep the child's special educational needs under review.

PART V11- views of the parent or young person

153. Part VII of the Record is designed to contain the opinions of parents and young persons, as appropriate, about the opening and keeping of the Record. Part VII will also record their other comments, for example, on anything that has been included in or omitted from the Record and highlight particular considerations' which they feel should be borne in mind by those contributing to the education of the child or young person concerned. Reservations or concerns which a parent or young person may have expressed during the recording process may be restated here. Sometimes, for example, a parent or young person may have had reservations about whether a particular approach or strategy to provide for the special educational needs involved will be successful, but may have agreed to wait to see whether it is effective; that understanding can appropriately be recorded in Part VII. In completing Part VII, parents, young persons and education authorities will wish to bear in mind that, along with the rest of the Record of Needs which will form part of the pupil-'s progress record, this part will be available to be read by the staff of the school.

PART VIII - Summary of Reviews of the Record

154. The education authority must record in this section summary information about any occasion on which there has been a review of the Record of Needs; who initiated the review; the extent of the reassessment of the child's or young person's impairments and special educational needs and the findings of the reassessment; confirmation that any proposal to alter the Record of Needs was notified to the parent or young person concerned and that the alteration was made. For more information on reviews of Records of Needs see paragraphs 181-193.

PART IX - Information about Disclosure of the Record

155. The education authority must note here details of any disclosure of the Record of Needs whether it be an extract of material or a copy of the Record itself. The material supplied and the recipient must be identified; the date supplied and returned or destroyed noted and the name of the authorising officer recorded. Further information about the regulations concerning maintenance and disclosure of Records is given in paragraphs 204-219.

THE COMPLETED RECORD

156. Once the terms of the Record have been finalised, it is recommended that an authorised officer of the education authority should carry out final consultations with agencies who have agreed to make provision for the child or young person as set out in the Record. To open the Record the authorised officer should then complete, sign and date it. The parents or, as appropriate, the young person concerned must be sent a copy of the completed Record (section 62(2) of the 1980 Act).

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