Guidance and procedures to support providers

How to identify and support children and young people with SEND, record and review their progress.

SEND support in schools and settings

SEND Support in Oxfordshire Schools and Settings provides a clear and consistent approach across Oxfordshire. This guidance has been written for settings and schools (both maintained and academies)

Identifying and assessing needs

Use the SEND indicators tool (xlsx format, 95KB) to help you identify detailed information about a child's progress and needs. 

This stage should be completed first and continuously reviewed. 

The documents below can then help you plan and implement provisions to meet those needs.

Ordinarily available SEND provision

Guidance on the provision that early years settings and mainstream schools need to make for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities in Oxfordshire to support inclusive practice.

Inclusive support series

The inclusive support series are strengths-based tools to identify reasonable adjustments in learning settings. They can be used to facilitate conversations with class teachers about a specific pupil(s) and to develop inclusive practice. Please see the first in the series below

The SENDCO Helpdesk

The team of Specialist SENDCos and Specialist Early Years advisors are on hand to provide working SENDCos with strategies, signposting, early intervention guidance and universal support for primary age/stage and early years children. The team can support with concerns at an individual or whole school/setting level, either by email, phone or TEAMS Meeting.

Transition Support Documents 

The transition support documents aim to provide guidance and tools to promote a successful primary to secondary transition for all learners in Oxfordshire, including vulnerable learners that may need an enhanced transition.

Early years - children in settings and foundation stage nurseries in schools

What to do when you think a child may have additional needs

This gives an overview (pdf format, 98 KB) of what you should already have in place and what to do next.

The SEND Code of Practice 2015 recommends a graduated approach to meeting the needs of children with SEND, ‘All settings should adopt a graduated approach with four stages of action: assess, plan, do and review’ 5.38

Please see flow chart (pdf format, 179Kb) for further guidance on the actions required to effectively implement this approach.

Use the Oxfordshire Guidance for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Support (docx format, 359 KB) to look in detail at the child’s needs and plan how to meet them. It sets out a clear approach to identifying and supporting needs and how parents should be involved. Use the EY SEND toolkit for more ideas for activities, strategies and resources.

Information and examples/templates for planning and reviewing support

Use these templates/examples to help you to gather and record information and work with parents to plan outcomes and review progress:

See example of completed SEND support plans, an intervention record and a support timetables. 

Views and wishes of the child

It’s important to include the views and wishes of the child. Use ‘All About Me’.  The following information may also be useful.

Early help

Some families may use other plans and records depending on their needs and the complexity of support they require.

Getting help from Support Services

There is more information about how the Early Years SEND Advisory Team and other support services work with settings. If a child is under 5, you can ask for help using Oxfordshire’s Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI):

If there are concerns about a child’s vision or hearing the first port of call is usually the child’s GP (or optician for a visual difficulty). He or she will decide whether further specialist advice is needed.

Accessing Additional Resources (EY SEND funding)

For some children additional resources may be available through the local authority. 

Inclusion Funding   

SEND Inclusion Funding is aimed at supporting children with low-level or emerging SEND by providing some early intervention support that will enhance the child's progress.

  • In Oxfordshire, it amounts to £38.50 per week during term time.
  • Claims for this funding for 2, 3 and 4 year olds are made via the establishment portal.
  • With the extended entitlements for working parents, children aged between 9 and 23 months will now be eligible to apply for EY SEND Inclusion funding.
  • Reflecting on early childhood, there's such a range of typical development, with each baby and toddler developing very much at their own pace. Therefore, we think it will be really quite rare that children in this age group (9 months to 23 months) are identified as having a low level or emerging need.
  • For this reason, we require written applications for SEND Inclusion funding for children under 2 years. Providers should email EYSENfunding@oxfordshire.gov.uk for an application form for the 9-23-month age group.

Before claiming ‘Inclusion Funding’ for each individual child, the school or setting must take certain steps. Refer to the Early Education Funding page for these and guidance how to claim.   

Additional Funding (Early Years)

If evidence shows that the child needs are higher/more complex than Inclusion Funding can support, then an application for Early Years Additional Funding (docx format, 89Kb). Please read the guidance before completing the application -  Early Years Additional Funding Guidance notes (pdf format, 407Kb) to help. This funding cannot be backdated.

If agreed this additional funding will be time limited. In some situations it may be necessary to request a continuation of this extra support. This is done by completing an application for additional funding renewal form (docx format, 74Kb). It is the responsibility of the setting to be aware of when funding ceases and put in place processes in a timely way to ensure this continues if appropriate.

If the request involves any application for an increase in the agreed level of funding a new application for additional funding will need to be submitted.

Training

Disability Access Funding (DAF)

Disability Access Fund (DAF) funds early years providers to support children with disabilities or special educational needs. It aids access to early years places by supporting providers in making reasonable adjustments to their settings. Providers should consider what reasonable adaptations are required to ensure the child has the same equitable access to the provision as any other child. Resources required to ensure basic entry and reasonable adjustments to the learning environment should be the priority for DAF.

DAF is available to children:

  • currently in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and
  • receiving funded early education as a 9-23-month, 2 or 3 and 4-year-old

To be eligible for DAF, the child must be named on their current DLA award letter (children whose siblings attract DLA but don’t themselves would not be eligible).

From April 2025, DAF funding is a non-transferable lump sum payment of £938 per year, and the parent must nominate which provider will receive the funding. For example, if you claim for DAF in spring term 2025, the earliest next claim will not be until spring term 2025, provided the child still claims early education funding.

This funding can only be used at one provider and cannot be shared. If parents share their funded hours between more than one provider, they should nominate their chosen provider to receive DAF.

Please note that four-year-olds in primary school reception classes are not eligible for DAF funding.

For further information and how to claim this funding.

Additional SEND funding for schools

Guidance around additional funding (SEN Support) for schools and forms to use can be found here

Education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments and plans

Most children and young people have their needs met in a mainstream setting through SEND support.

A very small number of children will need the local authority to set out the support that they should receive to achieve the best outcomes. 

This is usually where their needs are complex and severe and require the co-ordinated support of a range of services.

Where children have this level of need, the Local Authority will consider a multi-agency needs assessment.

Where this is agreed a statutory assessment will take place and this may result in a EHC Plan being written for the child detailing their needs, outcomes they are working towards and support agreed.

If you think that a child in your setting may need an EHC needs assessment it’s a good idea to talk to the Early Years SEN team or the specialist advisory teacher supporting the child.

More information about EHC plans can be found in chapter nine of the SEND Code of Practice (2015) and the Local Offer.

For examples of completed information that supports an Education and Health Care Needs Assessment see the Resources section in the All Children with SEND page on the Early Years SEND Toolkit

Requesting an EHC needs assessment

A request for assessment is usually made by the setting that the child attends, often with the support of a professional. It can also be made by a parent in which case the setting will be asked to provide the information needed for the assessment.

All applications for an EHC needs assessment must now be made electronically; access this through the Children’s Portal using the link below

Additional context for an EHC request can be found at:

As part of the EHC needs assessment it is crucial to gain the voice of the child and family, their wishes and aspirations. This can be helped by asking the child’s parent to complete an ‘All about me’ on behalf of the child and the family. It can be helpful to think about how the child is at home and in the setting. Some parents may find this difficult and someone who knows the child well in the setting, such as their key person could offer to help the family with this. 

All About Me’ person-centred planning guidance

It’s important to make sure that you include all of the information needed so do ask for help if you’re not sure.

Reviewing an EHC plan

All children with SEND should receive ongoing, formative assessment as an integral part of the learning and development process.  

Settings will put in place a structured review plan to capture the ongoing and changing needs of the child and allow for these in continued planning. There will be regular meetings with parents at least three times a year. One of these review meetings will be the annual review meeting.

The annual review of an EHC plan looks at the outcomes that were decided previously and the provision set out in the plan. 

The child and family are at the centre of this process. Everyone at the meeting will talk about the progress made and agree new targets for the coming year.  Any changes to the plan are discussed, including whether an EHC plan is still needed.

The first annual review must be held within 12 months of the date when the EHC plan was issued and after that within 12 months of the previous review. There is guidance and paperwork to help you manage the annual review process.

CDC guidance on annual reviews

The Council for Disabled Children (CDC) have developed useful guidance:on the annual review process