What should school or college do to support me?
Your education provider should follow a 4-step cycle called the graduated approach. They should be following this process even if you don’t have an education, health and care (EHC) plan, and you do not need to have a formal diagnosis to access support.
The Graduated Approach
First the school or college should assess your needs to find out what you are struggling with. They should then plan the support they are going to put in place, “do” the work and then review whether it has made a difference
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Your school or college may do some assessments with you to identify your needs.
They may request that external professionals do some work with you to identify your needs.
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Your education provider should work with you and/or your family to decide a plan of support for you
This should include when the support is going to happen, who will support you and how often
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The plan that has been agreed will be put in place
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You should have a meeting with the special needs co-odinator to discuss whether the support that is in place is working for you.
If it is not, there should be a discussion about what school or college are going to do next to make things better for you.
The review meeting should happen at least 3 times a year
What can school or college do to help me?
There are lots of things school or college can put in place to help you.
This could include:
Changes to the way you are taught, e.g. being taught in a smaller group or on your own outside of the main classroom
Changes to school policies, such as not being required to complete homework or changes to the uniform policy if normal school uniform is uncomfortable for you
Help with personal care such as dressing, eating and going to the toilet
Support at break times such as having a library pass or access to a quiet indoor space
This is not a list of everything schools and colleges can do to help, but it should give you an idea of the kinds of things you can ask for.
Who should I speak to in school?
There are lots of adults you can speak to in school if you feel you need extra help.
The SENCo (special educational needs co-ordinator) is the person who is responsible for the extra support pupils get across the whole school. You and/or your parent or carer can speak to them if there are any concerns or questions about the help you get in school.
You can also speak to other people if you need extra help, such as your form tutor, head of year or another trusted adult.
Who should I speak to in college?
Every college has a SEN department who make decisions about the kinds of support children with SEN get.
You can ask a trusted member of staff if they know who works in the SEN department and who you can speak to.
How can I complain?
If you feel you are not getting the right support, you can raise a complaint with your school or college.
For schools, you can raise a formal complaint with the head teacher. It is a good idea to do this in writing, explaining what your complaint is and how you would like it to be resolved.
Most educational settings have a complaints policy which explains what will happen next after you have made the complaint. You should be able to find this on their website.
How to get help in university
Most universities will have their own student support systems to put extra help in place. You can contact them once you have your university place confirmed and find out how they can help you.
You should be able to find out the details of the team that help students with SEND on the university website. They are often called something like “student support services”.
The link below may also be useful