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A school place for every child is an entitlement and is regarded as universal provision.

Every mainstream school is resourced to support the majority of children with special educational needs.

Superlambanana sitting on books

Classroom teachers are trained to differentiate the curriculum, which means teaching the same subject at different levels to children of different abilities.

All schools have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) who usually has additional qualifications in special educational needs and/or substantial experience.

Schools receive core funding for every pupil on their roll. This funding will meet the staffing and resource costs of the school. Head Teachers and Governors of schools plan how to use this funding taking into account the needs of the pupils on their roll.

You should expect the same level of support for your child at every school across the city. See the Nursery, Primary and Secondary School pages to view each school's own local offer information.

Any additional SEN funding that a school receives to meet the needs of children on their SEN registers is determined by prior attainment. This means that the levels of attainment achieved by children in the early years are used to determine how much SEN funding a primary school receives and levels of attainment at Key Stage Two SATS are used to determine how much SEN funding a secondary school receives. Head Teachers and School Governors plan how to use this funding to support pupils who may need targeted and/or specialist support. All schools are expected to fund any additional or targeted support a child may need to a certain level.  If you think your child needs additional support to improve their outcomes contact their class teacher to discuss your concerns.

If you think your child would benefit from further assessment or targeted support from an outside agency contact the school SENCo for further discussion. See also 'Early Help Assessment Tool and Levels of Need' in useful information below.

Schools are supported to meet the needs of children with complex learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties by accessing outreach support from special schools. See Special Schools  from the list above and supporting information about 'Outreach Providers'; terms of reference for 'Early Years Early Intervention Panel', 'Primary Consortia' and 'SEN and Early Intervention Panel'.

When children and young people require support that is more than outreach, a place in resourced or enhanced provision in a mainstream school may be recommended by the local authority. (see information on resourced and enhanced provisions

If a child or young person meets the criteria for an EHC plan (see terms of reference for Education, Health and Care Assessment Panel and Early Years Early Intervention Panel) it may be that the local authority name a special school as the most appropriate provision. See Special Schools and supporting information.

When the local authority has explored all available options to meet your child’s needs, a Non-MaintainedIndependent School or College may be named in their EHC plan.

See Non- Maintained and Independent School Local Offers from the options above.