SEN - supporting children, young people and their families video transcript

Title card: Special Educational Needs – supporting children, young people and their families

Animated video of a child playing with a basketball who is the narrator of the video. The video shows animated characters of a parent, their child, a SENCO and other professionals talking about the support available for children and young people.

Parent: "What do I do if I think my child has special educational needs?"

Narrator: "Most children and young people will need extra help at some point during their education from their school, nursery or college. Extra help at school may mean working in small groups or support with learning and development.

Sometimes more help is needed and wherever your child is there will be someone to help you."

Senco: "Hi I’m the SENCO. I will meet with you regularly to talk about how your child is getting on. We will assess your child’s needs, put support in place and see how this is working. This is called the assess, plan, do, review cycle"

Parent: "What if this isn’t working?"

Senco: "I can ask for additional help from the local inclusion forum team, we call this lift. I can go to the lift meeting to discuss the support already in place for your child and ask for advice about what else might help. I can get advice from an educational psychologist, also known as an EP, the specialist teaching and learning service, teachers from special schools, provision evaluation officers and also sencos from other schools. We can also ask for help from other health professionals if we think your child needs it. This may be a speech and language therapist or occupational therapist, or we may talk about a referral to your GP."

Narrator: "With this extra help lots of children will make good progress at school. The school will make sure the support in place carries on working. We will do this by working with you and regularly reviewing the support."

However, there are times when it may be necessary to set out the additional support your child needs in an education, health and care plan. You may have heard this being called EHCP. An EHCP may be given to a child or young person who has more difficulty learning than other children who are the same age. They may have a lot of support in place, so having this written down in an EHCP it makes it clear what difficulties a child has and how the school can help them."

Parent: "How will I know if my child needs and EHCP?"

Narrator: "It’s always good to speak to your child’s school or pre-school first. They will be able to let you know how they are helping your child and if this is working. If the school think that your child may need an EHCP then they can ask the local authority to carry out a statutory needs assessment."

Parent: "What is a statutory needs assessment?"

Narrator: "A statutory needs assessment involves collecting information and advice which helps the local authority decide if a child or young person needs an EHCP. If the local authority does think your child does need a statutory needs assessment then they will ask for information from you, as the parent or carer, you child, the school, nursery or college, an educational psychologist, health professionals and social services. We will also ask for information from anyone else involved with your child."

Parent: "Is this something I can ask for myself?"

Senco: "Yes you can. You may find it helpful to speak to your child’s school or nursery who can help you with this."

Narrator: "Across Kent families can get advice and support from Information, Advice and Support Kent (IASK), early help services, social services, health services, groups and charities. Information about these services can be found on Kent’s local offer."

Title card: https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/special-educational-needs

Thank you to all the pupils and parents for their contributions to this video.