This page explains how support works in schools for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and what families in Bristol can expect from education settings.
You don’t need to read everything in one go, you can dip in and out, or use the section links on the right to jump to what’s most relevant for you.
Some children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) need extra help to learn, feel included and thrive in their education settings.
In England, most children with SEND go to mainstream schools. Support usually starts through something called the graduated response, which simply means schools should put support in place step by step, based on what your child needs.
At the heart of this is the plan, do, review cycle: schools plan the support, try it out, and then check how it’s working – adjusting things if needed.
A graduated response means starting with the right support for a child or young person and increasing or changing that support if it isn’t meeting their needs. This can happen quickly; there is no requirement to “wait and see” or to leave support in place for a set amount of time if it isn’t working.
Education settings should identify a child’s needs as early as possible and put support in place to help them learn, grow and feel included alongside other children and young people their age.
Support is provided through a graduated approach, which means the amount and type of support can be increased or changed depending on what a child needs.
You can read more about how these levels work below.
It’s important to know that support doesn’t have to start small and slowly build up – sometimes a child’s needs are clear from the start, and more targeted support should be put in place straight away.
Support usually starts in the classroom through quality first teaching, where teachers adapt how they teach so children can access learning without the need for a formal plan.
For example, this might include using visual supports, breaking tasks into smaller steps, offering movement breaks, or adjusting where a child sits in the classroom.
Alongside this, schools must also make reasonable adjustments. These are changes to policies, routines or expectations to make sure children with SEND are not disadvantaged by whole school or whole trust approaches.
For example:
– flexibility around uniform requirements, such as allowing alternatives for sensory or medical reasons
– changes to how behaviour policies are applied, recognising that behaviour may be linked to unmet need
If a child or young person needs more help, settings should put additional support in place using what is known as ordinarily available provision. This means support the school can deliver from its own budget or through the Early Intervention Fund, provided by Bristol City Council. The fund can offer up to £5,000 per child for mainstream primary and secondary schools.
For example, this could include small-group support, extra adult help at key times, targeted interventions, or specialist resources.
This support is often recorded in a simple plan (sometimes called a Target Plan or Individual Education Plan) and may include advice from other professionals, such as speech and language therapists or educational psychologists.
For example, a therapist might suggest specific strategies for communication, emotional regulation, or classroom access, which the school then builds into everyday support.
If these steps aren’t enough, schools must take further action. This may need to ask for additional funding via a formal, statutory plan called an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which brings education, health and social care support together in one plan.
For example, if a child is being repeatedly suspended and the school is not yet able to understand why, despite trying different types of support, this is a strong sign that further assessment may be needed.
You can read more about EHCPs in the EHCP section of our website. Families can also request a EHC assessment.
Every child and young person is different, and many need extra support at some point in their school journey.
Children and young people can have strengths in some areas and still need support in others – doing well academically doesn’t mean they don’t need help in a different area.
All needs should be supported through the graduated response, based on what will help your child at that time.
Needs can show up in different ways, and schools and other services group them into four broad areas to help plan the right support. We’ve explained each one of these areas of need below.
We often hear from families that it can be hard to get support when a child appears to be coping at school, but then comes home exhausted, upset or angry. Sometimes families are told, “they’re fine here.”
Many children and young people, particularly those who may be neurodivergent, work very hard to hold things together during the school day. This can mean their distress usually shows up at home only.
If you tell school staff that your child is struggling outside of school, they should take this seriously. Schools have a duty to understand what a child may be masking during the school day and to put support in place to meet their needs.
If you’ve spoken to your child’s school or setting and are still finding it hard to get the right support in place, you don’t have to manage this on your own.
Come along to one of our free sessions, which give families the chance to ask questions, share experiences, and get support in a welcoming, informal space. You can find out where we’ll be and what’s coming up on our events page. If you need help, come and find us or give us a call.
Sometimes, even when the graduated response and plan, do, review cycle are being followed, an education setting may reach a point where they are struggling to meet a child or young person’s needs.
This might be because they do not have the specialist knowledge or funding needed, because it is unclear what support will make the difference, or because the setting understands the needs but cannot provide the right support.
When this happens, education settings should not stop or delay support. Instead, they must seek additional help and resources to meet the child or young person’s needs. This may include involving other services and, where necessary, moving towards the highest level of support through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
By this stage, a child or young person’s needs would usually be well understood, based on a thorough and ongoing plan, do, review process. But this is not always the case. If you need help understanding what should happen next, you can speak to your school’s SENDCo or come along to one of our events for support and information.
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