12 Top tips to get the most out of SENDAR
1. Wherever possible encourage parents / carers who feel their child might require an EHC Plan to work with your staff rather than submit a parental referral. Parental referrals usually arrive with much less evidence than school referrals and so are frequently turned down with a request to the school for missing information. This causes frustration for parents and delays matters. It also means that the school is required to provide the same level of evidence and paperwork as they would if they were making the referral themselves but within a mere two weeks rather than two terms to do this.
2. If it is believed that a child might require a needs assessment to support transition between key stages these should be considered in the year before transfer year; that is Years 1, 5, 8 or 10. Please work with parents, carers and appropriate professionals on this.
3. As far as possible avoid sending in EHC Plan referrals in the final term of the academic year and especially the final half term of the academic year. Think of the end of March as the latest date in the academic year for a referral. Any later than that and things risk running up against the summer exception rule that puts things on hold or means we are trying to contact schools and other professionals for advice when they are on holiday. Once again this causes frustration and wastes time.
4. Please don’t submit batches of EHC Plan referrals. These lead to bottlenecks in the system and once again contribute to delays.
5. If a child or young person with a Statement or EHC Plan is at risk of exclusion please remember to call a professionals meeting inviting your SENDAR Plan Coordinator and the educational professionals working with the child before any decision is made regarding permanent exclusion.
6. If you have any concerns you should talk to the LA professionals who work in your school for guidance (EPS, STS or IDS staff) and if still in doubt contact SENDAR. Asking questions early can avoid later misunderstandings.
7. We continue to welcome volunteer Head Teachers or SENCos to attend our EHC Plan Referral Panels on Thursdays or for the County Panel which meets monthly on Monday mornings and considers requests for children and young people to move from mainstream to specialist provision. These are excellent CPD opportunities for you and help to promote consistency across the LA.
8. When submitting EHC Plan referrals please do so electronically and use Microsoft Word not PDF. Referral forms, Family Conversations, Child / My Views and SEND Provision Matrix are easier to manage if they come in as separate documents but all other documents can come in as one. If you do have to make a paper submission please send documents in single-sided on unstapled A4. This will greatly ease our administration and speed up the process.
9. Please remember that SENDAR has no budget to provide support for school beyond that provided through the EHC Plan process.
10. If a child is undergoing a transfer to an EHC Plan and a costed IEP is enclosed, please include “Costed IEP Enclosed” in the title of the email
11. Remember, SENDAR is an extremely busy service with a heavy caseload working to tight deadlines and so might have difficulty in responding immediately to questions but all SENDAR staff are dedicated to the best interests of children and young people. Please have faith in them. They want to work with you.
12. Schools should be providing Careers Advice and Guidance for all their students from year 9 onwards. SENDAR’s Preparing for Adulthood team can support with Transition Planning for post 16 where needed. Please give them plenty of notice for any reviews you want them to attend. If any of your students are considering specialist provision beyond school it is vital that we know about this as soon as possible as there is a process for applying for high needs funding and local provision needs to be considered first. It is envisaged that the majority of leavers will transition into mainstream provision; our team can advise about support available.