What Is SEN Support? A Guide for Parents and Carers

About this guide

This guide is for parents and carers who have been told their child is receiving SEN Support, or who think their child may need it, and who want to understand what that actually involves. No prior knowledge of the terminology is assumed.

The law and statutory guidance described here apply to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different systems, and information written for England does not transfer across.

What does SEN Support mean?

SEN Support is the term used in the SEND Code of Practice for the special educational provision a school, early years setting or college makes for a child or young person who has special educational needs but does not have an Education, Health and Care plan.

It is not a label, a funding band or a formal legal status that a child is placed on. It describes support that is planned, put in place, reviewed and adjusted by the setting, working with parents and, where relevant, outside professionals.

The Code of Practice is clear that where a pupil is identified as having SEN, schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place — and that this SEN Support should take the form of a cycle known as the graduated approach.

Which children and young people may receive SEN Support?

Under section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014, a child or young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A learning difficulty or disability means they have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream settings.

The Code of Practice describes four broad areas of need, which overlap and are used to help think about what support is required rather than to categorise children:

• communication and interaction
• cognition and learning
• social, emotional and mental health difficulties
• sensory and/or physical needs

A diagnosis is not required for a child to be identified as having SEN or to receive SEN Support. What matters is whether special educational provision is called for. Equally, a diagnosis does not by itself mean a child has special educational needs in the legal sense.

How is SEN Support different from ordinary classroom differentiation?

Every teacher adapts their teaching for the pupils in front of them. The Code of Practice describes high quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, as the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have SEN, and says that additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.

Special educational provision is defined in law as provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in mainstream settings. So the distinction is not about effort or good intentions; it is about whether what is being provided is part of the setting's ordinarily available provision, or something additional to or different from it.

How does SEN Support relate to SEND?

These terms are used interchangeably in everyday conversation, which causes a good deal of confusion. They mean different things:

• SEND — special educational needs and disabilities: the broad umbrella term for the system and the population it serves.
• SEN — special educational needs, as defined in section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
• SEN Support — the special educational provision a setting makes for a child with SEN who does not have an EHC plan.
• Classroom differentiation / ordinarily available provision — the adaptations and provision available to all pupils, which are not in themselves special educational provision.
• EHC needs assessment — a statutory assessment carried out by the local authority to decide whether an EHC plan is necessary. It may or may not lead to a plan.
• EHC plan — a legal document issued and maintained by the local authority, describing needs, outcomes and the provision that must be secured.

Our guide What is an EHCP? A guide for parents and carers explains the last of these in detail.

What is the graduated approach?

The graduated approach is the model the SEND Code of Practice sets out for SEN Support. It is a four-part cycle — assess, plan, do, review — which is repeated, with each cycle building a more detailed understanding of the child's needs and refining the support in response.

It is best understood as a way of working rather than a timetable. There is no statutory number of cycles, no fixed length for a cycle, and no requirement to complete a set number before anything else can happen. The pace and intensity should respond to the individual child: where needs are clear and significant, support should be substantial from the outset rather than deliberately started small.

Where a child does not make expected progress despite support that is matched to their needs, the Code expects the setting to consider involving specialists, including those from outside the school, and to keep refining what is provided.

The Assess stage

In the assess stage, the class or subject teacher, working with the SENCO, carries out a clear analysis of the pupil's needs. The Code of Practice expects this to draw on:

• the teacher's assessment and experience of the pupil
• the pupil's previous progress, attainment and behaviour
• the individual's development in comparison with their peers and national data
• the views and experience of parents
• the pupil's own views
• advice from external support services where relevant

This does not require formal testing in every case. It does require the setting to be able to say, in specific terms, what the difficulty is and what appears to be causing it.

The Plan stage

Where SEN Support is required, the Code of Practice expects the setting to formally notify parents, and for the teacher and SENCO to agree with parents and the pupil the adjustments, interventions and support to be put in place, as well as the expected impact on progress, development or behaviour, and a clear date for review.

In practice, a good plan answers five questions: what will be done, by whom, how often, for how long, and how will we know whether it has worked. Plans that describe only a general intention are harder to review honestly later.

Parents should be given clear information about the support planned, and should be able to reinforce or contribute to it at home where that is appropriate and manageable.

The Do stage

The class or subject teacher remains responsible for working with the pupil on a daily basis, even where interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class. The Code is explicit that responsibility for a pupil's progress is not transferred to a teaching assistant or to the SENCO.

The SENCO supports the teacher in assessing the child's particular needs and in the effective implementation of the support, and teaching staff should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved to plan and assess the impact of what is being provided.

The Review stage

The effectiveness of the support and its impact on the pupil's progress should be reviewed on the date agreed. The review should evaluate the impact and quality of the support against the expectations set at the plan stage, taking account of the views of parents and of the pupil, and should feed back into the next cycle of assessment.

The Code expects schools to meet parents at least three times each year to discuss progress and support for pupils receiving SEN Support, with an effective discussion at each meeting and a record of the outcomes, action and support agreed.

A review may conclude that support should continue, be changed, be increased, be reduced, or be stopped because it is no longer needed. All of those are legitimate outcomes if they follow from the evidence.

What role does the SENCO have?

Mainstream schools must ensure there is a qualified teacher designated as SENCO for the school. The SENCO has an important role, in collaboration with the headteacher and governing body, in determining the strategic development of SEN policy and provision, and has day-to-day responsibility for the operation of that policy and for coordinating provision for pupils with SEN.

Typical responsibilities described in the Code include:

• advising teachers on the graduated approach to providing SEN Support
• advising on the deployment of the school's delegated budget and other resources to meet pupils' needs effectively
• liaising with parents of pupils with SEN
• liaising with early years providers, other schools, educational psychologists, health and social care professionals and independent or voluntary bodies
• being a key point of contact with external agencies, especially the local authority
• ensuring that the school keeps the records of all pupils with SEN up to date

What role does the class or subject teacher have?

The Code of Practice states that every teacher is responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the pupils in their class, including where pupils access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff. High quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first response.

In practice this means the teacher should know what a pupil's needs are, what has been agreed, and what difference it is making — and should be able to talk to you about all three.

What role do parents and carers have?

The SEND framework places real weight on the involvement of parents. Settings are expected to talk to parents regularly, to take account of their views, and to agree with them what support will be put in place and what it is intended to achieve.

Practical ways to contribute include:

• sharing information about what you see at home — including things school may not observe, such as presentation after school, sleep, appetite or anxiety about particular days
• describing concerns in concrete terms: what happens, how often, in what situations, and what helps
• asking what support is being provided, how often and by whom
• asking how progress will be measured, and what would count as it working
• asking when the next review is, and reading any records beforehand
• reflecting honestly at review on whether things have changed at home as well as at school

Most of this works best as a conversation rather than a case to be argued. Schools and families generally want the same outcome, and keeping the relationship workable is usually in the child's interest.

How should the child's or young person's views be included?

Section 19 of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires local authorities to have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of the child and their parent, or the young person, and to their participation in decisions. The Code of Practice reflects the same principle in school-level SEN Support, expecting the pupil's own views to inform the assess, plan, do and review cycle.

How this happens will differ from child to child. Some will speak in a meeting; others will use drawings, photographs, a written or recorded contribution, a one-page profile, a trusted adult speaking on their behalf, or observation of what they respond well to. There is no single correct format, and a child should not be required to participate in a way that is uncomfortable or beyond them.

Once a young person reaches the end of compulsory school age, decisions in the SEND system generally rest with them rather than their parents, where they have capacity, which makes their participation before that point all the more valuable.

What might SEN Support look like in practice?

There is no statutory list of what SEN Support must consist of, and no requirement for a school to offer any particular programme. The following are examples of the kinds of provision settings sometimes make, offered purely as illustration:

• adaptations to teaching, materials or the classroom environment
• small group or individual teaching focused on a specific skill
• targeted support with literacy, numeracy, language or communication
• support with organisation, transitions or unstructured times
• approaches to support emotional regulation and wellbeing
• use of assistive technology or alternative ways of recording work
• advice sought from external professionals, such as a specialist teacher, educational psychologist or therapy service

How should support be recorded?

The Code of Practice does not require a particular document or template, and the older term 'individual education plan' is no longer part of the framework. What it does expect is that decisions and outcomes are recorded: schools should record the outcomes, action and support agreed through discussion with parents, keep those records accessible to parents and staff, and ensure records for pupils with SEN are kept up to date.

Separately, all maintained schools and academies must publish a SEN information report on their website, setting out their arrangements for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils with SEN, and must review it annually. It is a useful thing to read early on, because it tells you how your child's school says it does this.

Local authorities must also publish a Local Offer setting out the provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people with SEN or disabilities in their area.

How should parents know whether support is working?

The honest test is the one agreed at the plan stage: what was the support expected to achieve, by when, and has it? That is easier to answer when expectations were specific in the first place, which is a good reason to press gently for specifics early.

Useful indicators, taken together rather than singly, include:

• progress towards the specific outcomes that were agreed
• changes in attainment relative to the pupil's own starting point
• how your child is at the end of the school day, and their willingness to attend
• attendance patterns and any use of part-time arrangements
• whether the support described is actually happening, at the frequency agreed
• your child's own account of school, in whatever form they give it

If the picture is unclear, it is entirely reasonable to ask for the support to be described in concrete terms and for the next review to test it against agreed expectations.

What happens if SEN Support is not enough?

Where a child does not make expected progress despite support matched to their needs, the Code expects the setting to look again: to reassess, to consider whether the provision has actually been delivered as planned, and to consider involving specialists from outside the school, including from health services or the local authority's support services.

Where, despite the setting having taken relevant and purposeful action, the child has not made expected progress, the school or parents should consider requesting an EHC needs assessment.

This is a consideration, not an automatic next step, and it is not a promotion from one tier to another. Our guide How to request an EHC needs assessment explains the request itself, and what happens during an assessment covers what follows.

When might an EHC needs assessment be considered?

Section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires a local authority to secure an EHC needs assessment where it is of the opinion that the child or young person has or may have special educational needs, and that it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for them in accordance with an EHC plan.

Two points follow from that wording, and both matter:

• There is no requirement in law for a child to have 'failed' SEN Support, or to have completed a set number of assess–plan–do–review cycles, before an assessment can be requested or agreed. Evidence of the graduated approach is often relevant and useful, but it is not a statutory gateway.
• Receiving SEN Support does not mean a child should have an EHC plan. Most children with SEN in England are supported effectively without one, and SEN Support is a proper part of the framework in its own right — not a waiting room.

The Code also discourages blanket policies, such as requiring a particular diagnosis or a fixed period at SEN Support, when deciding whether to assess.

SEN Support and EHCPs: what is the difference?

The practical differences are these. SEN Support is arranged by the setting, from the resources available to it, and is recorded in the setting's own records. An EHC plan is issued and maintained by the local authority following an EHC needs assessment; it describes the child's needs and outcomes and specifies the special educational provision required, and the local authority has a legal duty under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to secure the special educational provision specified in it.

A plan is also reviewed formally at least every twelve months, and carries specific rights of appeal about its contents and the placement named in it.

If your child already has a plan, our guides on what should be included in an EHCP and EHCP annual reviews will be more directly relevant, alongside our page for families with an EHCP in place.

What can parents do if they are concerned about the support?

Concerns are usually resolved most quickly at the level closest to the child. A reasonable sequence is:

1. Speak to the class or subject teacher about what you are seeing and what is currently in place.
2. Ask the SENCO for a meeting to review the current cycle of support and the records of it.
3. Ask specifically what has been tried, for how long, and what the evidence of impact is.
4. Agree in writing what will change, by when, and when it will next be reviewed.
5. If concerns remain, contact your local Information, Advice and Support Service for free, impartial advice, and read the school's SEN information report and complaints procedure.
6. Consider, with advice, whether an EHC needs assessment request is appropriate.

Our page on support in school covers this in more detail, and thinking about an EHCP may help if you are weighing that step. If a request has already been refused, see what happens if an EHC needs assessment is refused.

Questions parents may wish to ask the school or SENCO

Understanding the current support

• Is my child identified as having SEN, and receiving SEN Support?
• What support is in place, who delivers it, and how often?
• Which part of this is additional to or different from what all pupils receive?
• What is the support intended to achieve, and by when?

Reviewing and next steps

• How will progress be measured, and when will we review it?
• Can I see the record of what has been tried and what the impact was?
• Has any advice been sought from outside the school, and if not, would it help?
• If progress remains slower than expected, what would you suggest next?

Practical SEN Support checklist

1. Read the school's SEN information report on its website.
2. Look at your local authority's Local Offer and any ordinarily available provision guidance.
3. Confirm whether your child is identified as having SEN and receiving SEN Support.
4. Ask for the current support to be described in concrete terms: what, who, how often, how long.
5. Note what the support is expected to achieve and by when.
6. Keep your own dated notes of what you observe at home.
7. Attend the termly discussions and read any records beforehand.
8. At review, compare what happened with what was expected.
9. Agree what changes next and when it will be reviewed again.
10. Seek impartial advice if you remain concerned, before escalating.

Free SEND Starter Pack

Where to get further help

Every local authority area in England has an Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Service providing free, impartial and confidential advice to parents, carers and young people on SEND matters, including support in school. National charities also run advice lines.

You can also read our wider support for parents and carers and resources, or get in touch to talk through where you are.

Further official information

• GOV.UK — Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
• GOV.UK — Extra SEN help
• GOV.UK — SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (chapter 6 covers schools and SEN support)
• Children and Families Act 2014, Part 3
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014

Law and guidance can change. This guide was last reviewed in September 2026 and reflects the position in England at that time.