What Is the Graduated Approach? A Guide for Parents and Carers

About this guide

This guide is for parents and carers who want to understand how the graduated approach is meant to work in practice, day to day, for a child receiving support in school. If you first want to understand what SEN Support is, start with our companion guide What Is SEN Support? and come back here.

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

What is the graduated approach?

The graduated approach is the way schools in England are expected to identify special educational needs and respond to them: a repeating cycle of assessing a child's needs, planning what support will be provided, delivering that support, and reviewing whether it made the intended difference. The SEND Code of Practice describes this as the four-part cycle of assess, plan, do and review.

It is called "graduated" because it is not a one-off decision. Each turn of the cycle should build on the last. Where a child continues to experience difficulty, successive cycles may involve more detailed assessment, more frequent review, more precisely targeted provision, and greater specialist expertise — drawn in as and when it is genuinely needed.

The point is not simply to add more intervention. The purpose is to develop an increasingly accurate understanding of what the child needs, and to identify the provision that actually helps them make progress towards meaningful outcomes. A school that has run three cycles without learning anything new about a child has not really used the graduated approach.

Where does the graduated approach sit within SEND support?

It helps to separate several things that are often merged together in conversation:

• Ordinarily available, inclusive teaching — high quality teaching, adapted for the pupils in the class. The Code of Practice is clear that this is the first step in responding to pupils who may have SEN, and that additional intervention cannot compensate for a lack of good teaching.
• SEN Support — special educational provision that is additional to, or different from, what is ordinarily available, made by the school for a child identified as having special educational needs but who does not have an EHC plan.
• The graduated approach — the assess, plan, do, review cycle. It is the mechanism through which SEN Support is decided, delivered, reviewed and refined. It is not a separate type of support.
• An EHC needs assessment — a statutory assessment carried out by the local authority to decide whether an EHC plan may be necessary.
• An EHC plan (EHCP) — a legal document issued and maintained by the local authority following an EHC needs assessment.

A child can receive well-run SEN Support for years and never need an EHC plan; most children with SEN in England do exactly that. Equally, there is no rule that a child must complete a set number of cycles before an EHC needs assessment can be considered. We return to that point below.

The four stages at a glance

1. Assess — build a clear, evidence-informed picture of the child's needs, strengths and barriers.
2. Plan — agree the outcomes being aimed for, the provision that will be made, who will provide it, how impact will be measured and when it will be reviewed.
3. Do — put the agreed provision in place consistently, with the class or subject teacher retaining responsibility for the child's teaching and progress.
4. Review — evaluate the impact of the provision against the agreed outcomes, with parents and the child, and decide what changes next.

The arrow then returns to assess. That is deliberate. Reviewing tells you something new: perhaps the provision worked, perhaps it was never delivered as planned, perhaps the original understanding of the need was incomplete. Whatever the answer, it feeds back into a revised assessment, which shapes the next plan.

The cycle should be responsive to the individual child rather than run to a rigid calendar. Some things can be adjusted within days; others genuinely need a term to show whether they are working.

Assess — understanding the child's needs

Assessment at this stage is not usually a formal diagnostic test. It is a careful, rounded analysis of the child's needs, and the Code of Practice expects it to draw on a range of information, which may include:

• the teacher's knowledge of the child and their professional judgement
• classroom observation across different subjects, times of day and settings
• attainment information, and — often more revealing — rate of progress over time
• what has already been tried, and what impact it had
• the child's strengths and interests, not only their difficulties
• the specific barriers to learning, such as processing speed, working memory, anxiety, communication or sensory factors
• attendance and, where relevant, behaviour information, understood as a possible communication of unmet need
• the child's own views about school and about what helps
• the views and experience of parents and carers
• advice from other professionals already involved, where relevant

The essential question is why the child is finding something difficult, not simply the fact that they are behind. Two children with the same reading score can need entirely different provision. An assessment that records only the gap, without any account of what is causing it, rarely produces a plan that works.

Where a child does not make expected progress despite good teaching and targeted support, the Code of Practice expects schools to consider involving specialists, including where the school is already taking relevant action. Specialist involvement is part of the graduated approach, not something that only happens at the end of it.

What should parents expect during the Assess stage?

You should expect to be involved, and to be told plainly what the school is concerned about and why. Questions you can reasonably ask include:

• What exactly are you concerned about?
• What evidence are you drawing on?
• What are my child's strengths, and where are they doing well?
• What barriers to learning have you identified?
• What does my child say about their experience of school?
• What do you think is causing or contributing to the difficulty?
• Does anyone else need to contribute information — another teacher, a professional already involved, or us as parents?
• What information from home would be most useful to you?

It is entirely normal for the first answer to be tentative. Understanding a child's needs is often iterative, and a school saying "we have two working theories and here is how we will test them" is being honest rather than evasive. What matters is that the thinking is visible and that it moves on.

Assessment at this stage does not require a formal diagnostic assessment, and support should not be delayed while waiting for one. Identification of SEN turns on whether a learning difficulty or disability calls for special educational provision, not on holding a diagnosis.

Plan — deciding what support is needed

Where SEN Support is decided on, the Code of Practice expects the school to notify parents formally, and to agree with parents and the pupil the outcomes sought, the interventions and support to be put in place, the expected impact on progress, and a clear date for review.

In practice, good planning settles:

• what the identified needs are, in specific terms
• the outcomes being aimed for — what will be different for the child
• what support and adaptations will be provided, including adaptations to ordinary classroom teaching
• who will provide each part, and where it fits into the week
• how frequently, or in what circumstances, the support will happen where that is relevant
• how impact will be measured, and against what
• when the support will be reviewed
• how the child and parents have contributed, and will contribute

There is no single legally required document or national template for this. Schools use different formats — a support plan, a pupil passport, a one-page profile, an entry in a provision map. What matters is not the name of the document but whether the thinking above has actually been done and can be explained.

What makes a good SEN Support plan?

A useful test is whether someone reading the plan could answer these questions without asking anyone:

• What need is this addressing?
• What outcome are we aiming for, and how will we know we have got there?
• What exactly will be done?
• Who is responsible for doing it?
• How is the child involved, and what do they think about it?
• How will parents contribute, where that is appropriate?
• How will progress and impact be assessed?
• When will this be reviewed?

Compare two entries. "Speech and language difficulties — TA support, small group work" tells you almost nothing: no outcome, no measure, no review date. "Difficulty following multi-step verbal instructions in class; outcome is to follow a two-step instruction independently in lessons by the end of term; instructions to be broken down and given visually as well as verbally by all teaching staff, with a short daily practice with the TA; monitored by class teacher through weekly observation; reviewed at the end of term" can be delivered, checked and evaluated.

Neither example is a legal requirement, and plans do not need to be long. They need to be specific enough that everyone knows what they are doing and whether it worked.

Do — putting the plan into practice

The Code of Practice is explicit that the class or subject teacher remains responsible for working with the child on a daily basis and for the progress of the pupils they teach, even where interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class. Support staff and specialists contribute; they do not take over that responsibility.

In practice, delivering well means:

• the agreed provision actually happening, reliably, and not being the first thing dropped when the timetable is under pressure
• adaptations being embedded in ordinary classroom teaching, not only in withdrawal sessions
• everyone who works with the child understanding the identified needs and the agreed strategies
• consistency across staff, subjects and days
• the SENCO supporting teachers with the assessment of need, problem-solving and advice — a coordinating and strategic role
• someone noticing, week to week, whether the approach is working and adjusting teaching where it is not

A common warning sign is when all SEND provision has effectively been delegated to a teaching assistant. Skilled support staff are valuable, but a child should not receive most of their teaching from the least qualified adult in the room, and provision should build independence rather than dependence.

What should parents look for during the Do stage?

• Is the agreed support actually happening, as often as planned?
• Do the staff working with my child understand their identified needs?
• Is the support integrated into ordinary lessons, or only delivered separately?
• Is my child being helped to become more independent over time?
• Is there evidence — however modest — that things are moving?
• Are staff noticing what works and what does not, and adapting?
• Does my child's own account of school match what I am being told?
• Is my child more, or less, exhausted and distressed than before?

If the answers are unclear, that is a reasonable thing to raise early and calmly with the class teacher, and with the SENCO if needed. It is far easier to adjust provision in week three than to discover at the review that it never started.

Review — evaluating impact

The Code of Practice expects the effectiveness of the support and its impact on the pupil's progress to be reviewed in line with the agreed date. A review that only asks "did the child make progress?" misses most of the value.

A meaningful review considers:

• progress towards the outcomes that were actually agreed
• whether the provision had the intended impact
• what worked, and for whom, and in what circumstances
• what did not work, and why
• whether the provision was delivered as planned in the first place
• whether the original understanding of the child's needs still looks accurate
• the views of the child and of parents, gathered properly rather than at the door
• whether provision should be changed, intensified, reduced or replaced
• whether further assessment or specialist advice is now appropriate
• what the next cycle should look like

The subject of the review is the provision, not the child. "He hasn't made progress" is a finding about the support as much as about the pupil, and should prompt the school to ask what needs to change about what the school is doing.

What does "progress" actually mean?

Progress is often discussed in terms of reading ages and test scores, but for many children the most important changes are elsewhere. Depending on the outcomes agreed, progress might look like:

• increased independence in tasks previously done with an adult
• improved communication, or more effective use of a communication approach
• greater participation in lessons, group work or the wider life of the school
• improved emotional regulation, or quicker recovery after difficulty
• increased confidence and willingness to attempt work
• improved attendance, where SEND-related barriers were part of the picture
• being able to access learning that was previously out of reach
• movement towards individualised outcomes that matter to the child and family

These are illustrative examples, not a statutory list. What counts as progress depends on the outcomes agreed for that child. The important thing is that progress was defined at the planning stage, so that the review has something honest to measure against.

How often should the graduated approach be reviewed?

There is no universal timetable that applies to every child. The Code of Practice expects the cycle to involve regular review, with the review date agreed as part of planning, and expects that revision of support happens in light of the pupil's progress and development.

Alongside this, the Code sets a clear expectation about contact with families: schools should meet parents of pupils receiving SEN Support at least three times each year, to discuss progress, the support in place and the outcomes sought, with the outcomes of the discussion recorded and shared.

That expectation about meeting parents is not the same as saying every individual intervention must run on a fixed termly cycle. Some support should be adjusted much sooner if it is plainly not working; some needs longer before it is fair to judge it. A school that will not look at anything until the next scheduled meeting, and a school that abandons an approach after a fortnight, are both misapplying the cycle.

Who is responsible for the graduated approach?

Class and subject teachers

Responsible for the progress and development of the pupils they teach, for the quality of teaching those pupils receive, and for working with the child daily. This holds even where support staff or specialists are involved.

The SENCO

Has a strategic and coordinating role: overseeing the day-to-day operation of the SEN policy, advising teachers on the graduated approach and the deployment of support, liaising with parents and outside agencies, and keeping records up to date. The SENCO coordinates and supports the graduated approach; they do not replace the teacher's responsibility for teaching and progress, and they do not personally deliver every intervention.

Senior leaders and governors

Responsible for the school's overall approach to SEN, for resourcing and staffing decisions, for the school's SEN information report and for regularly reviewing how expertise and resources are used to build capacity.

Teaching and support staff

Deliver agreed provision, feed back on what they observe, and work under the direction of the teacher who remains accountable for the child's progress.

Parents and carers

Contribute knowledge of the child, help shape and review outcomes, and should be involved throughout rather than informed afterwards.

The child or young person

Should be involved in decisions about their support in a way that suits their age, understanding and communication.

External specialists

Contribute assessment and advice where the child's needs call for expertise the school does not hold, and help shape rather than replace the school's provision.

The child's voice

Involving children and young people in decisions about their support is a principle running through the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Code of Practice. It also tends to produce better provision: children often know precisely which part of the day is hard and which adult helps.

How this is done should reflect the individual child. Depending on age, development and communication, a child's views might be gathered through conversation, drawings, photographs, symbol or picture systems, a communication aid, a short questionnaire, choosing between options, or through the observations of an adult who knows them well.

There is no single legally prescribed format for capturing pupil voice, and no requirement that every child participates in the same way. Where appropriate, involvement should extend beyond "what do you like about school" to identifying outcomes and reviewing whether support is helping.

The parent's role

Parents and carers contribute in ways schools cannot replicate:

• sharing what your child is like outside school, including strengths, interests and what a difficult day looks like
• explaining what works at home, and what makes things worse
• contributing to assessment — early history, health information, patterns you have noticed
• helping to identify outcomes that genuinely matter to your child and family
• reviewing whether provision seems to be helping, from what you see at home
• raising concerns early and specifically
• asking questions when something is unclear
• supporting consistency between home and school where that is appropriate and manageable

Partnership does not mean that parents become responsible for delivering the school's special educational provision, funding it, or teaching the curriculum at home. Nor does it mean that families must accept an arrangement that plainly is not working. Being a constructive partner and asking hard questions are entirely compatible.

What might this look like in practice?

The following are illustrative only. They are not recommendations for any individual child, and no intervention described is universally required. Provision should respond to the individual child's assessed needs.

Literacy difficulties

Assess: analysis of reading and spelling errors, phonic knowledge, fluency and comprehension, alongside teacher observation and the child's view of reading. Plan: an outcome about decoding accuracy, a structured programme matched to the gap identified, plus classroom adaptations such as reduced copying and accessible texts. Do: short, frequent, consistently delivered sessions, with the teacher applying the same approach in lessons. Review: has accuracy improved, does it transfer into class, and does the analysis of the difficulty still fit?

Speech, language and communication needs

Assess: what the child understands, what they can express, and where communication breaks down; information from home; advice from a speech and language therapist where involved. Plan: outcomes about understanding instructions or expressing needs, with classroom strategies used by all staff. Do: strategies embedded across the day, not only in a weekly session. Review: has communication in real situations changed, and is further specialist advice needed?

Autism-related barriers

Assess: which environments, transitions and demands are hardest, sensory factors, what predictability and support already exist, and the child's own account. Plan: outcomes about accessing specific parts of the day, with adaptations such as advance notice of change, a predictable routine, a regulation space or adjusted expectations around unstructured time. Do: consistency between staff, which matters enormously. Review: is the child accessing more of the day, and at what cost in effort and fatigue?

Attention and executive-function difficulties

Assess: when attention breaks down, task length, organisation, working memory demands. Plan: outcomes about starting and sustaining work independently, with strategies such as chunked tasks, visual checklists and planned movement. Do: applied across subjects rather than one lesson. Review: is independence increasing, or has the child simply become reliant on adult prompting?

Social, emotional and mental health needs

Assess: patterns in when distress occurs, what precedes it, what helps recovery, and any unmet learning or communication need underneath. Plan: outcomes about regulation, participation or attendance, with adjustments and a clearly understood support route. Do: consistent, relationship-based responses from named adults. Review: what has changed, and does the formulation of the difficulty still hold?

Sensory or physical access needs

Assess: the specific access barriers, with advice from relevant specialist services where involved. Plan: outcomes about independent access to learning and the wider school, with equipment, environmental adjustments and staff training as needed. Do: adjustments actually in place, including for trips, PE and unstructured time. Review: is access genuinely equitable, and has anything changed?

What if the first plan does not work?

Limited progress is information, not failure. It should prompt genuine reflection rather than another term of the same thing. Sensible questions include:

• Was the provision actually delivered as planned, at the intended frequency?
• Was the strategy well matched to the need as we now understand it?
• Was the outcome realistic for this timeframe?
• Was the understanding of the underlying need accurate, or is something else going on?
• Was the support delivered by someone with the right knowledge and training?
• Does the classroom environment or curriculum demand need to change, rather than the child?
• Is further assessment or specialist advice now appropriate?
• Does the provision need to be more personalised, more intensive, or different in kind?

This is the graduated part of the graduated approach: where a child continues to make less than expected progress despite support matched to their needs, the school should consider involving specialists and should keep increasing the precision and, where necessary, the level of support.

Does a child have to "fail" the graduated approach?

No. This is one of the most persistent misunderstandings in the SEND system, and it causes real delay.

The statutory test for an EHC needs assessment is set out in section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014: the local authority must carry out an assessment where the child has or may have special educational needs, and it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made in accordance with an EHC plan. There is no legal requirement to have completed a fixed number of assess–plan–do–review cycles, or a set period of SEN Support, first. Our guide on how to request an EHC needs assessment sets out the process and the test in detail.

That said, evidence from the graduated approach is genuinely valuable. Records of what has been assessed, what was tried, how it was delivered and what impact it had are among the most useful information available about a child's needs and about the provision they require. The distinction matters: this evidence helps everyone understand the child, but it is not a checklist that must be completed before a request can be made or granted.

If a local authority declines to assess, that is a specific decision with its own routes to challenge — see what happens if an EHC needs assessment is refused.

When might specialist advice become appropriate?

The Code of Practice expects that where a pupil continues to make less than expected progress despite evidence-based support and interventions matched to their needs, the school should consider involving specialists — including where the school is already taking relevant action. Schools should always involve specialists where a pupil continues to make little or no progress, and should talk to parents about this.

Depending entirely on the child's needs, that expertise might come from:

• an educational psychologist
• a speech and language therapist
• an occupational therapist or physiotherapist
• specialist teaching services, for example for autism, sensory impairment or specific learning difficulties
• health professionals, including community paediatrics or child and adolescent mental health services
• behaviour support, inclusion or outreach services

There is no automatic referral pathway that applies to every child, and availability of services varies between areas. The right question is which expertise would answer the question the school and family currently cannot answer.

How does the graduated approach relate to an EHC needs assessment?

In the ordinary course of things, SEN Support generates evidence — assessment, provision, review, impact — and that evidence helps everyone judge whether the child's needs can be met from the resources normally available to the school, or whether further assessment and possibly an EHC plan may be necessary.

But the graduated approach is not a compulsory test that a child must pass or fail before an EHC needs assessment can be considered. A request can be made by a parent, a young person over 16, or the school, and the local authority must apply the statutory test on the information available.

If you are considering this route, these guides cover each stage: what an EHCP is, how to request an EHC needs assessment, what happens during an assessment and what happens if an assessment is refused.

What if the school says "we are already using the graduated approach"?

This is a reasonable thing for a school to say, and often true. It is also a phrase that can cover anything from meticulous practice to very little. The way to find out is to ask about the specifics rather than the label:

• What has been assessed, and what did it show?
• What are my child's identified needs, in your words?
• What provision has been planned as a result?
• What outcomes have been agreed, and by when?
• Who is delivering each part of the provision?
• How often is it happening, and is it happening reliably?
• What evidence will show whether it is working?
• When will it be reviewed, and who will be there?
• What will happen if progress remains limited?
• Which cycle are we on, and what changed after the last one?

Asking these questions calmly and in writing is usually productive. It is not a challenge to the school's professionalism; it is exactly the information the graduated approach is designed to produce. If the answers cannot be given, that in itself tells you where the conversation needs to go next.

What if support is not being reviewed?

"It isn't working" can mean several quite different things, and the right response depends on which one you are dealing with:

• Support is being provided as planned, but is not having the intended impact — the plan needs revising, and possibly further assessment or specialist advice.
• Support is not being provided as planned — this is an implementation problem, and the first step is to establish the facts rather than change the plan.
• Support is being provided but never meaningfully evaluated — there is no review, no measure and no record, so nobody knows whether it works.
• The needs may not have been correctly understood — the difficulty is at the assess stage, and repeating provision built on the wrong formulation will not help.

Sensible next steps are usually the same in each case: speak to the class or subject teacher first, then the SENCO, set out your specific concern and what you have observed, ask for a review meeting, and follow up in writing with a short summary of what was agreed and by when. Schools must publish a SEN information report and have a complaints procedure, and your local authority's Local Offer and SENDIASS service can advise if the conversation stalls.

You can also read more about support in school on our school support page, or contact us if you would like to talk it through.

Questions parents can ask at a review meeting

• What do you now understand my child's needs to be, and has that understanding changed?
• What outcomes were we working towards, and where have we got to?
• What provision was actually delivered, and how consistently?
• What impact did each part of the provision have?
• What evidence are you using to judge that?
• What has my child said about the support?
• Here is what we have seen at home — how does that fit with what you see?
• What is working well enough to keep?
• What are you going to change, and why?
• Would specialist advice help at this point, and from whom?
• Is another cycle of the same approach appropriate, or do we need something different?
• Is a different level or type of assessment now needed?
• When will we meet again, and what should have changed by then?

Parent checklist: is the graduated approach working well?

Assess

• Are my child's needs described specifically, including the likely reasons for the difficulty?
• Were our views and my child's views part of that picture?

Plan

• Are there clear outcomes, and clearly described provision to reach them?
• Is it clear who is doing what, and when it will be reviewed?

Do

• Is the support actually happening, consistently?
• Do the adults working with my child understand the agreed approach?

Review

• Is impact being evaluated against the agreed outcomes, not just attainment?
• Is the provision being judged, and not only the child?

Next steps

• Is the plan being changed when the evidence says it should be?
• Is specialist advice or further assessment being considered where progress remains limited?

Key terminology explained

• SEND — special educational needs and disabilities, used as a general umbrella term.
• SEN — special educational needs: a learning difficulty or disability that calls for special educational provision to be made.
• SEN Support — special educational provision made by a school or setting for a child with SEN who does not have an EHC plan.
• Graduated approach — the repeating cycle of assess, plan, do and review through which SEN Support is decided and refined.
• Assess, plan, do, review — the four parts of that cycle.
• Special educational provision — provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age.
• Ordinarily available provision — the adaptations and support a school makes generally available through its usual inclusive teaching.
• SENCO — the special educational needs coordinator: the qualified teacher with strategic responsibility for coordinating SEN provision in a school.
• EHC needs assessment — a statutory assessment by the local authority to decide whether an EHC plan may be necessary.
• EHCP — an Education, Health and Care plan: a legal document issued and maintained by the local authority.
• Specialist advice — assessment or advice from a professional with expertise the school does not hold, such as an educational psychologist or therapist.
• Local Offer — the information every local authority must publish about services available for children and young people with SEND.

Common misconceptions

"The graduated approach means one intervention per term."

There is no statutory rule of one intervention per term. The cycle should be responsive to the individual child. Some provision should be adjusted quickly; some needs longer to show its effect. What the Code of Practice does expect is regular review, an agreed review date, and meeting parents at least three times a year.

"My child has to fail SEN Support before we can request an EHC needs assessment."

No. The statutory test in section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 does not require a set number of cycles or a minimum period of SEN Support. Evidence from the graduated approach is useful, but it is not a legal threshold.

"The SENCO is responsible for teaching my child."

The SENCO coordinates provision and advises colleagues. The class or subject teacher remains responsible for the progress and development of the pupils they teach, including where support staff or specialists are involved.

"A review is just about whether test scores went up."

A review should evaluate the impact of the provision against the outcomes agreed, which may include independence, communication, participation, regulation or access to learning as well as attainment.

"If the support is written down, it must be working."

A document records an intention. Whether provision was delivered, and whether it had any impact, are separate questions — and both belong in the review.

"Parents cannot ask for changes to SEN Support."

Parents should be involved in planning and reviewing support, and can raise concerns and ask for a review at any point. Schools are expected to work in partnership with parents and to record what is agreed.

When to seek further advice

Further advice can help where:

• your child's needs remain unclear after more than one cycle
• provision is being delivered but is not producing meaningful progress
• agreed support is not actually being delivered
• you and the school disagree about what your child needs
• your child's needs appear to have become more complex, or new needs have emerged
• you are considering whether an EHC needs assessment should be requested
• you want help preparing for a review meeting or putting your concerns in writing

Your local authority's Local Offer and your local SENDIASS service provide free, impartial information and advice. SEND & Health Support can help you understand the process and prepare, but we do not replace statutory services, legal advice or clinical assessment. You can get in touch or browse our resources.

Practical next steps

1. Find out what the school currently understands your child's needs to be.
2. Ask what support is being provided, by whom and how often.
3. Ask what outcomes are being targeted, and by when.
4. Ask how impact will be measured, and what evidence will be used.
5. Take part in the review, with your own observations written down beforehand.
6. Ask what will change if the support is not proving effective.
7. Consider whether further advice, specialist input or an EHC needs assessment may be appropriate.

If you are at the beginning of this, our Free SEND Starter Pack is a short introduction for parents and carers in England, with no obligation. You may also find our parent and carer support pages a useful place to start.

Further official information

• SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years — statutory guidance; chapter 6 covers SEN support in schools and the graduated approach.
• GOV.UK: Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) — the main public guidance for families in England.
• DfE: SEND guide for schools and alternative provision settings — a short summary of what schools are expected to do.
• Children and Families Act 2014, Part 3 — the primary legislation, including the definition of SEN and the EHC needs assessment test.
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 — including the requirements for a school's SEN information report.

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