Special needs - the process explained

Most children grow up without having any major difficulties at school - but some find it a little harder and need extra help sometimes and this could mean that they have Special Educational Needs (SEN).

A child might have special educational needs because of difficulties with:

Communication and interaction
Learning
Behaviour, emotional or social development
Sensory and/or physical needs
Medical needs

Children have a learning difficulty if they:

Find it significantly more difficult to learn than most other children of the same age
Have a disability which affects their learning experience

Many pupils have special educational needs at some time during their education. These might already be known when a child is very young, or they might be identified at any time after a child has started school.

The great majority of children will have their special educational needs met in their local mainstream school, sometimes with extra help. For a small number of children the Local Authority may make a statutory assessment of their special educational needs. Only a very few children have special educational needs which are so severe that they need a very different type of school to other children.

For initial advice and information about provision for children with special educational needs, you should contact the child's school directly. The pages below tell you more information about the process of assessing special educational needs:

Who to contact

For further information you should contact the Special Educational Needs team. The team help parents and schools to work out the best possible arrangements for each pupil.

Telephone the SEN team on 0161 778 0410 for advice.