The Education Authority must identify from among the children or young people for whose school education they are responsible those who have additional support needs. Anyone working with the child or young person, including parents and young people themselves, can draw attention to the fact that difficulties with learning exist and that they may require additional support.
The assessment is to identify whether a child or young person has Additional Support Needs and what kind of support they require. Professionals and parents work together to identify strengths whilst taking into account needs and risks. This may include discussions with parents, child/young person, class teacher, support teacher, speech and language therapist, social worker, educational psychologist etc.
An assessment may include observations made in class or at home during normal day to day activities. It may also be more specialised, for example observation and evaluation of the use of strategies already in place, such as those that may have been suggested by an educational psychologist or behaviour support teacher.
It is important that parents are involved at all stages.
All children and young people need support to help them learn. Some need more support than others. Staff in Highland Schools follow a Staged Approach to assessing the needs of the children and young people in their care to ensure that they receive the help they require at the time that they need it and at the level they need.
In Highland, the Support for Learner’s Policy Framework details the Staged Approach to assessing, identifying and providing for the support needs of children and young people. The stages run from simple classroom strategies to multi-agency assessments and planning. The Staged Approach is a pathway to identify the additional educational support
services needed for each individual child or young person eg. Educational Psychologist.
A multi-agency team approach has evolved bringing together agencies such as education, health and social work in Liaison groups to work together for best outcomes for the children and young people.
It is important that parents/carers and children/young people are involved in this process at all stages so that there is a true partnership between families and services.
The Staged Approach to identifying and supporting Additional Support Needs in Highland follows a pathway which will endeavour to meet the needs of children and young people and help them overcome the barriers to their learning. Best outcomes for the children and young people are the goal.
Stage 1. Most children and young people’s needs will be met at the classroom level by the class teacher’s observations, assessments and planning for her/his class as a whole, for groups and for individuals.
Stage 2. Where a child or young person has needs identified which cannot be met wholly by the class teacher’s planning then assistance from support staff within the school will be requested. Observations and further assessment will help staff plan for and monitor how the child is achieving and overcoming the barriers to his/her learning.
Stage 3. Should a child continue to have difficulties in moving forward with his/her learning help, advice and direct involvement may be requested from Education Services available to the school. Some of these services may be Area Support for Learning staff, Psychological Services, Autism Outreach Service or Services for Hearing or Visual Impairment. Help from these services would be requested at this stage, to give advice on the individual needs of the child or young person. At this stage an Individualised Educational Programme (IEP) may be drawn up to record his/her needs, the supports required to meet these needs, the learning outcomes and the planning needed for the programme to be as robust as possible.
Individualised educational programme (IEP)
Robust and effective IEPs are the key planning documents for meeting the Additional Support Needs of children and young people. Parents, children and young people should be involved in drawing up and reviewing their IEP.
Stage 4. A few children and young people may need more help from wider services such as Health and/or Social Work and help from these services would be requested at this stage at the multi-agency Liaison Group level .
At all stages the involvement and agreement of parents and children and young people themselves is encouraged.
A small number of children may require a high level of multi-agency help in addition to Education, if their needs are significantly complex, are likely to last for more than a year and are proving a barrier to learning. Some of these children and young people may need a Co-ordinated Support Plan in order to record and co-ordinate the agreed plan in place at this high level of involvement. A Co-ordinated Support Plan is a statutory document. For more information about a Co-ordinated Support Plan please see Information sheet 7.
