What are my rights?
Parents and children, schools and other professionals can ask for a statutory assessment of a child’s needs. This is a legal process made up of several timed stages:
- Request for statutory assessment
- Advice from professionals
- A decision is made
- Parents respond
- Right to appeal
There is a right to appeal to the SEN Tribunal for Wales at certain key points in the statutory process.
If the council’s education department agrees that a statutory assessment is needed, we will ask for advice from parents, child or young person, school, the consultant paediatrician, the educational and child psychologist and the social services.
The Inclusion Panel, made up of head teachers, SENCos, Inclusion Officers, an Educational and Child Psychologist and the Family Support Worker, meets weekly. The Inclusion Panel decides whether a statutory assessment is necessary. Once a statutory assessment has been made, the Inclusion Panel also decides whether the child or young person needs a Statement of Special Educational Need (or S.E.N.).
A Statement of S.E.N. is a legal document which describes the child’s needs and the provision to be made in order to meet the needs. The child or young person has an entitlement to receive the provision outlined in it. A draft or proposed statement is written and sent out for comment and then a final statement is issued.
Statements must be reviewed annually according to the process set out in law.
Welsh Government is planning to reform the system for supporting children and young people with additional learning needs. It has been working with professionals, parents, schools and young people, to agree an improved system. This needs a change in the law, and a change to the Code of Practice. This is proposed to take place during 2015.