Support for children and young people with special educational and social needs

The hopes and aspirations for children with special educational needs should be no different to those we have for all children.

They should have equal access to the same opportunities as all other children. We should expect that they maximise their personal potential and ensure that they receive the necessary support to enable them to do so.

The specialist educational needs section exist to provide help and support to children, parents, schools and other professionals and we have a range of stages we go through if there are concern about your child's progress (including Schools Action, Schools Action Plus and Statutory Assessment).

Support for children up to five years is available through the early support team. The complex and additional needs (CAN) team provides more specialist support.

A range of teams exist to provide this specialist support including the autism outreach team (who provide support the needs of pupils with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who attend mainstream schools), the specialist learning team (who provide literacy support across all key stages and numeracy support across the primary stages), the looked-after children in education team (who provide support for those in care and with other agencies), the educational psychology service and the complex needs social work and key worker development teams.

We offer a range of specialist provision through special schools and schools that are additionally resourced to cater for children with physical difficulties. The Redhill Education Service provides education and support for children and young people who are unable to attend school for medical reasons, also for those suffering from acute anxiety and school phobia.

We also provide after school and day care through OASIS, and utilise Hartburn Lodge to provide planned short break and overnight stays for children with complex and additional needs.