Shropshire 'ordinarily available provision' (SOAP)

When a child or young person is identified as having special educational needs, the SEN Code of Practice states that schools and educational settings are required to take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place (paragraph 6:44) through a graduated approach known as SEN support.

The SOAP document sets out the type of SEN support children and young people and their families might expect from mainstream schools in Shropshire. It brings together best practice from Shropshire schools and provides guidance on universal support (prevention) and targeted support (intervention)

The term 'ordinarily available provision' refers to the types of support that all Shropshire schools should be able to provide for children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), from within their own resources.

The document is set out in four sections which align with the four broad areas of need outlined in the SEND Code of Practice:

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social, emotional and mental health
• Physical and sensory

For each area, there are suggestions for strategies, assessments and interventions at both the universal and targeted levels that can be used to support children and young people to make progress.  

A separate toolkit will be produced for schools to accompany this document which will provide information and links to useful resources

Acknowledgements

We'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended our inclusive practice days and contributed to the development of SOAP.

SEN support in school

Where children and young people have been identified as having SEN, early years settings, schools and colleges should adapt their approach and provide a personalised curriculum that is differentiated and that identifies any additional targeted support and intervention. This is called SEN support. Shropshire Provision for SEND - A Guide for Mainstream Schools (this is likely to be replaced by SOAP – Shropshire’s Ordinarily Available Provision) provides further information about the support that schools can put in place to meet the special educational needs of children and young people across all four areas of need.

Your early years setting, school or college may suggest a meeting to write a 'one-page profile' for your child. This will help everyone working with your child to understand and be aware of their special educational needs, their strengths, what they find difficult, their interests, how best to communicate with them, and how to support your child. You may also want to write a one-page profile with your child to share with others. This could include clubs or classes that your child attends outside of school.

Please take a look at our 'What is SEN Support' leaflet for more information.

Every school is required to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the children or young people they support. They should have a clear approach to identifying and responding to any identified additional needs.

Where concerns are raised that a child may be not making expected progress in their learning, schools are required to intervene early to implement appropriate and effective support to overcome the barriers to learning. This SEN Support should take the form of a four-part cycle to develop a growing understanding of the pupils’ needs, and identify what support is required to ensure the pupil secures good outcomes and makes good progress. This is known as the ‘Graduated Approach’.

The Graduated Approach

The four stages are:

• Assess – A thorough and holistic assessment is essential to ensure that the ‘needs’ are accurately identified to ensure that the most appropriate and effective interventions are implemented. Assessments may be carried out by school staff (eg Dyslexia, Early Help – ‘Family Webstar’) or may involve external agencies (educational psychologists, specialist outreach support, Sensory Inclusion Service)
• Plan – Once the key barriers to learning have been identified it is possible to plan the most effective interventions. The teacher and SENCo should agree, in consultation with the parent and the pupil, the adjustments, interventions and support to be put in place. All teachers and support staff who work with the pupil should be aware of their needs, the outcomes sought, the support provided and any teaching strategies or approaches that are required
• Do – The class or subject teacher should remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis. Where the interventions involve group or 1:1 teaching away from the main class or subject teacher, they should still retain responsibility for the pupil. They should work closely with any TAs to plan and assess the impact of support and interventions and how they can be linked to classroom teaching. The SENCo should support the class teacher and provide advice on the effective implementation of support
• Review – The impact and quality of the support and interventions should be evaluated, along with the views of the parent and child. The class teacher, working with the SENCo, should revise the support in light of the pupil’s progress and development.

If your child’s special educational needs are complex and/or severe and if they haven't made progress through the graduated support approach, you or your child’s educational setting can request that we consider an education, health and care needs assessment in order to determine whether or not it's necessary to issue an education health and care plan (EHCP).

All EHCPs are reviewed annually. It's important that the EHCP remains appropriate, and if a child or young person’s special educational needs or provision to meet their needs changes significantly before the next review is due, an early review meeting can be called. This should be requested by the educational setting with the agreement of parents/carers/young person.

Following receipt of the annual review report, we may make the decision to ‘cease to maintain’ an EHCP. This means that the EHCP will come to an end and we'll no longer have a legal duty to ensure the provision specified in the plan is received.