The SEND Code of Practice and it’s important to Dyslexia.

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice: 0-25 years

The Code of Practice is not merely advisory; it is statutory guidance that all relevant bodies must have regard to. It applies across a broad age range, from early years settings through to further education and training up to the age of 25, and encourages a unified approach across education, health, and social care.

Core Principles

The entire framework is built upon a set of core, child-centred principles:

• Participation and Voice: The views, wishes, and feelings of the child, young person, and their parents must be at the heart of all decision-making. This ensures a person-centred approach where families are actively involved and informed at every stage.
• High Aspirations and Improved Outcomes: The fundamental goal is not just to manage difficulties, but to help children and young people achieve the best possible educational and life outcomes. This includes preparing them for further education, employment, and independent living (known as Preparing for Adulthood).
• Early Identification and Intervention: Identifying needs and providing appropriate support as early as possible is crucial to prevent minor issues from escalating into major barriers to learning.
• Collaboration: A consistent and coordinated approach requires close cooperation between education, health, and social care services.

Four Broad Areas of Need

The Code categorises special educational needs into four broad areas to help schools understand and plan provision. Dyslexia falls primarily under the Cognition and Learning area.

1. Communication and Interaction: Difficulties in speech, language, and communication, including conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
2. Cognition and Learning: Difficulties in learning, often requiring support to access the curriculum. This area explicitly includes Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) such as dyslexia (affecting reading and spelling), dyscalculia (maths), and dyspraxia (co-ordination).
3. Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH): Difficulties in managing emotions or behaviour, often reflecting underlying mental health issues.
4. Sensory and/or Physical Needs: Physical or sensory disabilities that impact a child’s ability to access the learning environment.

Dyslexia and the Graduated Approach (SEN Support)

For most children with dyslexia, support is provided through a mandatory school-based process called SEN Support, which replaces the previous system of School Action and School Action Plus. This process is cyclical, demanding continuous assessment, planning, action, and review.

1. Assess

The Code is clear that schools must not wait for a formal medical diagnosis of dyslexia to provide support. Instead, they must focus on the child’s rate of progress and the specific barriers to learning.

• High-Quality Teaching: The starting point for any pupil who is struggling is High-Quality Teaching that is differentiated for individual pupils.
• Identification: If a child with dyslexia is still making less than expected progress despite high-quality teaching, the class teacher, in consultation with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo), identifies them as needing SEN Support. Dyslexia is characterised by difficulties with accurate and fluent word reading and spelling, and the assessment must pinpoint the underlying difficulties, often in phonological awareness, verbal memory, and processing speed.

2. Plan

The school, with the active involvement of the child and parents, must agree on a plan for the provision.

• Outcomes: Clear, measurable outcomes are set for the child’s educational journey, focusing on what they should be able to achieve.
• Special Educational Provision: For a child with dyslexia, the plan must detail the additional and different support that will be put in place, such as:
  • Specialist Intervention: Specific, evidence-based interventions like multi-sensory, structured phonics programmes to address core literacy difficulties.
  • Resources: Providing appropriate assistive technology (laptops, specialised software), coloured overlays, or modified texts.
  • Classroom Adjustments: Changes to teaching methods, such as pre-teaching vocabulary, providing visual aids, and reducing written homework.

3. Do

This is the stage of implementation. The Class Teacher remains responsible for the progress of the pupil, even when support staff or specialists are involved. The SENCo oversees the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy, coordinates all provision for the child, and liaises with external specialists like educational psychologists or specialist literacy teachers, which is a common requirement for complex dyslexia cases.

4. Review

The effectiveness of the support is reviewed regularly against the planned outcomes. If the child with dyslexia is still not making expected progress, the support is adjusted, or more specialist involvement may be sought. The review meeting is a critical moment for the parent and child to exercise their right to participate in decision-making.

Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans

Most children with dyslexia will have their needs met through SEN Support. However, for those with severe, complex, and long-term needs that cannot be met by the school’s resources alone, the Code outlines the process for obtaining an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan.

• EHC Needs Assessment: This is a statutory assessment conducted by the local authority, which can be requested by parents, the school, or others.
• The EHC Plan: If the assessment confirms that the child’s needs require special educational provision that goes beyond what can be made available through SEN Support, an EHC Plan is issued. This is a legally binding document that details the child’s needs and the provision required to meet them across education, health, and social care, covering them up to the age of 25.

For a young person with dyslexia, the EHC Plan would ensure that specific, high-cost, or specialist provision—such as regular one-to-one specialist teaching, training for all staff, or significant use of assistive technology—is secured and funded by the local authority.

Accountability and Support

The SEND Code of Practice ensures accountability through several key mechanisms:

• The SENCo: Every mainstream school must appoint a SENCo to lead the provision.
• SEN Information Report: Schools are required to publish a SEN Information Report on their website, detailing how they identify, assess, and make provision for pupils with SEN, including dyslexia. This report must also include arrangements for the admission of disabled pupils and their accessibility plan.
• The Local Offer: The local authority must publish a Local Offer, which is a comprehensive guide to the education, health, and social care services available in the area for children and young people with SEND, providing a resource for parents seeking specialist services for dyslexia.
• Teacher Responsibility: The Code is clear that all teachers are teachers of SEN. This places a duty on every educator to provide high-quality, differentiated teaching that can address learning difficulties like dyslexia.

In summary, the SEND Code of Practice is the blueprint for inclusive education in England. Its relevance to dyslexia is profound: it embeds the legal obligation for early identification, person-centred planning, targeted support (the Graduated Approach), and coordinated action. It ensures that a learning difficulty like dyslexia is not a barrier to achieving ambitious outcomes, giving both children and parents the framework and the power to demand the necessary educational provision.