SEND Support and Early Help

These pages are to explain how the school manages the SEND processes, as well as the Early Help available and other support strategies in the school.

What is Early Help? (also sometimes referred to as Helping Early)

This is targeted support to help our students. Examples could include:

• Extra adaptations in a particular subject or short term Learning Support Assistant
• Support in class, or a booster intervention to help with learning. 
• Help in improving attendance, e.g. attendance mentoring or timetable adjustments. 
• Support for mental health through mentoring, intervention groups or 1-1 input from ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant). 
• Pastoral help e.g. help for a student to reflect and learn from situations, or emotional support after a bereavement. 

All of this would be defined as 'Early Help' to enable our students thrive. The aim of Early Help is to respond quickly once the problem is identified.

Does having Early Help mean that a child has SEND?

No.  Early Help is a first response to help try to resolve the problem.  It doesn’t mean a child will be placed on the SEND register.  See the SEND Register page for more information.

What is the difference between the support offered through Early Help and that provided for those on the SEND Register?

Many of the strategies used may be similar e.g. support in class or an intervention group.  However, Early Help is the first stage of support provided, and for many children this provides the help they need at that time i.e. it resolves the problem or provides the child with coping strategies that work for them.

What happens if Early Help doesn’t work?

Where support provided does not seem to resolve the difficulty, then other strategies and support would be put into place.  For some children, this may mean referral for additional advice to external agencies or longer term support.  See the graduated approach for more information.

How do you fund Early Help?

All schools have an amount of their budget which is identified as Notional SEND.  This is about 11% of the total funding that the school gets from the government.  We use this to:

• Provide Early Help support
• Provide SEND Support for those on the SEND register

 

More information about Notional SEND funding can be downloaded or viewed below.

Does the school have funds it keeps ready for spending on individual children?

No.  The school doesn’t keep funds in reserve.  Instead, it plans in advance how to resource its early help and SEND support structures using past experiences and its knowledge of what is likely to be needed.  This means that the resources are in place and can be used without delay.