What is SEN Support and how do we deliver it?

SEN Support is the help schools in England must provide for pupils with special educational needs who do not have an EHC plan, delivered through a repeating assess-plan-do-review cycle known as the graduated approach. A pupil is on SEN Support once we identify that they have a special educational need and are not making expected progress through ordinary differentiated teaching alone. Identification is the trigger, not a diagnosis: a child can be on SEN Support with no medical label at all.

How we deliver it: the graduated approach

Delivery runs through a four-part cycle that we revisit and refine as our understanding of the pupil grows (SEND Code of Practice, paras 6.44–6.56):

1. Assess the pupil's needs, drawing on teacher assessment, progress data and the views of the parents and the pupil.
2. Plan the adjustments, interventions and support, agreed with parents and recorded so everyone knows what is in place.
3. Do the provision, with the class or subject teacher remaining responsible day to day, supported by the SENCO (special educational needs coordinator).
4. Review the impact against the agreed outcomes with parents, then start the cycle again.

The SENCO leads this work across the school, but the legal duty sits with the governing body or academy proprietor, who must use their best endeavours to secure the provision a pupil's SEN calls for (Children and Families Act 2014, section 66). Parents and the pupil are involved at every turn of the cycle, not just at the review.

Where SEN Support sits in the system

SEN Support sits above quality-first teaching, which every pupil receives, and below an EHC plan. Most pupils with SEN are on SEN Support and never need an EHC plan. It is not a watered-down version of a plan: it is the school's own statutory graduated-approach duty, funded from our notional SEN budget (and, for higher-cost provision, top-up funding). The practical difference is enforceability. The provision in Section F of an EHC plan is a hard legal duty the council must secure; SEN Support is a best-endeavours duty on the school. That distinction matters when a parent asks why their child needs a plan, or whether we have done enough first — see whether a school has to follow Section F once a plan is in place.

Accountability and the direction of travel

We have to publish a SEN information report, reviewed every year, setting out how we identify, assess and deliver SEN Support (SEND Regulations 2014, reg 51 and Schedule 1). That report is the public account of our graduated approach and is often the first thing a parent, Ofsted inspector or Area SEND review asks to see.

On reform: the 2026 Schools White Paper (Every Child Achieving and Thriving) and the Education for All Bill propose a statutory digital Individual Support Plan for every child with identified SEND, with EHC plans retained for the most complex needs. The government has confirmed that no changes to the support given by EHC plans will begin before September 2030, so the duties set out here remain the live law we must deliver against now.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.