School-age Graduated Response Tool - Introduction
All children and young people attending a mainstream school have an entitlement to access a minimum provision. The purpose of this tool is to ensure every child and young person in a Somerset school receives the support they are entitled to.
Most children and young people in Somerset will have their needs met with Universal support through high-quality teaching. Some children and young people will require or need Special Educational Needs (SEN) support at SEN Support level in addition to Universal support. This document sets out the ordinarily available provision in Somerset schools at both the Universal and SEN Support levels – Code of Practice, Chapter 6.
Establishing a minimum level of provision makes sure there is
- clarity for school staff
- a provision guarantee for children and young people and their families
- support for discussion of children and young people between school staff and support services
- baselines against which the Local Authority can carry out its statutory duty to monitor provision for children and young people with special educational needs
One tool cannot describe every possible intervention but the information in the following pages indicates what children and young people and their families can expect from schools in Somerset.
Somerset Graduated Repsonse Tool
If you are new to either the school age or early years version of Somerset’s Graduated Response Tool, please use the video below as your initial guide. The video refers to the Early Years version of the Tool, however they are entirely relevant to the school age version as the video guides support with what the Tools are and how to navigate them, rather than any content that is specific to school age or the early years settings.
Supporting documents
Supporting documents can be found at supporting tools documents and signposting.
How to use this tool
Somerset’s Graduated Response Tool sets out the barriers to learning that children and young people may have and the strategies and provisions that should be in place to support them. Strategies, interventions, and support should be put in place as a Graduated Response, meaning that Universal strategies and provision are the foundation for all learners.
Many children and young people will have needs that do not ‘fit’ into one of the four categories of Special Educational Needs and therefore a number of the four broad areas of need may need to be referred to when using the tool to identify barriers and support strategies.
The ‘tools for identification of need’ for each broad area of need contain assessment suggestions, find out more in the video below.
Universal Support
All children and young people must have access to high quality teaching that focuses on inclusive practice and breaks down barriers to learning. For the majority of them this can be achieved through identifying specific barriers, followed by personalisation and differentiation using strategies in the Universal sections of this tool.
Special Educational Needs Support
Where children and young people do not make expected progress despite trying a range of strategies in the Universal section of the tool, further assessment may be required.
The Special Educational Needs Support sections of the Broad Areas of Need should be referred to when selecting strategies and interventions to put into place in addition to the strategies at the Universal level.
Other Local Authority Graduated Response or Approach
Education settings in Somerset are expected to follow Somerset’s Graduated Response.
For children and young people with SEND living in Somerset but attending school or education settings over the border, you can find the approach those schools will be following.