Where a pupil is receiving SEN support, schools should talk to parents regularly to set clear outcomes and review progress towards them, discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them, and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school. Schools should meet parents at least three times each year.

Schools may involve specialists at any point to advise them on early identification of SEN and effective support and interventions. The involvement of specialists and what was discussed or agreed upon should be recorded and shared with the parents and teaching staff supporting the child in the same way as other SEN support. See more about SEN Support in on our Somerset’s Graduated Response Tool page.

Collaborative Outcomes Meetings (COMs) are part of the Education, Health and Care needs assessment (EHC needs assessment) process. They bring together the family and child/young person with any professionals involved, to work together to agree the support needed (provisions) and goals (outcomes) for the child/young person. Everyone in the meeting has a unique perspective and will be able to share their views and expertise to provide a personalised plan to support. The Educational Psychologist will chair the meeting and the Assessment and Review Officer will take notes to make sure the provision discussed is clear, specific, and legally compliant.

• The meeting will focus on agreeing outcomes and provision and support for the child or young person’s needs.
• Outcomes and provisions will be discussed in the four areas of development defined by the Code of Practice (2014).
• Everyone attending the meeting will have the opportunity to take part in discussions and ask questions.

The Annual Review meeting is only one step of five in the Annual Review process, see our Education, Health and Care plan section for more information.

The education setting (usually the SENCO ) co-ordinate and hold the annual review meeting on behalf of the Local Authority. Families and all professionals supporting the child or young person have at least 2 weeks’ notice of the review meeting along with written contributions from all.

The meeting will usually take place at the education setting and will be chaired by a member of staff, usually the SENCO or class teacher. The review meeting will want to hear the child’s or young person’s views on their education, their support and what they want to happen next.

Families will also have the opportunity to give their views and wish for the child or young person’s future. In the meeting, the current Education, Health, Care plan will be looked at to make sure that it still represents the child’s or young person’s needs and that the outcomes and provisions are still relevant to meet the needs. Any changes that are required will need to be captured on the annual review report and will need to be evidenced.

CETRs are focused on children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism who are either already in a specialist mental health or learning disability hospital or are at risk of admission. Making sure the right care and support is available, to avoid inappropriate hospital admission or, if the child or young person is already in the hospital, to help make ensure good quality care and make sure they do not stay in hospital any longer than necessary.

CERTs are carried out by an independent panel. This includes an expert by experience, who is a person with a learning disability or autism or a family carer with lived experience of services. The panel also includes a clinical expert who is qualified to work in healthcare and the commissioner who pays for the person’s care. You and your child will be able to take part in a CERT if one takes place, alongside those providing your child’s education, healthcare and support.

There is a process that means that schools and family support services can regularly meet and discuss children and young people, so that there is effective collaboration to meet the needs of vulnerable groups, including Special Educational Needs and/or Disability. This is called Team Around the School.

Professionals pool their resources at an early help level to provide a strong foundation and support based on what families need, that concentrates on solutions and helps them become more resilient so that a child or young person is less likely to need complex or acute support in the future.

The Team around the Family (TAF) meeting brings together a range of different practitioners and the family following the completion of the Early Help Assessment. The purpose is to bring people together, often with specialist knowledge or expertise, to work out how best to work together to help support a family and to identify the Lead Practitioner. The family should attend too and where appropriate the child/young person.

TAF meetings are usually every 6-8 weeks to review and monitor the child or young person’s and family’s needs. The meeting will cover any significant events, for example changes to the family structure, who’s moved in or out, any family bereavements, new siblings or changes in circumstances (housing, employment, finances, health for any family member) alongside what has worked well (for example, what has been achieved), what are we worried about (for example, what has not been achieved, any new concerns) and what needs to happen. Strength, needs and actions are recorded by the Lead professional and shared with all present at the TAF and are reviewed in line with the 6-8 week cycle.

One Teams meet regularly (often 1-2 times a week) to consider local concerns and coordinate partnership working to provide sustainable solutions for individuals, families and communities, which prevent problems from escalating. It takes a ‘whole family’ perspective, recognising that issues are complex and often relate to a wider family dynamic that needs to be addressed simultaneously. It also stops repetitive interagency ‘hand-offs’, duplication and multiple visits to families by numerous agencies, unaware of each other’s work.

Teams have a co-ordinator, and are made up of local frontline practitioners from a range of services including local authorities, social housing landlords, Neighbourhood Policing Team, schools and local mental health services, and have links with services such as the Safeguarding and Co-ordination Unit, Adults and Children’s Social Care and SDAS .

The meetings are sharp, focussed, task-oriented, and limited to one hour. Most One Teams maintain a ‘long list’ of clients/families. This will inform the agenda for each meeting. This list has those who are currently a concern, those where work is ongoing and those where the level of need has escalated to Level 4 or where the involvement has ceased. In these latter cases, there is the potential for either Level 4 to be stepped down or for concerns to rise again, when One Teams may again become involved in coordinating the response at Level 2 or 3. Any actions are agreed upon with named professionals taking ownership for completing the work.

Statutory SEND Panel makes decisions about the Education Health and Care needs assessment process particularly whether to agree to continue with a request for an EHC needs assessment and, if agreed, whether to issue a plan or not. The panel also considers requests to amend EHC plans following an annual review meeting. The panel is made up of multi-agency professionals meeting weekly, including but not limited to

• Assessment and Reviewing Officers
• Educational Psychologists
• Headteachers
• Designated Clinical or Medical Officers
• Early Help Officers and social care team managers
• chaired by a local authority senior manager

Placement and Travel Panel makes decisions on placement allocations, travel expenses and any additional resources identified as part of the assessment process or subsequent annual review recommendations.

The Panel enables multi-agency professionals to work together and agree on jointly funded services to best meet the assessed needs of the most complex children and young people. They make decisions on individual placements, care packages and treatment packages to make sure the right services are in place at the earliest opportunity to prevent escalation of need. The panel is made up of multi-agency professionals meeting monthly, including but not limited to

• senior managers from education, social care and health
• senior professional from CAMHS
• Designated Clinical Officer
• CLA Designated Nurse
• senior professional for the Youth Offending Team
• Placement Team Manager
• Education Psychologist
• Children with Disabilities Team manager
• Strategic Commissioner
• chaired by the Deputy Director of Children’s Services (local authority) and Deputy Director of Child and Women’s Health Commissioning (NHS Somerset) on rotation

Area Partnership Panels are arranged by the area pupil referral units and meet fortnightly to agree partnership placements with schools to avoid suspensions and permanent exclusions.

Each area partnership board allocates at least one meeting every half term to statutory cases such as excluded children and hard to place children, which are overseen by the Area Inclusion Managers .

The panels are made up of

• the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) headteacher
• Inclusion Manager
• Area secondary headteachers
• Access Casework Officer
• Educational Psychologist
• social care and other professional colleagues where appropriate

The Interagency and Multidisciplinary Triage Team (MDT) is part of the Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopmental Partnership (CYPNP) which review the Next Steps Form as part of the Autism and/or ADHD assessment process. All assessments must be genuinely multidisciplinary, with direct input from at least two qualified clinicians from different professional background who hold appropriate registration with their relevant professional body. The Autism assessment team consists of the following professional groups

• Clinical Psychology
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Community Paediatrics

The team also have access to other CYPNP clinicians for consultation and case discussion from the following professional groups

• Psychiatry
• Registered Mental Health Nursing (RMN)
• Paediatric Community Nursing
• Specialist ADHD Community Nursing
• Educational Psychology

See more in the Autism and ADHD Assessment Pathway.