Has your setting or the parent/carer had advice from any external professionals?
An external professional would be someone outside of the education setting, whose job it is to provide professional support to children with special educational needs. These could be:
- Specialist Teacher Advisory teams
- Educational Psychology
- Primary Behaviour Service
- Special school outreach
- NHS services like Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy.
If external professionals aren't already involved with the child, it is up to your setting to involve them. Their advice should be included in the SEN Support Plan and monitored.
It is important that education settings get advice from external professionals as part of the support given. Without this your setting can't show that it is delivering a graduated approach.
If the child or young person already sees external professionals, make contact with them. If you think the child or young person needs a referral to another professional, discuss this with the parent/carer.
Further information about the graduated response to a child's/young person’s needs can be found in the SEN Support guidance.
Information about the support available at your setting should be included in your SEN Information Report, which should be on your website and linked to on the Local Offer.
You should be implementing the professional advice before making a request for an EHC assessment. If your setting has not consulted external professionals, your request may not be able to proceed.
You can choose to continue this checklist anyway.