Involving Key Stakeholders
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families. The external specialists may:
- act in an advisory capacity;
- extend expertise of school staff;
- provide additional assessment;
- support a child directly;
- suggest statutory assessment is advisable; and
- consult with all parties involved with the child.
These include:
- Durham County Council Local Offer
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- Central Durham Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
- Special Educational Needs Support – This link will provide you with access to the following services: including Sensory, Hearing and Vision Support, Emotional Wellbeing and Effective Learning Team (EWEL), Educational Psychology Services, Cognition and Learning, Communication and Interaction Team and Portage Services;
- educational social workers;
- health agencies, particularly school nurse service;
- Looked After Children;
- medical practitioners;
- school parent support advisor;
- Tree Tops Occupational Therapy;
- Early Help;
- Stronger Families; and
- First Contact.
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEND. This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
- purchasing specialist training for all staff;
- purchasing specialist training for SENDCO;
- enabling the school to employ members of staff to support children across the school and run programmes of intervention;
- buying resources to enable children to meet outcomes;
- buying in the services of specialists;
- buying into support packages and service level agreements; and
- purchasing assessment and intervention tools.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we can apply for additional funding from the Local Authority to help meet the agreed outcomes for a child with special educational needs. This additional needs funding is monitored by the senior leadership team and governing body to ensure the funding secured meets the needs of the child and has a positive impact on outcomes for children with SEND. The local authority also moderate ‘top up funding’ across the county to ensure funding is being used to achieve the best outcomes for the child.
