If there’s ever a time to move swiftly as a school, it’s when you identify a child with SEND.

They need support, an assessment, an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) – and your school needs funding.

But this is also a time when hidden blockers can sabotage the efforts of everyone trying to make a difference.

The only way forward is to shine a light on these obstructions so you can navigate around them fast.

What happens when obstacles slow good schools down

When you experience delays getting help for a child with SEND, you undoubtedly continue to push ahead and find answers.

We know you never give up.

But when parents say their child is “lost in the system”, this delay is what they are referring to. And “lost” is often how the child feels.

That child, as we see in our dedicated SEND guide, can fall into a life of crime or be subject to other victimisation.

Needless to say, you need to help them before they get a formal assessment and before the EHCP lands on your desk.

So, what is standing in your way?

Sector-wide issues that slow down intervention for pupils with SEND

We’re going to look at problems that affect individual schools in a moment, but first, it is a good idea to discuss obstacles impacting the education sector as a whole.

More people are being identified as having SEND than ever before

Previous ways of handling SEND will not work today; too many young people are being identified as needing help.

Over 1.6 million now require special educational support, representing 17.5% of pupils. This marks an increase of around 80,000 in just a few years. The rising demand puts enormous pressure on the existing educational support system.

So, you might need a way to move quickly to help newly identified pupils with SEND, but not in a way that falls short of your usual standard.

Learn about software that helps pupils with SEND

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A lack of qualified professionals

One issue is well outside your control, but it’s something that’s essential to bear in mind; there’s only a small number of qualified professionals, such as educational psychologists, available to help pupils with SEND.

This shortage is one of the main reasons children can wait several years for an assessment.

And, if one of these rare specialists leaves their post or moves, that wait might become longer.

In the meantime, the burden falls on you and what your school can do to help pupils with identified SEND needs.

System complexity

Accessing the SEND support system, by its nature, feels burdensome.

Why? Families, school professionals, and young people with SEND must find a way to communicate their complex situation clearly and concisely.

This is because appointments with specialists are, because of their shortage, brief. Their default position is that the child does not have SEND, and they must be convinced within what little time they have.

That means a huge amount of information must be provided before meetings, and their contents must miss nothing.

Funding pressures

Even if you have high hopes that a child will get the assessment and funding everyone wants, you need to help that pupil in the meantime, and you must do this without having the funding your school (should) eventually get.

You must take the helm regarding intervention.

Poor reports

Unfortunately, things can take a wrong turn when applying for help.

EHCPs can fall short of what your school, the child and their carers anticipated.

When that happens, you still have to help that child with all their needs – even those the report misses.

Helping pupils with SEND succeed

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Challenges unique to some schools and trusts

Even if sector-wide issues are bypassed, internal challenges within schools and trusts still contribute to delays in supporting pupils with SEND.

So, what problems might be specific to your school or MAT?

You have an exceptionally high proportion of students with SEND

We said in the last section that every school needs to act fast to help a pupil with SEND. In reality, some schools have to move fast more often than others.

These schools have a higher percentage of students with SEND, with proportions reaching as high as 40%. This high concentration stretches your limited resources even further and makes it more challenging to provide timely support.

Lack of specific lesson planning tools

With the best will in the world, teachers have uneven levels of expertise when working with children and young people with SEND.

Nevertheless, planning lessons for pupils with more complex needs shouldn’t be a guessing game. However, without specialised and validated tools, many educators feel inadequately prepared or lack confidence in supporting pupils with SEND effectively.

Lack of joined-up collaboration

Effective cooperation among educators, specialists, and families can be challenging, especially in schools with limited resources and support systems.

At its core, it’s important to have tools and methods that bring people onto the same page – to have an overarching system that delivers successful outcomes for pupils and reassures parents at the same time.

So, how can you find your way through all these issues surrounding SEND?

You need to have a system that does a lot of the heavy lifting for your staff – software that lets teachers:

• Assess a child believed to have SEND
• Develop a plan of action before they get a clinical assessment
• Provide clear, precise supporting documents for that child’s assessment and EHCP.

The award-winning PAGS (Profile, Assessment, and Goal Setting) platform can play an essential role in intervening early to help a child with SEND.

PAGS provides comprehensive assessment tools, developmental age insights, personalised learning plans, progress monitoring, resource management, collaboration, and community-sharing features.

By linking PAGS to your school’s Management Information System (MIS), you can reduce the time SENCOs spend creating personalised plans and assessments for students, ensuring quicker development of targeted strategies to aid learners with SEND.

Learn more about PAGS here, at our webinar, where we talk to a school that has used and seen the tangible benefits of this platform.

If you want to know more about developing early intervention approaches, read our guide. Click here for more.

Feliciea Jibson is the founder and CEO of PAGS, an award-winning digital profiling, assessment and goal-setting tool for schools, educators, parents and caregivers of learners with Special Educational Needs. PAGS helps educators better understand the capabilities and learning gaps of their learners.