SEND Code of Practice
The SEND Code of Practice gives more detail about what SEND means.
SEND can be broken down into Special Educational Needs (SEN) and/or Disability.
SEN
A child has SEN if they:
- have significantly more difficulty learning than most others their age
- have a disability which prevents them taking part in similar learning to others of the same age
- need extra support that is ‘additional to’ and ‘different from’ the support that other children of the same age get
A disability is part of SEN when it impacts on their learning.
SEN covers a lot of difficulties that children may face. The Code of Practice breaks this down into four main types:
- Cognition and learning
- Communication and speech
- Social, emotional, and mental health
- Physical and sensory
Disability
The other part of SEND is Disability.
A disability is defined as a physical or mental condition which has a long-term and substantial impact on your daily life (Equality Act 2010).
It can be physical, e.g cerebral palsy
It can be neurological, e.g autism spectrum disorder
If a child has a disability that does not affect their learning, they are part of SEND but do not have Special Educational Needs (SEN).