How do you address the needs of children with lower-level SEND while also supporting those with more significant learning and behavioural challenges? How can you ensure no child falls through the cracks?

We firmly believe that every child is unique and brings their own gifts regardless of their needs. That’s the premise we always start with, we work with our education providers to ensure an excellent understanding of the wide variety of needs that children can have. 

There are several ways in which all practitioners in the system are supported to meet all kinds of need. All our education settings can access several detailed guidance documents to ensure they are able to apply the graduated approach for a range of different support requirements. 

All schools have a termly problem-solving meeting with their link educational psychologist and specialist teacher to support them in meeting all children’s needs and to help identify those that require more support.  

If you are concerned that your child is falling through the cracks, they please do share this with your school or contact the locality teams at Locality teams in Dorset - Dorset Council  

What reasonable adjustments can be made in a mainstream secondary school for students without an EHCP but with a diagnosis that requires support? How do we determine these adjustments?

Universal support

All children and young people should receive high-quality teaching through ordinarily available provision. We call this universal support.  

SEN support

Some children and young people need additional and different targeted or specialist support. We call this SEN support.  

The graduated approach is a 4 stage cycle where educational settings will:

  • assess – the education setting assesses the child's needs. They listen to the views of the child and their parents or carers
  • plan - the teacher and the SENCO plan how to support the child 
  • do - The SENCO helps the class teacher support the child
  • review - Everyone discusses how effective the support has been. The school adapts the support depending on the child's progress

You can find out more detailed information on our website The Graduated Approach - Dorset Council.

Are there any plans for improving alternative provision for the ever increasing numbers of pupils who find themselves out of school with little access to 1:1 support?

Yes, we love this question. We have been working with partners including DPCC (Dorset Parent Carer Council)  to create and improve existing provision and create more resource.

Our goal is to have more local provision, closer to where our families live and grow, we have developed plans as a partnership to make this happen. We recognise that for some children, alternative provision is a really great way of regaining confidence in education and learning. We’re committed to providing high-quality provision, so that children are supported to be the best they can be.

Why are there limited internship and apprenticeship opportunities for young people with SEND post-16 in Dorset LA? When will there be increased investment, considering that statistically, young adults with SEND are less likely to secure full-time employment compared to their typically developing peers?

The opportunities for our young people are different to those that you might find in a more urban area. We have a higher number of small businesses with seasonal work who may not be able to offer the secure work which our young people are looking for.

Internships Work is a DfE initiative to 'kick-start' and double the number of Supported Internships locally.

 If you are interested about finding out more about options for young people post 16, please sign up for our next session on Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams.

Will additional services and funding be provided for short breaks and overnight respite for parents and carers who are feeling desperate?

We have already increased funding available for short breaks and have been working on developing services to use this. So far, we have developed a new overnight short breaks children's home in east Dorset with outreach to support families as a part of this.  

We have also worked with providers to offer additional services to families to purchase with Direct Payments. And we have three providers on the new children's section of the Dorset Care Framework, who can provide individual support in the community or care at home; these are RedJacket, Oxford Human Capital and Lily Staffing Solutions. 

 Providers make their services known through the Xchange newsletter as well as the Family Information Service, which can be be found on the SEND Local Offer Local Offer activities - Dorset Council.

How does the council support children with SEND in mainstream schools when they don’t have an EHCP but still need assistance?

Each school has an education challenge lead assigned to the school with inclusion leads on hand to support the schools around children with special educational needs. Every half term the school holds a planning meeting where a team of professionals come together to discuss what additional support and advice is required to ensure the child/young person remains within their local school.

What is the budget for SEND in Dorset, who decides its allocation, and will it increase in 2025? How much of the current budget is allocated to transport, and what are the Council’s plans for addressing school place shortages?

The budget for SEND in Dorset in 23/24 financial year is £48.9 million. This is part of the total money that schools get and which is allocated to support children and young people with special educational needs. Next year it will be £50.8million.

All transport including SEN transport is paid for out of Dorset Council funding and does not come from the same budget.

We currently have a SEND capital programme in progress which will see 779 places built with Dorset by September 2026. Dorset Council have also made another bid for capital funding to the Department for Education recently, which if successful, will see a further 116 places added to this. So far we have delivered 281 of the 779 places which we planned for in the strategy.

Will additional funding be provided to support ASD children in mainstream schools who initially attended due to a lack of available places in special schools? The need for increased investment in SEN schools and funding for mainstream schools is crucial.

Each request for funding is discussed with the individual school.  Support is put in place to support the settings to ensure they can meet the needs of the children. We think we need more specialist provision and are working to increase capacity. One of the ways we are doing this is through the development of inclusion hubs, dedicated spaces and an approach to meet children’s needs, within our mainstream schools. Those we have already opened are proving successful, and many other schools are expressing an interest.

My young adult is very masked with their behaviour as a teenager, and does not like to fit in with her peers at their provision who have more obvious additional needs. It feels like more invisible conditions, aren’t represented Is there any more you could be doing?

There is always more we can do to ensure every young person can be their true authentic self.  We are working with all our settings to ensure that they have a mix of children and children have peers who are similar to themselves, so they have a sense of belonging.

I would be interested in hearing more about your experience and to learn more please get in touch by email: Miriam.leigh@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

Why does a family always have to go into crisis to get support?

We’re saddened to hear that this has been your experience, we are confident that for the most part we meet the needs of children as early as possible and have invested in this heavily. We assure you, that we are working very hard to make sure no one falls through the cracks, and that no families end up in crisis before getting the support they need.

After several school visits preparing for next steps for my child I was very concerned by issues in mainstream settings where accessibility was compromised - for example disabled access toilets being locked, and accessible alterations that had been in place having been removed. How can we ensure physically disabled children with access needs are not having their access to education impeded and what will Dorset be doing about this?

We have set up a termly monitoring group to review school Accessibility Plans. This is made up of representatives from across our teams including a representative from the Dorset Parent Carer Council. The monitoring group will give feedback to schools. Schools will be provided with helpful tips and links to training or resources.

As part of this work, we will also be reviewing our guidance to schools about accessibility planning. This is to ensure that schools understand the barriers that children and young people with disabilities face and to encourage them to take actions to overcome these. It will also focus on creating a welcoming environment where children and young people with physical disabilities feel included.

Our service contact details are on the Local Offer - Physical and Medical Needs Service (PMNS) - Dorset Council (for parents and carers) and Nexus - Physical and medical needs service (PMNS) | Dorset Nexus (for schools). Anyone can contact us with a query in relation to physical and medical needs.

What is the graduated approach, and what reasonable adjustments can be expected in mainstream school?

The graduated approach is a 4 stage cycle where educational settings will:

  • assess – the education setting assesses the child's needs. They listen to the views of the child and their parents or carers
  • plan - the teacher and the SENCO plan how to support the child
  • do - The SENCO helps the class teacher support the child
  • Review - Everyone discusses how effective the support has been. The school adapts the support depending on the child's progress

You can find out more detailed information on our website The Graduated Approach - Dorset Council.

Whether something is ‘reasonable’ depends on things such as: 

  • the child or young person’s needs and what support, if any, they receive through an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP)
  • how practical the changes are and the resources of the education setting
  • the cost of making the change or providing the aid
  • if the change requested would overcome the disadvantage the child or young person experiences
  • if there are other ways of overcoming the disadvantage
  • Health and safety considerations and the interests of other children and young people

Schools and settings must consider in advance what they need to do to make sure all disabled children and young people can access and participate.

If a child 16+ in age is accessing a supported internship and the LA still has oversight over their EHCP - who gets the EHCP funding?

If the costs of a supported internship exceed £6,000 the local authority would work with the provider to agree further funding. You can read more about supported internships on GOV.UK.

Would the sensory audit you mentioned from the Autism Education Trust be available to SEN kids in mainstream schools? I was told by the NHS Occupational Therapy team that I would have to go private for this, but we were quoted £1000 and for us and many other families this feels very difficult in the current climate.

The sensory audit is from the Autism Education Trust (AET) and we will be using in all schools we are working with as part of any AET whole school training.  It helps schools review the school environment from a sensory perspective. Individual assessments for sensory processing are carried out by qualified occupational therapists.

The autism in schools project is being implemented in a small number of schools and as a result we are also rolling the training out to other settings who are ready to implement changes.  We will continue to do this together with colleagues from special schools and CAMHS.

It's great to hear that children and young people's voices are being heard and their views are listened to. Will children and young people who are not in mainstream or specialist settings have opportunities to express their views?

The Youth Voice Team are meeting young people in a variety of spaces and places.  We have attended SEND youth clubs on evenings and weekends and been along to several alternative provision arrangements. Please email the Youth Voice Team if you would like to invite us to a space at youthvoice@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

Will there be help for a send child who doesn't have an EHCP to access more individualised post 16 options?

We are currently looking at post-16 provision and working with leaders to understand how we can support the right education for all.  I would be happy to pick up a individual conversation with you please email me gaynor.howlett@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

I have a 15 year that is currently excluded from school, as they can not meet needs, she has now been out of school for over a year. she has lost all friendships and is completely isolated, what happens to her future?

I would be happy to have a separate conversation with you to understand the full situation and to provide support. Please email me at gaynor.howlett@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

Hi, why is the Portage service being reduced so drastically and what is the alternative plan for how tailored expert support will be provided to Early Years children with SEN?

We are proud to say we are not reducing this support, but expanding it. We have listened to families with young children and know that support through health visiting services, portage and from early years settings is valuable.

We are strengthening this offer. We will put more support into early years settings to enhance the amazing work our early years practitioners already do.

We will increase the number of people who are trained in the National Portage Association principles to help our youngest children with additional needs to have the best start in life.

Grateful to our ed psychs for looking at the impact of intersectionality for our children and young people based on their feedback and including this in support and training. Do we have a clear plan across all partners on how we support intersectionality?

Intersectionality is high on our agenda across the partnership – we have a number of events planned in the summer to celebrate diversity and we are confident that you will see that intersectionality is better understood. We would like to be doing better and more, so if you’d like to share insights with us then we’d love to hear from you at amanda.davis@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

My son has an EHCP and a high level of support, but his attendance is only 30%. He has just started to attend more but I work full time, so this has not been easy. We were not offered any AP or other support/education- should we have been?

We would like to understand the individual situation for your son and understand any support the school has put in place to support you and your family. Please do not hesitate to have a conversation with us so we can understand more and help. Email: gaynor.howlett@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

I recently supported a mother in an emergency comms meeting. The school didn't bring the EHCP to the meeting, and told us there was no point applying for more money for section F as Dorset council has no money and that all specialist schools are full so he wouldn't be able to go to one. They could not tell me what provision was in section F. Is it true that schools believe that the council have no money so they aren't even trying or applying for these young people?

Dorset Council works with the education settings to ensure they can meet the provision as set out in section F.  Should an education provision feel the level of funding is not sufficient to support the child/young person then we will work with the school to understand the details and agree what funding is appropriate to meet your child’s needs. All requests will be considered by a panel of experts in special educational needs. In the panel, the views of the child and family are always taken into consideration.

What annoys me is guidance/advice changing across different teams. I have an EYSW (3rd) who has met my kids 1/2 times at school (masks). Why is the guidance varying across teams? SS/SEND/Early Help etc

We’re really sorry this is your experience, and we clearly haven’t got this right for you. We do try to avoid change in practitioner and limit the risk of you getting inconsistent advice or information. Please do get in touch with us at kath.saunders@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.