Some children have special educational needs (SEN) which means that they find it much harder to do things in school than other children of the same age.  Schools will provide support which is additional to, or different from, their usual differentiated curriculum for pupils with SEN.  This is referred to as a graduated response, or School Action/School Action Plus.

Some children with SEN do not make the progress expected even though they have received additional support and advice from specialist services (a graduated response).  Therefore, it may be that a school or parent asks the County Council to make a statutory assessment of the child's SEN.  Parents should be involved from the outset in statutory assessments requested by a school.

Once the County Council has received the request for statutory assessment they will need to decide whether or not to undertake such an assessment.  A decision will be made within 6 weeks of receiving the request (except in exceptional circumstances, such as the school summer holidays).  The County Council will consider, in reaching a decision:

• The child's progress
• Parent and child views
• School and professional views of the child's needs

Decisions are made by the County Learning Support Panels and decisions whether or not to proceed with the assessment are given in writing to school and parents.

What does statutory assessment involve?

A statutory assessment is a very detailed look at what a child can do in school and the help that he/she needs to help them learn.  This involves:

• Collecting assessments and reports from parents and all the professionals involved in supporting a child's SEN, eg Educational Psychologists, school staff, Therapists
• Ensuring that parents are involved in all aspects of the process
• Ensuring the child's views are sought as part of the assessment process

The statutory assessment process has to be undertaken within timescales prescribed in the SEN Code of Practice, ie 26 weeks from request received to Statement finalisation.  This 26 weeks is made up as follows:

• 6 weeks to make a decision as to whether to undertake a statutuory assessment
• 10 weeks to collect advice from professionals
• 2 weeks to draft a Statement
• 8 weeks to produce a final Statement

Schools or parents can make a request for statutory assessment.

Further Information

Further detailed information is available in the booklet "Special Educational Needs in Cambridgeshire including Statutory Assessment - a guide for parents" under the heading of Publications on this webpage.