What is a statement?
A statement will describe all your child's special educational needs (SEN) and the special help your child should receive. The council will usually make a statement if they decide that all the special help your child needs cannot be provided from within the school's resources. These resources could include money, staff time and special equipment.
A statement of special educational needs is set out in six parts:
Part 1 gives your own and your child's name and address, and your child's date of birth, home language and religion. The advice the council received as part of the assessment is listed at the back of the document.
Part 2 gives details of all of your child'sSEN as identified in the statutory assessment.
Part 3 describes:
- All the special help that the council think your child should get to meet the needs listed in part 2
- What the long-term aims are
- The arrangements for setting short-term goals, regularly reviewing your child's progress towards those goals, and how your child's progress is to be monitored.
Part 4 tells you about the school your child will go to get the special help set out in part 3, or how any arrangements will be made out of school hours or off school premises.
Part 5 describes any non-educationalneeds your child has, as agreed between the council and the healthservices, social services or other agencies.
Part 6 describe how your child will get help to meet the non-educational needs described in part 5.
The council must send, with the statement, copies of all the advice they got from you and from other people and organisations during the assessment.
What happens once a statement has been prepared?
Before the council's special educational needs officers write a final statement, they will send a draft of the statement. All the parts listed above will be filled in, except part 4 (describing the type and name of the school), which will be left blank.
With your copy of the draft statement the council will send you a letter telling you how you can give your views on the proposed statement before it is finalised. Your views will be welcome. You may want to consider getting more help and support at this stage. The Parent Partnership Service is independent from the council and has representatives who can help you.