Jargon Busters

ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience): a traumatic experience in a person's life occurring before the age of 18.

 

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder): ADD is a special education need which affects concentration and the ability to focus.

 

Additional provision: A general term for any extra help given to children or young people that is over and above the help normally given to pupils of their age in mainstream education settings.

 

ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder): ADHD is a condition that includes symptoms such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.

 

Alternative Learning Provision (ALP): an educational setting for pupils who can't attend mainstream educational settings because of significant health or Special Educational Needs.

 

Annual Review: The process of ensuring that an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) of special educational needs and disabilities continues to describe the child’s needs and how they should be met through an Annual Review meeting held once a year.

 

ASC (Autistic Spectrum Condition): a lifelong condition that affects how a person relates to other people and communicates with them.

​

CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services): Part of the NHS working with children and young people who have difficulties with their emotional or behavioural wellbeing or their mental health.

 

Care Plan: a record of the health and/or social services being provided to a child or young person

 

Cognition and Learning (C+L): This describes all pupils who learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. It can include specific learning difficulties (SpLD) which affect one or more specific aspects of learning and encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia. It can also include moderate learning difficulties (MLD); severe learning difficulties (SLD) where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and often have associated difficulties with mobility and communication; profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), where children are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment.

 

Commissioners: The people responsible for contracts with service providers.

 

Communication and Interaction (C+I): Additional needs in this category include difficulties with speech and language, social interactions and diagnoses such as Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)

​

Disability: A mental or physical impairment which strongly affects a person’s ability to carry out normal daily activities. Many people with a disability will also have a SEND.

 

DLA: Disability Living Allowance

 

Early Years: Birth to 5 years old

 

Early Years Provider: A provider of early education places for children under five. This can include state funded and private nurseries.

 

Education setting:  A general phrase to describe a place where a child or young person receives their education, for example a nursery, school or college.

 

Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment: A formal assessment carried out by a local authority to decide how much extra support a child or young person needs.

 

Educational Psychologist (EP): A professional employed by the local authority to assess a child’s special educational needs and to give advice to school settings on how these needs can be met.

 

EHC Plan (EHCP): A legal document issued by the local authority describing a child or young person’s education, health and social care needs and the support that will be given to them.

​

EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage): A statutory framework which covers children both in pre-school settings and in reception classes up to their fifth birthday.

 

Graduated Response: Where a pupil is identified as having SEND, schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective provision in place. This should take the form of a four-part cycle (assess, plan, do, review) to help gain better understanding of the pupil’s needs and tailor support accordingly. Schools must show evidence of a graduated response where they have sought advice, put appropriate interventions in place and evaluated progress in an ongoing cycle which ensures appropriate additional provision is put in place for the child.

 

HI: Hearing Impairment

 

Higher Needs Funding: The higher needs funding system supports provision for children and young people with SEN) from their early years to age 25. It provides additional funding for educational settings to support children when they have significant SEND and where the child’s additional needs cannot be met by a setting without additional financial support.

 

Inclusion: When anyone, regardless of impairment is welcomed and supported to be involved. Inclusion should mean disabled and non-disabled people are supported to take part in activities together.

​

Independent School: A school that is not maintained by a local authority.

​

Joint Commissioning: Working collaboratively across agencies to assess need, identify resources available, plan how to use resources and arrange service delivery. This also involves reviewing the services and reassessing need, with the aim of improving outcomes.

​

Key Worker: A trained individual who provides personalised support, co-ordination and/or advocacy for children and their families.

​

LSA (Learning Support Assistant) sometimes called Teaching Assistant (TA): an adult who provides additional support to children in an educational setting.

 

Learning Difficulties: Problems or conditions which make learning harder than it is for most people.

 

Local offer: Information published by the local authority about the education, health and social care support available in the area for children and young people with SEN and disabilities.

 

Mainstream school: Any school that is not a special school

 

Mediation: Where a trained person helps to sort out any area of conflict.

 

MLD: Moderate learning difficulties

 

National Curriculum: The framework which sets out standards and appropriate levels of achievement for children’s education. It also determines how performance will be assessed and reported.

 

NEET: Not in Education, Training or Employment.

 

Occupational Therapy (OT): a branch of health care that helps people of all ages who have physical, sensory, or cognitive problems

 

OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

 

ODD: Oppositional Defiance Disorder

 

Outcome: The benefit or difference that a particular bit of help makes to a child or young person.

​

Paediatrician: A doctor who specialises in children’s health.

 

Personal budget: An amount of money which can be used to buy support described in an EHC plan. A young person or their family can have a say in how the budget is used.

 

PDD: Pervasive Development Disorder

 

Physical and Sensory Needs (P+S): Sensory needs, which can be hearing loss and/or visual impairment or sensory processing difficulties and physical difficulties, can occur for a variety of reasons, e.g. congenital conditions (some progressive), injury or disease.

Portage: Home-based educational support for pre-school children with SEND.

 

PMLD: Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties.

 

PRU (Pupil Referral Unit): an educational setting for children who need to be educated out of school, often because they have been excluded.

​

Resource Base: a specialist provision within a mainstream school for a specific area of special need or disability.

​

SEND: Special Educational Needs and Disability. SEND is used to describe learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for a child to learn compared to children of the same age. SEND is often divided into four key areas of need: Communication and Interaction; Cognition and Learning; Social, Emotional and Mental Health Need; Physical and Sensory.

 

SEND Code of Practise: The Code of Practice is a document designed to help families, schools, local authorities, health services and other organisations make effective decisions regarding children with special educational needs and disabilities. This contains statutory guidance on the Children and Families Act 2014.

 

SENDCO: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator. All schools are legally required to have a SENDCO who is a qualified teacher, overseeing additional provision for all children identified as having SEND.

 

SEN Information Report: All schools must publish on their websites information about their policy and arrangements for supporting children with SEN. This must be kept up to date.

 

SEND Register: Schools hold a SEND Register, identifying all children classified as SEND. Individual schools decide their own criteria for who is placed on the SEND Register. Children can come off it when it is felt they no longer have SEND requiring significant additional support.

 

SEND support: The first level of extra support in mainstream education settings for children and young people with SEND.

​

SLD: Severe Learning Difficulties

 

Social, Emotional, Mental Health Need (SEMH): SEMH needs are a type of special educational need where a child communicates through behaviour in response to unmet social, emotional or mental health needs. Children with SEMH needs often have difficulties in managing their emotions or their behaviour. They can show inappropriate responses to their emotions. They can feel scared, anxious and misunderstood. Children identified as having SEMH may have needs such as anxiety, depression, dysregulated attachment disorder.

 

Specialist Setting: a school that provides education for pupils with very significant special educational needs or disabilities.

​

Speech and Language Therapy (SLT/SALT): therapists trained to give specialist assessment and advice for children with communication difficulties.

Statutory Guidance: guidance that local authorities and other local bodies have a legal duty to follow.

​

TAC: Team around the child meeting.

 

TAF: Team around the family meeting

 

Transition: When a young person moves from class to class, a different setting or children to adult services.

 

Tribunal: An independent body which hears appeals against decisions made by the local authority on statutory assessments & EHCP’s.

​

Universal Services: Services provided to all children and young people in the area

​

VI: Visual Impairment