DfE: Supporting children and young people with SEND as schools and colleges prepare for wider opening
*This guidance has been updated.*
Guidance for settings managing children and young people with complex special educational needs and disability (SEND) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This guidance provides information on provision for children and young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans and others with complex needs, such as children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND) who do not have an EHC plan, but for whom the educational setting or local authority has exercised its discretion to do a risk assessment and offer a place at an educational setting
Throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, educational settings have been asked to ensure that vulnerable children and young people can attend where appropriate, including those children and young people who have an EHC plan, and for whom it is determined, following a risk assessment, that their needs can be as safely or more safely met in the educational environment. As settings prepare for wider opening, they should continue to offer places to vulnerable children and young people and should look to bring back more children and young people with an EHC plan in these target year groups. Their return should be informed by their risk assessments, to help educational settings and local authorities ensure that the right support is in place for them to come back.
This guidance has been written with help from SEND sector organisations. It outlines pragmatic approaches that local authorities, educational settings, and parents or carers may wish to take.
