Earlier this month the government launched a public engagement campaign on the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, aiming to put the experiences of families “at the heart” of reform.
Schools minister Georgia Gould will hear the public’s views on five key themes, including “early intervention”. This aligns with one of the government’s key principles for SEND reform: ensuring that pupils access support “early”.
The reason for this is clear: when teachers notice and act on pupils’ needs quickly, it can make a huge difference. Targeted support can help pupils with SEND make, on average, five months more progress than those who do not receive it, according to a recent study.
There is widespread agreement that early support is the right focus. Now the question becomes: how can the sector empower teachers to do this well in their daily practice?
As a starting point, we know that identifying pupils’ needs is rarely straightforward.
It means gathering and making sense of a wide range of information. This often includes the results of assessments and observation, pupils’ behaviour and attendance reports, safeguarding and pastoral information, input from families, and the pupil’s own views and experiences.
In addition, pupils’ needs are fluid and change over time, and specific factors in different environments can make it harder or easier for them to flourish.
Because schools are busy places and pupils’ needs evolve, teachers need supportive structures in place to help them to spot and respond to pupil needs quickly.
SEND: How to help teachers identify needs early
This might mean noticing when a child has become withdrawn, seems to lack self-confidence or has difficulty concentrating on specific questions or tasks.
Teachers should feel able to catch and act upon these early indicators before the situation escalates to needing a crisis response.
So what does early intervention look like? This week I was delighted to chair an Inclusion in Practice webinar where leaders from Dixons Academies Trust, All Saints Catholic College and Frank Wise School shared rich insights into what they have put in place to help staff to better meet children’s needs.
Building on the themes of the webinar, and drawing on wider practice, too, below are six ways school leaders can support more effective early identification of needs - and subsequent timely intervention.
Schools may already have some of these components in place, but by adding to those, or giving them extra focus, they can strengthen the support they offer.
1. Support teachers to strengthen their core teaching
If staff can teach in a way that offers structure and routine, maintains pupil attention and reduces cognitive load, this will provide the foundation to support all pupils - including those who could be experiencing barriers to learning. This includes supporting teachers to effectively use strategies like explicit instruction, scaffolding, and task sequencing.
2. Make it easy to flag concerns
Teachers and support staff should be able to flag low-level observations or concerns about a child’s learning, using a process similar to what we have for raising safeguarding concerns.
This could be as simple as providing a short online form that teachers can fill in to quickly flag a concern, or having a standing item in weekly planning meetings to discuss which pupils should be on the radar.
3. Take a team approach
Ensure there is a team approach to reviewing the flags that teachers log, to bring different perspectives.
The exact make-up of this team can depend on the structure of the school. For example, reviews might take place in a weekly meeting between the Sendco, teaching and learning, and safeguarding leads.
4. Use tech to join the dots
Help professionals to respond swiftly to pupils’ needs by bringing together key information about each child in one place; for example, in a dashboard showing pupils’ attainment, attendance, behaviour and observations from teaching staff and families. This approach makes it easier for the team to notice links and uncover the reasons for barriers - including curriculum gaps, changes at home or bullying - that could otherwise be overlooked.
5. Have a clear screening process
Support the Sendco to put in place a screening process to find pupils who need extra help. Recent research, funded by the government, found there were many tools and assessments available to schools to help them catch pupils’ needs early.
It’s important that educators receive support to choose reliable tools that match the specific needs of their pupils; get training on how to use these tools effectively; and have enough time and help to put them into practice carefully, following consent, data protection and ethical guidelines.
6. Create a support ‘menu’
Support the Sendco and leadership team to create a menu of different, well-evidenced options for targeted support. The menu could be organised by common areas of pupil need.
For example, there is good evidence around interventions that can be used to improve pupils’ motivation and social interaction. Schools should evaluate the interventions they are using over time, to ensure they are making a long-term difference for pupils.
These steps all help to create a strong system for meeting pupils’ needs early. They also help to make early identification a shared responsibility across the whole school.
Teachers bring curiosity, expertise and a deep understanding of the pupils they support. Strong systems help schools to make the most of this knowledge. With the right support in place, teachers can spot and act on more opportunities to improve every child’s experience of education.
Anne Heavey is director of impact at Ambition Institute
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