SEND support for young people aged 16 or over in further education

The SEN Code of Practice says: Where a student has a learning difficulty or disability that calls for special educational provision, the college must use its best endeavours to put appropriate support in place.

• Support should be aimed at helping young people be independent and helping them make good progress towards higher education or finding a job, being healthy, living independently and participating in their community.
• Support should be based on the graduated approach of assess-plan-do-review.
• When a college decides a student needs SEN support, they must discuss with them their ambitions, what the support would look like and what impact they expect the support to have.
• Colleges must make sure they have a named person to oversee SEND provision (similar to a SENCO in a school) to make sure that support is coordinated.
• Colleges must try to remove any barriers students face because if a disability by making ‘reasonable adjustments’. This is a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010. You can read more about reasonable adjustments here.
• Colleges should make sure that have access to specialist skills to support learners with SEN, by employing practitioners and/or working in partnership with other organisations.
• Colleges should ensure they can access external specialist services and expertise to support their SEN students, including for example CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), specialist teachers and support services.

There is an easy read guide with lots of information about SEN support here.