Professional Resources This site puts cookies on your device to make it work better. By continuing to use our site, we’ll assume you’re okay with this. More about cookies Close notification Home Education and children Special educational needs and disability Support for schools Assessment of SEN (SENA) The Special Educational Needs Assessment and Commissioning Service (SENA) carry out statutory assessment and review of children and young people who have an EHCP from age 0 – 25. The service is responsible for writing Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) if a statutory assessment is agreed, and will commission the identified provision to meet identified needs. The service can provide advice and guidance to families as well as educational settings around statutory duties.SEND assessment pathway PDF, 157 kbOpens new windowRequesting statutory assessment for an Education, Health and Care PlanTo apply for an EHCP, schools should submit a request for statutory assessment cover sheet along with a completed SEND Support Plan. This must include:Advice from a relevant service (e.g. educational psychology) which should be no more than 18 months old. See the SENA Information Requirements Grid (above) for the requirements for advice and other information needed to support requests for statutory assessmentEvidence that the child or young person meets the thresholds (these are currently under review)Evidence of an assess-plan-do-review processInformation on how the school has made use of the delegated funding and how an EHCP would enable the school to meet the child or young person’s needsRequest for EHCP assessmentAnnual Review of EHCPA transition plan should be included with annual reviews from year 9 onwards:Transition PlanHealth professional contribution to annual reviewSocial Care contribution to annual reviewSocial Care advice exampleAnnual Review of an EHCP - templateSEND Support PlanA school may choose to use the below templates to help assess, plan and review a child’s needs. These plans are written by the school to help see the full picture and plan how to help a child. SEND Support plans should be written with input from the child and parent or carer. They do not have a legal statusSEND Support Plan - early yearsSEND Support Plan - schools and collegesApplying for top-up fundingTop-up funding above the £6,000 delegated SEND funding is available to schools for children and young people with a high level of need for anywhere from a term to a key stage, depending on need.To apply for top-up funding, schools must submit a request for top-up funding cover sheet along with a completed SEND Support Plan. This must include:Advice from a relevant service (e.g. educational psychology) which should be no more than 18 months old. See the SENA Information Requirements Grid (above) for the requirements for advice and other information needed to support requests for top-up fundingEvidence that the child or young person requires additional support to that already in place by the schoolEvidence of an assess-plan-do-review processInformation on how the school has made use of the delegated funding and how top-up funding will be used to meet the child or young person’s needsRequest for top-up fundingRequesting an extension of top-up fundingIf top-up funding for a child or young person with SEND is due to cease, an extension can be requested if top-up funding is still needed to meet their needs. This can be requested by submitting a request for extension of top-up funding cover sheet alongside an updated SEND Support Plan. The request should be received by SENA not more than a fortnight before the end of the academic term when the funding is due to cease.Request an extension of top-up funding Provide feedback about these forms Expand content Forms feedback All fields are mandatory unless stated otherwise. Form name Form feedback Your name Your email address 1 Start 2 Complete Further SENA information Help us improve this page Hide content Was this page helpful? Yes It was helpful, but Please select a reasonthere's a broken link it's hard to understand it's incorrect it's outdated it's too long Other No Please select a reasonit didn't answer my question it's not detailed enough it's hard to understand it's incorrect it's outdated it's too long Other Details Email address We’ll only use this to ask for more detail if we need to. Top of page
Home Education and children Special educational needs and disability Support for schools Assessment of SEN (SENA) The Special Educational Needs Assessment and Commissioning Service (SENA) carry out statutory assessment and review of children and young people who have an EHCP from age 0 – 25. The service is responsible for writing Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) if a statutory assessment is agreed, and will commission the identified provision to meet identified needs. The service can provide advice and guidance to families as well as educational settings around statutory duties.SEND assessment pathway PDF, 157 kbOpens new windowRequesting statutory assessment for an Education, Health and Care PlanTo apply for an EHCP, schools should submit a request for statutory assessment cover sheet along with a completed SEND Support Plan. This must include:Advice from a relevant service (e.g. educational psychology) which should be no more than 18 months old. See the SENA Information Requirements Grid (above) for the requirements for advice and other information needed to support requests for statutory assessmentEvidence that the child or young person meets the thresholds (these are currently under review)Evidence of an assess-plan-do-review processInformation on how the school has made use of the delegated funding and how an EHCP would enable the school to meet the child or young person’s needsRequest for EHCP assessmentAnnual Review of EHCPA transition plan should be included with annual reviews from year 9 onwards:Transition PlanHealth professional contribution to annual reviewSocial Care contribution to annual reviewSocial Care advice exampleAnnual Review of an EHCP - templateSEND Support PlanA school may choose to use the below templates to help assess, plan and review a child’s needs. These plans are written by the school to help see the full picture and plan how to help a child. SEND Support plans should be written with input from the child and parent or carer. They do not have a legal statusSEND Support Plan - early yearsSEND Support Plan - schools and collegesApplying for top-up fundingTop-up funding above the £6,000 delegated SEND funding is available to schools for children and young people with a high level of need for anywhere from a term to a key stage, depending on need.To apply for top-up funding, schools must submit a request for top-up funding cover sheet along with a completed SEND Support Plan. This must include:Advice from a relevant service (e.g. educational psychology) which should be no more than 18 months old. See the SENA Information Requirements Grid (above) for the requirements for advice and other information needed to support requests for top-up fundingEvidence that the child or young person requires additional support to that already in place by the schoolEvidence of an assess-plan-do-review processInformation on how the school has made use of the delegated funding and how top-up funding will be used to meet the child or young person’s needsRequest for top-up fundingRequesting an extension of top-up fundingIf top-up funding for a child or young person with SEND is due to cease, an extension can be requested if top-up funding is still needed to meet their needs. This can be requested by submitting a request for extension of top-up funding cover sheet alongside an updated SEND Support Plan. The request should be received by SENA not more than a fortnight before the end of the academic term when the funding is due to cease.Request an extension of top-up funding Provide feedback about these forms Expand content Forms feedback All fields are mandatory unless stated otherwise. Form name Form feedback Your name Your email address 1 Start 2 Complete Further SENA information Help us improve this page Hide content Was this page helpful? Yes It was helpful, but Please select a reasonthere's a broken link it's hard to understand it's incorrect it's outdated it's too long Other No Please select a reasonit didn't answer my question it's not detailed enough it's hard to understand it's incorrect it's outdated it's too long Other Details Email address We’ll only use this to ask for more detail if we need to.