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Cheshire East toolkit for SEND

The Cheshire East Toolkit for Special Educational Needs and Disability ( SEND ) is aimed at all educational providers and settings supporting Cheshire East children and young people aged 0-25 years.

It outlines the provision and support that Cheshire East Council expects to be in place in all educational settings which support Cheshire East children and young people with SEN , and forms an important part of the Cheshire East Local Offer for SEND.

Its purpose is to provide detailed guidance on how educational settings can identify children and young people with different types and levels of need, and information on appropriate steps and strategies to support them. It provides clear information about when a request for an Education, Health and Care needs assessment, or specialist services, may be required.

This document is intended to assist educational settings in supporting children and young people with SEN . It has been developed in co-production with local Special Educational Needs Coordinators ( SENCO ), Post-16 representatives, parent/carers and a wide range of specialist education, care and health services.

Your feedback on the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND

We want to ensure that this first version of the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND  is as useful as possible for educational settings in helping them to support children and young people effectively. We are asking for your feedback on the document via our online feedback survey. Please tell us whether you think the document is useful and let us know about any comments or future suggestions you have. Your feedback will be used to improve the toolkit going forward.

• Slides from November 2017 launch events for the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND (MS Powerpoint, 9MB) 

Accessing the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND

The Cheshire East Toolkit for  SEND  is available below as a complete document, or can be accessed as individual sections (links between individual sections of the document are only available in the complete version of document). The Toolkit is copyright protected and no part of it should be copied or reproduced in any form without the Council’s permission. See our Copyright and Disclaimer page. 

• Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND (PDF, 5MB) – complete document

The above version of the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND was last updated in October 2018.

• Changes to the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND – October 2018 (PDF, 138KB)

Individual sections:

• Section 1 - Foreword and Section 2 - Acknowledgements(PDF, 183KB)
• Section 3 – Introduction, Section 4 – the Continuum of Need for SEN and Section 5 – Introducing the Graduated Approach (PDF, 517KB)
• Section 6 – Principles of the Graduated Approach (PDF, 411KB) 
• Section 7 – The Graduated Approach for Early Years (PDF, 1MB)
• Section 8 – The Graduated Approach in school (PDF, 1MB)
• Section 9 – The Graduated Approach for Post-16 (PDF, 1MB)
• Section 10 – The Graduated Approach and Preparing for Adulthood (PDF, 372KB)
• Section 11 – Transition between educational settings (PDF, 470KB)
• Section 12 – An overview of SEN Funding (PDF, 321KB)
• Section 13 – Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments (PDF, 310KB)
• Section 14 – Health (PDF, 175KB)
• Section 15 – Early Help and Social Care (PDF, 265KB)
• Section 16 – Glossary (PDF, 144KB)
• Appendix 1 – Roles and Responsibilities (PDF, 206KB)
• Appendix 2 – Quality First Teaching (PDF, 169KB)
• Appendix 3 – Suggested Assessments (PDF, 276KB)
• Appendix 4 – Suggested Resources (PDF,276KB)

Associated paperwork

The Graduated Approach tables within the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND specify documents and plans that educational settings should complete when a child or young person has been identified as having a certain level of need.

First concerns

• First concerns paperwork (MS Word, 195KB) - My Plan and My Diary (early years)
• Discussion form (MS Word, 55KB) - school and post-16
• First Concerns Profile (MS Word, 56KB) - school and post-16

SEN support

• SEN Support Plan – Early Years (MS Word, 128KB)
• SEN Support Plan – School (MS Word, 88KB)
• SEN Support Plan – Post-16 (MS Word, 81KB)

Complex and Specialist

Before making a request for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment please make sure that you have read and considered the information on the EHC needs assessment webpage and in the EHC needs assessment section of the Cheshire East Toolkit for SEND.

• EHC needs assessment knowledge and agreement form (MS Word, 452KB)
• EHC needs assessment request checklist for educational settings (MS Word, 61KB)
• EHC needs assessment checklist for young people and parent carers (MS Word, 65KB)
• Checklist for use with SEND Team Notification Form (MS, Word 65KB) 
• EHC Plan Blank Template (PDF, 336KB) - this is only completed as part of an EHC needs assessment process carried out by the local authority, and is not to be completed by educational settings
• Preparing for Adulthood (PfA) Transition Plan (MS Word, 545KB)