About the SEND team

SEND Officer role and responsibilities

SEND Officers oversee education, health, and care (EHC) plans for children and young people aged 0 to 25. They work in partnership with families, education settings, health and social care services, to ensure compliance with the relevant legislation.

The SEND Officer is the point of contact for children, young people and their families, and education settings. They are responsible for the completion of all administrative processes where an EHC needs assessment is being undertaken, following agreement by a multi-professional panel.

A SEND Officer has oversight for a caseload of children and young people with EHC plans in place or going through assessment. This is in accordance with the requirements of the Children's and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Code of Practice 2015.

If you are going through the EHC assessment process, and an EHC plan is subsequently drafted, your SEND Officer will change at the point your EHC plan is finalised. This is because the EHC plan will then be coordinated by an allocated SEND Officer linked to the education setting.

SEND Officers are split into three teams led by three SEND team leaders. Each team is allocated area of special focus:

• one team looks after all new assessment requests.
• another team coordinates all plans for children aged 0-16 within Derby City Schools.
• a further team coordinates plans in settings outside of Derby as well as plans for young people aged from 16-25.

What SEND Officers do

• carry out education, health, and care (EHC) plan assessments for children and young people with SEND.
• identify appropriate educational provision for pupils with EHC plans.
• ensure that plans are reviewed annually.
• oversee admissions to special schools, mainstream schools, and early years learning for students with EHC plans.
• give advice and information to parents, schools and other organisations about statutory SEND requirements and local authority procedures relating to the Children and Families Act 2014.
• provide advice to schools on statutory requirements in relation to special educational needs.
• administer EHC plan funding to schools.

Tasks carried out by SEND Officers

• Collating information, advice and reports from families, settings and professionals about children and young people going through an EHC needs assessment or where there is a request for a change in the existing plan.
• Submitting information, advice, and reports to multi-professional panels to enable decision making.
• Combining the advice, reports and information gathered through assessment to create the initial EHC plan.  This plan is agreed in collaboration with the family, child, young person and professionals.
• Communicating the decisions made at panels to families and professionals involved with the child or young person. This includes supporting the young person and/or their family to understand the rationale for the decision and what happens next.
• Attending EHC plan reviews where there is a phase or key-stage transfer (KST) and where there is an issue that needs their involvement. For example, a change of placement is being requested. Providing information and guidance on the law, the process, and roles of individuals to ensure everyone knows what their responsibilities are. SEND Officers are not decision-makers, but they will record what is said so that it can be submitted to the SEND Inclusion Support Panel who will make recommendations on decisions. They can also provide information and sign posting to further support where needed.
• Processing annual reviews, submitting the case to panel where needed and issuing a decision on whether the plan will be maintained as it is, amended or ceased.
• Amending an EHC plan where there is agreement to do so.
• Securing the right placements for children and young people where a change of placement is needed, including Key Stage Transfers.
• Working with families, professionals, education settings or training providers about all aspects of the EHC needs assessment and EHC plan if agreed.
• Dealing with any work that arises throughout the statutory processes and the life of the EHC plan, for example requesting updated advice from professionals.

How are decisions made?

Where a decision is needed, for example to issue an EHC plan or change provision, SEND Officers collate the information and submit it for decision by the SEND Inclusion Support Panel. This is a multi-professional panel of practitioners who meet to provide professional guidance and decisions relating to an EHC assessment or plan.

Hosting and arranging the annual review meeting is delegated to the education setting. The SEND Officer will not need to attend all reviews. However, those who know the child or young person best and is involved with them day to day, will carry out the review meeting. This will be recorded on the review documents and sent to the SEND Officer. This is in line with the legal framework that allows the Local Authority to delegate these responsibilities. However, there are times when there is a role for the SEND Officer at the review meeting. This will include where there is a transition review for a phase transfer or if there are any concerns raised about the provision in the EHCP or education placement.

SEND Officers carry out the annual review process regardless of whether they attend the meeting. All annual reviews meeting recommendations are reviewed by the authority and a decision should be provided to the family within four weeks of the meeting.

How to contact your SEND Officer

The SEND Officer will do their best to take your calls, but they may not always be available when you ring. If they aren’t available, you will be able to leave a message and the officer will get back to you within 2 working days. Alternatively, you can email them, and they will acknowledge your email within 5 working days. They might not have the information or answer to your query straight away, but they should let you know if they need more time to respond.

If you are already working with our SEND team, you can contact your SEND Officer using the details they have given you.

Parents and carers can also request a MyVoice account in order to manage the EHC plan through a secure online hub. The MyVoice account enables parent and carers to:

• message their officer
• access and share documents
• be reminded of key dates relating to the EHC plan.

If you don’t already have a MyVoice account but would like to request one, please speak to your SEND Officer.

The SEND Officer who coordinates your EHC needs assessment will not usually be the same officer who then manages the plan once the child or young person has an EHC plan.

When the child or young person has an EHC Plan it will be coordinated by an officer allocated to work with that education setting. This helps to ensure that the SENCO at the school or setting has a consistent relationship with the SEND Team and can manage all of the EHC plans at the setting more easily.

If you’re unsure of your SEND Officer, you can call the SEND Team on 01332 643616 or email SENDadmin@derby.gov.uk.

The SEND Officer will routinely meet with the SENCOs at their allocated schools, who will also be able to raise any concerns that there might be regarding a child with an EHC Plan. The SEND Officer will have at least one planning meeting per half-term with SENCOs at schools where there are more than 10 EHC plans. Schools with fewer EHC plans will still be able to meet with the SEND Officer but this will not be routinely scheduled. Special schools and enhanced resource provisions can expect to meet with their SEND Officer more regularly if required.

What happens if a SEND Officer is unavailable?

If one of their SEND Officers is absent, one of the three SEND Team Leaders will oversee their case work and ensure urgent work is covered. They will decide how to cover the case work dependent on the length of time a SEND Officer is away from work and whether this is planned or not.

If a SEND Officer is absent unexpectedly, any urgent actions will be dealt with by another SEND Officer within their team. If a SEND Officer is away for a longer period, their work may be temporarily reallocated to a specific SEND Officer to oversee. In the case of a reallocation, the SEND Officer taking over will advise the family and school of this where appropriate.

Where a SEND Officer is on planned leave, dependent on the length of this, they will manage their work to take account of their leave or refer work to a SEND Officer within their age range cluster team to complete in their absence. If there is active case work underway, the SEND Officer will advise those involved, including families, of their intended absence and who is covering their work where applicable.

Why might the SEND Officer be unavailable?

We know that it causes a great deal of frustration when you can't get hold of your SEND Officer.

However, our SEND Officers spend a considerable proportion of their working week in meetings, so they are not always available to speak to you immediately. Usually, SEND Officers will be coordinating around 150 EHC assessments or up to 400 EHC plans as well as supporting many other parents, carers and settings.

What to do if you’re not getting a response from your SEND Officer

All SEND Officers have regular supervision with their SEND Team Leader where they will receive specific guidance and coaching on their case work and where any additional training needs can be identified.

Quality Assurance is carried out in several ways, including line managers quality assuring SEND Officers' plans and case work, and providing feedback, guidance, and training. SEND Officers receive focused feedback from the audits and any training needs are addressed. The quality assurance enables the local authority to develop specific programmes of training or guidance based on any emerging themes.

If a SEND Officer is not responding within the timescales set out above, you should contact their SEND Team Leader for support in the first instance. Schools and settings should use the dedicated SEND Management mailbox if they need to escalate any issues.

You can submit a comment, compliment or complaint about a SEND Officer.