Nature of work
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Teams comprise of:
- Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Service
- Educational Psychology Service
- Specialist Inclusion and Support Service (SISS)
- The Early Years Team (SEND)
The Teams are responsible for carrying out duties under the:
- Children and Families Act 2014 including the SEND Code of Practice (2015)
- Education Act 1996 (amended 2011)
- Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 and Regulations 2014
- Education and Inspection Act 2006
- Equality Act 2010
- Care Act 2014
- Mental Capacity Act 2005
They provide advice, support and assessments to children and young people with disabilities and their families. In relation to statutory and non-statutory access and assessment processes, this includes the ongoing monitoring of children and young people who have Education, Health and Care needs. This includes information and advice sought for reviews, tracking information, disagreement resolution or mediation processes and processes relating to appeals to tribunals. We work in a coordinated way with other children and young people’s services in and with partner organisations to ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people with additional needs in Solihull, and to ensure we are fully compliant with the Acts listed above and their associated Codes.
Teams also provide advice, support and training to schools to enable them to more effectively assist children with additional needs.
All teams have a responsibility to ensure children remain safe. and are supported to access appropriate education and education support services.
Why we need your information
We only collect the personal information we need to perform our functions in line with regulations and law. We collect information from parents or carers and from other public sector professionals for children and young people below and within statutory school age, and will request consent from young people themselves if they are aged 13 or over as long as they have capacity to provide this.
We will use the information about you to:
- identify your child’s educational needs
- clarify the child or young person’s needs
- identify the support they require which will help them to achieve their outcomes and comply with our safeguarding duties
- know who we need to speak to, so we can ask them to send us information and advice relating to your child
- make decisions about whether to conduct a statutory needs assessment or issue an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan
- make decisions about the content of EHC Plan including outcomes, placement and provision
- support the ongoing monitoring of the provision specified in an EHC Plan where one is issued
- inform EHC Plan annual review and monitor your child’s progress
- support disagreement resolution or mediation processes and processes relating to appeals and / or tribunals
- make decisions about whether to provide additional funding to the setting where your child is educated
- help to resolve any disagreements
- enable coordinated working with other teams and organisations
- evaluate and quality assure the services we provide
- inform future commissioned services and educational placements requirements
We will also use your data to better understand the services we provide and to help us build those services for the future. We may also use your data to identify if our services are fulfilling our legal obligations.
Type/Classes of information processed
In the course of assessing and planning support, and providing the most suitable educational provision, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, parent/carer name(s) and contact details, gender)
- details of special educational needs and disabilities
- any information relevant to education, care or health assessments, needs and support
- ethnicity
- information about physical or mental health of child and family
We also obtain and hold personal information from the following other sources:
- other organisations or teams that can provide us with advice and information (such as Adult or Children’s Social Services, mental health services, doctors, school nurses, other NHS providers and other Government agencies)
- schools or post-16 settings currently or previously attended
- early education providers currently or previously attended (such as nurseries, pre-schools, childminders)
We also process what is referred to as special categories of information that may include data revealing:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious belief
- Relevant health details
- Criminal convictions
- Other legal processes
Who information is processed about
We process information about:
- Child/Young person
- Family
Who information may be shared with
Where necessary or required we share your information with others working to improve outcomes for children and young people. These include:
- Schools, Colleges and Early Years providers as well as wider education or training providers
- Commissioned providers of local authority services (such as education, health services or transport providers)
- Other professionals working within the Council who provide advice, support and guidance for children and young people with SEND
- Partner organisations, where necessary, which may include NHS Services, District Councils, Housing Providers, Police, Schools, Doctors, other Government agencies
- Other Local Authorities and Social Care or Health providers outside of the Local Authority
- Department of Education
- Providers of independent advice and guidance (such as contracted SEND consultants)
- Independent school admission appeal panel members
- Mediation services
- We share information that we have gathered as part of a statutory needs assessment to identify the setting to be named in section I of a child or young person’s EHC Plan (this includes consulting in accordance with parental or young person choice as well as with those providers we feel would be suitable). We share information to resolve disagreements as part of formal and informal processes in relation to mediation, Ways Forward meetings or formal appeals through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal
Your personal data may also be shared with regulatory and statutory bodies who assess council performance and financial spend, as well as where required by law, such as to prevent and detect crime or fraudulent activity.
How long we will keep your information
- Information relating to educational support is kept until the subject is 35 years old.
We are required to keep this information for this long to comply with our legal obligations as outlined in the Children and Families Act 2014, and to carry out tasks in the public interest. If we need to collect special category (sensitive) personal information, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (equality of opportunity or treatment), for social security or social protection law, and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.
There may be a legal reason for us to keep it longer, such as Child Protection if legislation requires us to.
Transfers Overseas
Not applicable.