The early years practitioner works together with a child’s parents and the setting’s SENCo to assess a child’s needs. They should regularly assess the child to make sure the right support can be put into place.

Where the child makes little or no progress, specialist assessment from outside professionals may be needed.

Where outside professionals are not already working with the setting, the SENCo discusses this with the child’s parents to get their agreement.

The child’s parents, key person and SENCO agree:

• outcomes they are seeking for the child
• interventions and support to be put in place
• how they expect the interventions to impact upon the child’s progress
• a review date

  Interventions should:

• be strategies and support provided by practitioners with the relevant skills
• include a range of learning opportunities and differentiated activities to meet the outcomes identified for the child

  All information should be captured in a Bristol SEND Support Plan, which includes a section on agreed outcomes and an individual provision plan.

The practitioner, usually the child’s key person, is responsible for supporting the child each day and putting in place the agreed interventions.

The setting’s SENCO should:

• support the key person in assessing the child’s response to the actions
• provide advice on how to put the interventions in place effectively

The setting works with the child’s parents to:

• review the child’s progress in line with the agreed date
• evaluate the impact and quality of support
• agree any changes to the outcomes, depending on the child’s progress

If outside professionals are involved they should also be invited to attend regular reviews.