Introduction to graduated response
Once a concern has been identified and some adjustments and support have been made within the setting over time, it may be concluded that the child has a special educational need and thus the setting must have regard to The Code of Practice (2015).
The Code of Practice (2015) explains a graduated approach to meeting special educational needs that incorporates an Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle with increasing detail and frequency of support dependant on need and progress over time.
The Council for Disabled Children (link) explains this graduated approach in detail with use of diagrams that are very clear and useful.
This section of the toolkit is divided into sections that explain the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle for each of the 4 broad areas of need - Communication and Interaction (Speech and Language and Social Communication), Cognition and Learning, Social, Emotional and Mental Health and Physical, Sensory and Medical (Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment and Medical Needs). However, these broad areas are not definitive and it is recognised that children are individual and needs can cut across more than one area so a number of these sections could be used for one child.
1. Assess: The first step is, with parents, to gather more information about the child's needs from as many sources as possible, for example, parental report, EYFS assessments, observations and other reports.
2. Plan/Do: The next step is to use the assessment information and to plan some additional support - this could involve some adaptions to the setting environment, intervention for the area of need or some additional adult support. It is also recommended that any additional support/intervention is written in a plan that includes the expected outcomes/targets for the child and takes into account the views of the parents and the child. The plan is then put into action for a period of time.
3. Review: After a period of time the setting and parents need to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions by reviewing the impact of the support on the child's progress. Actions from the review need to be agreed.
Further information about the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle can be found in each of the separate areas of need sections.