SEND notifications - Section 23 notice and referral guidance

SEND notifications - Section 23 notice and referral guidance - SEND notification only or SEND notification and referral received by local authority

  1. Notifications, referrals and supporting evidence scanned and sent electronically to Leads of Service (LoS) in:
    • Education - Early Years Inclusion Team (EYIT), Sensory Support Service (SSS)
    • Health
    • Social Care (Children’s Disabilities Team)
  2. LoS responds with following information:
    • Whether the child is already known to their service.
    • If child is known, responses to include updated information of service involvement and name of keyworker or lead professional from that service.
    • If child is not known, does the information and accompanying evidence or referral indicate a response from that service?
  3. If the child is known to an education service already, the local authority will inform the referrer and liaise with them to facilitate joint working to support the child and family.
  4. If response from an education service indicates that the child is not known but support of the child’s needs is required, that service will contact parent/carers to arrange support and liaise with other services involved. Local authority will inform the referrer of this.

If response from education services indicate that no education support is required currently by EYIT, SSS then:

  • Where a child attends an Early Years setting the local authority will inform the setting of the notification and/or referral. The relevant paperwork will be sent to the setting. EYIT will work with the setting to ensure they follow a graduated response and use SEN support arrangements to meet needs, if required.

or

  • Where a child does not attend an Early Years setting the local authority will acknowledge the notification and/or the referral. Parents/carers will be sent an acknowledgement that the local authority has received the notification and/or the referral. They will be signposted to the Local Offer e.g., Children and Family Centres, SLT drop-ins, and advised that no further action will be taken at this time. The referrer will be advised to make a referral into the local authority should the child’s needs increase and indicate that an education assessment is required.