What is SEND?

SEN stands for ‘Special Educational Needs’. According to Clause 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014, a child or young person has special educational needs (SEN) if they have a learning disability or difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them and has:

1. A significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or
2. A disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions. The ‘D’ in SEND refers to ‘disability’. 
    

How is disability defined?

According to the Equality Act 2010, a disability is “a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” Long term is defined as “a year or more” and “substantial” is defined as “more than minor or trivial”. This definition includes sensory impairments, such as sight or hearing loss, and long-term health conditions, such as epilepsy or diabetes.

An individual with a disability, as defined above, may not have special educational needs, but many do have co-occurring conditions, which would cover both definitions.

Learning disabilities relate to impairments in cognition and learning and can be mild, moderate, severe, profound, or multiple. They are distinct from Specific Learning Disabilities (SpLDs), which affect a particular aspect of learning and cognition, such as language and literacy (dyslexia), motor coordination (dyspraxia/DCD – Developmental Coordination Disorder) or attention and impulse control (ADHD/ADD).