This is a guide to local support in Nottinghamshire for children and young people with SEND aged 13 to 16 years.
On this page
- Ways to use this guide
- Support from age 12 to 13 years
- Support from age 13 to 14 years
- Support from age 14 to 15 years
- Support from age 15 to 16 years
- Support from age 16 to 17 years
Ways to use this guide
This guide explains the SEND services available from education, health and care agencies to help you understand what is available across the system.
Watch a video 6-minute video animation of the SEND map for age 12 to 17 years [YouTube] or continue reading for the full transcript.
You can also download the full interactive guide as a PDF where you can navigate through the links and watch all the animations.
Download the full interactive guide to local support for age 0 to 25 years [PDF]
Support from age 12 to 13 years
Children in care (CIC) receive support from the virtual school, which is a team of people who monitor their education. They may have additional pupil premium funding to create opportunities for them. This funding is not specific to SEND needs, so children in care may have both SEND specific funding and the pupil premium.
Learn more about the Virtual School (Nottinghamshire County Council)
SEND support for schools
All schools receive funding to meet the needs of children with SEND in their school budget. Schools should make reasonable adjustments to include children with SEND in all aspects of school life.
Many children with SEND get the support they need through these processes. However, schools often need extra help to support the children with the most severe and complex needs.
If children are receiving extra help at school to meet their special educational needs, they should:
- have a Special Educational Needs (SEN) support plan like an individual education plan (IEP) or provision map
- be added to the school’s SEN support register.
Find out more about special educational needs support
Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO)
Every school has a special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) who is the point of contact for parents and carers with SEND in that school. In the first instance, if parents and carers have questions or concerns about their child's needs, they should raise these with the school, starting with the class teacher.
In addition, Ask Us Nottinghamshire has local information and advice support service for parents and carers with children with SEND.
Requesting additional funding for a school
If the school needs support to meet SEND needs, additional money can be requested. This is known as Additional Family Needs (AFN) funding. If more support is needed, a school can apply directly to the Local Authority’s High-Level Needs (HLN) panel.
More support through the springboard process can also be provided. The school SENCO would facilitate the support. This is a process where a multi-agency meeting is held once a term, providing a forum for SENCOs to seek mutual support and share expertise.
School Behaviour and Attendance Partnership (SBAP)
All districts in Nottinghamshire have a School Behaviour and Attendance Partnership (SBAP), where schools come together to offer support for children who need additional provision and intervention around behaviour, attendance and social, emotional and mental health needs.
Additional support for schools
Schools can also access advice and support from through the springboard process with:
Schools are organised into groups of schools called 'families of schools' and each family has a Family SENCO, who coordinates the specialist support and additional funding for that family of schools.
Neurodevelopmental assessment pathway
If there are identified needs, the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway may be followed.
Learn more about the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway (Nottinghamshire County Council)
The educational setting might be asked to fill out a referral form to identify a child or young person’s needs and make a plan of support.
The Physical Disability Specialist Services (PDSS) is responsible for providing specialist advisory support and may also be involved.
Continuing healthcare funding for ongoing health needs
A child may also be eligible for NHS continuing healthcare funding which is for children with the most severe and complex health needs.
Learn about NHS continuing healthcare (NHS)
Care-related support
The Children’s Occupational Therapy Team are a statutory social care service that offers assessments, specialist equipment and adaptations. The service will also be involved in Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) processes.
A local family hub can offer care related support, including weekly activities and support programmes. This may also include getting help from a Family Support Worker.
Find a local family hub in Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council)
Support from age 13 to 14 years
In year 9, you can start to think about transitioning into further education settings or alternative provision. This includes settings like a university, college or an apprenticeship.
Children’s social care is the provision of social work, personal care, protection or social support services.
Find out about how needs are assessed and the services involved on the SEND Local Offer's Social care support page.
Health-focused interventions
For health-focused interventions, support includes the:
- Healthy Family team who work closely with local GP practices, early years settings, schools, midwives, family hubs, social care and other services in each area. Visit Healthy Family Team (Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS)
- The Community Children and Young People’s Service includes speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, phlebotomy, the community nursing and training team. Learn about the Community Children and Young People's Service (Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS)
At this point, all health services start to think about a transition pathway into adulthood, including checking if you have the right services involved.
Consent to treatment for children under age 16 (Gillick Competent)
Children under the age of 16 years can consent to their treatment if they're believed to have enough intelligence, competence and understanding to fully appreciate what's involved in their treatment. This is known as being Gillick Competent.
Support from age 14 to 15 years
Annual health check
Anyone over the age of 14 years with a learning disability can have an annual health check. A health check once a year gives people time to talk about anything that is worrying them and means they can get used to going to visit the doctor. To receive an invite for an annual health check, a young person would need to be on their GP practice’s learning disability register.
Mental health support
If children have mental health needs, they may access all the local mental health services in one place on the Mental Health Support Services For People In Nottinghamshire (NottAlone)
For high-level or specialist mental health services, the child can be assessed through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) (Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust)
Mental Health Support Teams offer Early intervention in schools: Learn about mental health support in schools and colleges (NHS England)
For some children with the most severe and complex needs, they’ll have an Education Health and Care Plan.
They may also have a personal budget to support things like short breaks. Short breaks enables children and young people with disability to participate in positive activities which promote independence and provide parents or carers a break from caring.
Learn about SEND Local Offer - Short Breaks
They may also get a place in a special school. These schools provide an education for the children with the most complex needs in Nottinghamshire.
Youth Service (Nottinghamshire County Council)
The Youth Service is available to all young people from age 10 who live in Nottinghamshire. The service promotes positive activities, as well as offering focused youth work intervention, and supported referrals for children and young people with additional needs.
Learn more about the Youth Service (Nottinghamshire County Council)
Support from age 15 to 16 years
Towards the end of year 11, students think about the next phase of their education, including further education such as sixth form or college.
Health services in Nottinghamshire
Weight management support
At this point, health services are accessible for children and young people who require mild to moderate weight management support in Nottinghamshire. Young people who are significantly above a healthy weight with other related health issues are seen by the relevant service in the hospital department relating to their other healthcare issues.
Sexual health services
The local authority commissions open access, free and confidential sexual health services across the county to ensure people can have their sexual health or contraceptive needs met. In addition to this, some further services are available from participating GP practices and pharmacists.
Sexual health (Nottinghamshire County Council)
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children
The Disability Living Allowance can support the extra costs of looking after a child, who may have a wide range of medical conditions including behavioural and mental health as well as learning disabilities and developmental delay.
Learn more about the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children (GOV.UK)
Support from age 16 to 17 years
Maximising independence service (Nottinghamshire County Council)
The Maximising Independence Service aims to improve independence. Promoting Independence Workers will work with young people approaching adulthood on their goals for up to 12 weeks. It can help with improving skills in the home, budgeting, finding work and keeping well.
Find out about the Maximising Independence Service (Nottinghamshire County Council)
Transitions pathway for adulthood
There is also a transitions pathway to provide, information, advice and guidance on what should be happening at different stages as a young person makes their way towards adulthood. Specific teams are dedicated to supporting this preparation for adulthood.
Learn more about preparing for adulthood transitions
Young people with complex health needs
When young people with complex health needs are in school, health professionals can train and delegate tasks to school staff such as teaching assistants or personal care assistants.
There is a process under this for:
- community nurse links who can give advice and support
- community nurse training who can train school staff to do specific healthcare tasks
- a ventilated team for children who have ventilation for breathing.
Some further education, training settings or alternative provisions may also have in-house therapies depending on their individual offer.