Our universal services are free to settings. We have designed our services to link into the graduated approach by offering support that can prevent the escalation of needs and lessen the necessity for more specialised interventions. By promoting inclusive and high-quality teaching practices and robust ordinarily available provision, our universal offer effectively addresses the needs of many children without requiring targeted, or specialised support.

In order to draw upon and share best practice in BCP and enable SENCo’s and Inclusion Leads to work collaboratively to support inclusion and high-quality provision; the EP service facilitate the SENCOs Supporting SENCOS Padlet and WhatsApp Groups.  

SENCo to Support SENCos

In light of the recent House of Commons Education Committee report, ‘Solving the SEND Crisis’, schools are being called to adopt more inclusive, needs-led practices. The BCP Educational Psychology Service offers a range of practical, evidence-based tools designed to help settings identify needs, plan interventions, and track progress effectively. These tools offer schools a practical framework to meet the report’s recommendations and embed lasting inclusive change. Available free of charge in PDF format and via our online IQM platform. For more information, contact iqm@bcpcouncil.gov.uk.

This academic year, our EPS team are focussing on using more of our time and expertise to strengthen the SEND systems, skills and support strategies being provided in schools. We are offering this thinking, alongside our ongoing advice and support for individual and groups of children with SEND, as we believe this dual approach is key to improving outcomes for all children and young people.

The Environmental SEND Audit (ESA) Tool (PDF attached) can be used as a quick rag rating to get a feel for where your school is at (which would take approximately 30 minutes to complete). It can also be used as a stimulus for deeper reflection and discussion, either in staff meetings, or with your link EP.

Completing the ESA audit tool offers several key benefits:

1. It offers a clear and shared understanding of your school’s unique profile of strengths and areas for development in relation to Whole School SEND. This can complement your whole school development plan and allows our service to tailor our advice and training to areas with the greatest potential impact.
2. It provides a shared framework for discussion, based on national best practice, and shifts the emphasis from a within-child model to an ecosystemic, whole-school approach, where everyone is involved in learning, growing and improving. We hope this will also reduce this number of requests for individualised involvement.
3. It provides valuable baseline data, so together we can identify patterns and trends across your school (and the EPS can use this data to identify wider trends across trusts and the broader BCP community). We can also revisit the tool, at a later date, to review progress and demonstrate the impact of our joint work.
4. It helps us showcase effective ways of thinking and working collaboratively for key accountability processes, such as future OfstedOfstedOfsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It inspects services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. It also inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.  inspections.

As a thank you for taking the time to complete the ESA, we are offering an additional 30 minutes of consultation time with your link EP, at no cost to your school, to support you with your next steps.