Changes to Welfare Reform

From 1st April 2013 Council Tax Benefit will be abolished and replaced by Local Council Tax Support (LCTS)

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Meeting Special Educational Needs in Hartlepool schools

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All mainstream schools make provision for children with special educational needs. If you are the parent of a child with SEN you have the right to express a preference for any mainstream school in the same way as other parents.

A list of Schools in Hartlepool can be found via this link.

Pupils who are giving cause for concern to their teachers and require provision that is additional to the normal curriculum are placed at School Action and should have a set of personalised targets drawn up for them (often in an Individual Education Plan). When advice has been sought from an external professional and they have also become involved in drawing up and monitoring the IEP, the pupil is placed at School Action Plus.

The needs of pupils are considered individually on their merits and those with the most complex needs can proceed to a statutory assessment if the LA believes that it may need to determine the special educational provision required.

Hartlepool has established a number of special provisions in mainstream schools to meet the needs of children with particular types of SEN. This type of provision sits between special schools on the one hand and individual support for children with SEN in mainstream schools on the other.

They provide inclusive opportunities for children as they are all located in mainstream schools but they benefit from well established specialist staff and facilities. They are usually very popular with parents.

Additionally Resourced Provisions (ARPs) are located as follows:

School	Key Stages	SEN Category
Grange	1 & 2	Physical Disabilities and/or Medical Needs
Owton Manor	1 & 2	Speech Language & Communication Needs
Kingsley	1 & 2	Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Grange*	2	Moderate Learning Difficulties
High Tunstall	3 & 4	Physical Disabilities and/or Medical Needs
Manor College	3 & 4	Autistic Spectrum Disorder

*This ARP is to be closed in 2011/12

Admission to an ARP is normally dependent on a child having a statement of SEN, which specifies that the child requires a level of support and/or expertise that would not be found generally in mainstream schools.

The LA maintains one special school for children aged 3 - 11 (Springwell) and one for young people aged 11 - 19 (Catcote). Both schools have specialist provision for a range of needs including severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties, behavioural, emotional and social difficulties and Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Further information can be obtained from the schools:

Springwell School Tel. 01429 280600
Catcote School Tel. 01429 264036