If you think your child or young person may have a difficulty that has not been identified, you should talk to the teacher, the special educational needs coordinator (SENCO), or the headteacher straight away.

Schools, colleges and other settings can help most children and young people to overcome the barriers that their difficulties present quickly and easily. Schools, colleges, playgroups and nurseries will have their own provision for children with special educational needs listed on their website.

If your child hasn't started school yet, you can find out more about the support available in the early years support pages.

Schools must follow a graduated approach to supporting children and young people with special educational needs. SENDIASS have produced this helpful video that explains the graduated response.

Herefordshire Council has created an all-age graduated approach flowchart and one page summary of the graduated approach which shows the steps educational settings should take when supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.

There is also more detailed guidance for schools on the graduated approach and what the different levels of support should look like in an educational setting. It is used by mainstream settings to work with families and children to identify how best to meet each child's support needs.

Education, health and care plans

Some children and young people need more specialist help and support and may require an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in order to access a mainstream setting.

Find out how to request an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.

For a small number of children a mainstream setting might not be the most appropriate placement to meet their special educational needs, and a more specialist placement will be required.

You can find lots of information about special educational needs on the government website.

You can also find information on what help is available if you care for a disabled child on the government website.