What is the graduated approach?
The graduated approach (PDF, 65 KB) starts at whole-school level. Teachers are continually assessing, planning, implementing and reviewing their approach to teaching all young people. However, where a concern is identified, the four stages of the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle, known as the Graduated Approach, are implemented in order to identify and meet the Special Educational Needs of the individual. This cycle allows earlier decisions and actions to be revisited, refined and revised. Individualised assessment leads to a growing understanding of the barriers to, and gaps in, the young person’s learning and development. Continual reflection on approaches to meeting the young person’s needs leads to a growing understanding of strategies that enable the pupil to make good progress and achieve good outcomes.
For some young people, an appropriate level of support will be identified and maintained until it is no longer required, the approach can be withdrawn, and the young person can exit the Graduated Approach cycle. For other young people, the Graduated Approach will result in increasingly personalised approaches, more frequent review, and more specialist expertise, in successive cycles, in order to tailor interventions to meet the particular needs of young people. Very occasionally, cycles of support following the Graduated Approach provide evidence that further support may be required. A request for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) can be made.
More information about the Graduated Approach:
- NASEN's guide
- SEN support: research evidence on effective approaches and examples of current practice in good and outstanding schools and college (PDF, 574KB)
- Special Education Needs in Mainstream Schools: Education Endowment Foundation