Referral criteria and pupil profile

Each Specialist Resource Base (SRB) specialism has different eligibility criteria depending on the need for which it caters.

It would be expected that school-based interventions have not been effective in enabling the identified learners to make progress in line with their assessed ability.

Pupil profile for Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC)

Learners who access provision through the Autism Base will typically fit the following profile:

Are in the age range appropriate to the school
Will exhibit significant difficulties with social communication difficulties and 'restricted/repetitive behaviours'.
Unusual sensitivity to sensory stimuli which hinders or prevents them from engaging in mainstream education
May have a diagnosis of autism but not essential for entry
Are likely to hold an Education Health & Care Plan, but this is not necessary for placement
Live within 45 minutes in KS1 or 60 minutes for KS2-KS4 travel time by car to the Base
May have a range of secondary needs, such as speech, language & communication, specific learning difficulty, physical, medical or sensory needs
Have the underlying cognitive ability to access a mainstream school curriculum once barriers to learning have been addressed
Would not usually meet the criteria for a complex needs school, except for Sprowston Infant's Complex Needs Base
Have high levels of anxiety related to confusion and/or fear of what is happening in the immediate environment such that the ability to learn is severely compromised
Have extreme difficulties in the understanding and acceptance of age-appropriate social rules governing, for example, turn-taking, collaborative activities and the sharing of adult attention
Have a lack of awareness, to a greater or lesser extent, or even apparent disregard of personal safety and that of others
Have a strong and obtrusive adherence to routines and rituals which makes any change of routine very challenging and may even provoke defiance or other negative reactions
Experience considerable, persistent and pervasive problems in establishing and sustaining relationships with peers
Exhibit egocentric behaviour that fails to consider others in a way which would be viewed as age-appropriate behaviour in any particular situation
The absence of other primary reasons or causes for these difficulties

Pupil profile for Learning and Cognition Needs (LCN)

Learners who access provision through the LCN Base will typically fit the following profile:

Are in primary phase and referred prior to Year 6
May or may not hold an Education Health & Care Plan
Live within 45 minutes travel time by car to the Base
Have assessed additional needs which primarily relate to learning difficulties but which may also encompass a range of secondary needs such as speech language & communication, specific learning difficulty, or physical, medical or sensory needs
May have emerging or unmet social, emotional and/or mental health needs in addition to learning difficulties
Be on roll at a mainstream school which has already deployed delegated school resources to support the learner but without improving outcomes
Have the potential to reintegrate into a mainstream school setting relevant to their age and stage of development and benefit from a differentiated mainstream curriculum
Would not meet the criteria for complex needs schools
May have persistent difficulty with the acquisition of a specific skill necessary to access the curriculum, despite ongoing support and targeted intervention
Will have an identifiable barrier to learning which has contributed to their lack of 'adequate progress'
May have difficulties with independent learning skills (including fluency, generalisation and organisation) or present with low self-confidence as a learner

Pupil profile for Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH)

Learners who access provision through the SEMH Base will typically fit the following profile:

Are in primary phase and referred in line with the age range for the base
May or may not hold an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
Live within 45 minutes travel time by car to the Base
Have assessed additional needs which appear primarily to relate to SEMH rather than being secondary to another need such as ASD
Must be on roll at a Norfolk mainstream school
The home school will have implemented Provision Expected at SEN Support and demonstrated that this has not had the desired impact
May have difficulties forming relationships with adults
May have difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships with children in learning or play activities
May have significant difficulties in following class and school expectations
May demonstrate behaviours that have a negative impact on their and others' achievement and progress in class
May demonstrate extreme emotional and behavioural response when given instructions or challenged
May have significant difficulties in regulating their own emotions and require support regularly to regulate their emotions
May have underlying social, emotional and mental health needs formally diagnosed by professionals
May experience significant difficulty in interacting positively with peers and/or adults
Should not meet the criteria for a special school on initial assessment
Have the ability to reintegrate into a mainstream school setting relevant to their age and stage of development once barriers to learning have been overcome
May have a history of adverse childhood experiences, and/or limited opportunities to develop skills within attuned nurturing relationships
May find elements of their environments, or interactions, overwhelming, and have difficulties regulating their emotional and behavioural responses to them

Pupil profile for Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)

Learners who access provision through the SLCN Base will typically fit the following profile:

Are aged 4-7 at point of referral
Are experiencing a severe, persisting speech disorder (usually Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia/DVD) which makes speech unintelligible out of context to most listeners
Have a severe expressive language disorder more than one standard deviation below the norm for age (e.g. telegrammatic language, word-finding difficulties) as assessed by a professional speech and language therapist
Have an understanding of speech within the average range

Reports will indicate:

Proven ability to benefit from intensive, daily speech and language therapy
Verbal comprehension within an age-appropriate range (N.B. if outside age-appropriate range, there must be the potential for the child to make accelerated progress in comprehension due to intensive speech and language therapy, such that they will achieve comprehension within age-appropriate limits
The child's difficulties are primarily speech/language based, rather than secondary to general learning delay or emotional or behavioural difficulty
The impairment cannot be attributed to generalised learning difficulties and it does not resolve spontaneously

The placement request will identify explicit 'learning outcomes' for the child, which may relate to:

maximising the potential for the development of the child's receptive and expressive language skills
facilitating the development of the child's speech sound skills so as to increase the child's level of intelligibility
developing linguistic skills to a level where the child no longer requires intensive speech and language therapy and can access a full curriculum in a mainstream setting

Pupil profile for Specialist Hubs of Inclusive Practice (SHIPs)

SHIPs are for children who have co-occurring needs that present barriers to learning that require on-going and often individualised support but who can, and would benefit from, accessing aspects of a mainstream school offer. Children may have an identified learning disability that presents a level of cognitive need which hinders or prevents their ability to access mainstream school curriculum at age related expectations. Children will often require high levels of support to maintain focus on learning, even for short periods.

Learners who access provision through the SHIP will typically fit the following profile:

Are in the age range appropriate to the school
Have identified learning needs
May display traits akin to a neurodiverse profile of needs
Will have secondary needs, such as speech, language and communication; specific learning difficulty; physical; medical; sensory; social, emotional, mental health
Have the underlying potential to access aspects of a mainstream school offer once needs have been identified and strategies have been implemented
Have co-occurring needs and require support to access mainstream provision
Access to the mainstream school offer will be individual to the child and will be flexible to enable needs to be well supported, allowing for successful inclusion
Where identification of needs descriptors in educational settings (INDES) are in place, they are likely to be in the higher domains across the majority of indicators
Live within the maximum home to school transport time of the SHIP

Deaf Resource bases

It would be expected that learners have an assessed need over and above that which could be offered in a local mainstream school through the Local Offer, and that they typically fit the following profile:

Are in the age range appropriate to the school
Are likely to hold an Education Health & Care Plan or undergoing statutory assessment
May have a range of secondary needs, such as speech, language & communication, specific learning difficulty, or behavioural, emotional, social, physical, medical needs
Have the underlying cognitive ability to access a mainstream school curriculum once barriers to learning have been addressed
Each case will be considered on an individual basis. The following will be used as general guidance according to the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD):

Admission to the KS3/KS4 Deaf Resource base support will be based on the following criteria in addition to the above:

Are able to access the mainstream curriculum
It would not be appropriate for students who would be unable to usefully access, even with support, the majority of the mainstream curriculum. This would result in most of their timetabled day being spent potentially isolated from their peers.
Learners aged 5-18 whose general cognitive profile should enable them to access a mainstream curriculum once barriers to learning have been addressed
- The barriers to learning will relate primarily to learning and cognition difficulties, but there may be associated secondary difficulties such as behaviour, communication or sensory issues
- Learners whose barriers to learning have been assessed by a competent person (i.e. one whose qualifications permit them to do so) as relating to a specific learning difficulty