SEND Specialist Expertise

SENDCo and SEND Staff

Our SENDCo is Miss Kaye Hodgson and she completed her National Award in Special Educational Needs Coordination (NASENCO) in 2023. To contact Miss Hodgson, please use the Contact Us section of our website.

It is the SENDCo’s job to:

• Oversee the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEND policy.
• Liaise with the relevant Designated Teacher where a Child who is Looked After has SEND.
• Advise teachers on using a graduated approach to providing SEND support.
• Advise on the deployment of the school’s delegated budget and other resources to meet the pupil’s needs effectively.
• Liaise with parents / carers of pupils with SEND.
• Liaise with and be a key point of contact for external agencies.
• Ensure that the school keeps the records of all SEND pupils up to date.
• Work with the head teacher and school governors to ensure that the school meets its responsibilities regarding reasonable adjustments and access arrangements.

More details of the SENDCo’s role can be found in the SEND Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.

External Specialists and Other Bodies

At New Brancepeth Primary Academy we actively seek the involvement of parents and carers and other bodies to educate and meet the needs of children with SEND including external agencies and initiatives.  We work with an extensive range of services and professionals to ensure we meet the needs of each individual child. We encourage these professionals to visit school as often as possible to work with our staff and share their expertise.

The professionals within these agencies offer a wealth of knowledge and expertise for us to draw upon and ensure we meet the needs of all SEND children, no matter how complex, both in school and at home. Wherever possible, our staff implement programmes of work linked to these professionals e.g. Speech and Language programmes, exercises recommended by Occupational Therapists etc.

The external specialists may:

• Act in an advisory capacity
• Extend expertise of school staff
• Provide additional assessment
• Support a child directly
• Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
• Consult with all parties involved with the child

Each year, children with a wide range of SEND attend our school and we continually strive to cater for their unique needs and ensure that they develop a range of skills during their time with us.  As a result, we have built relationships with a large network of external agencies to consult with and offer support to children and staff respectively. Below is a list of the different types of agencies we work with regularly.  If you would like further details about any of these, please contact us.

These include:

• Durham County Council Local Offer
• Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
• ASC Team
• Behaviour Support Services / EWEL Team
• Community Nurse
• Community of Learning
• Dieticians
• Epilepsy Nurse
• Future Steps Consultancy – Occupational Therapy
• Northern Genetics Service, Centre for Life
• Next Steps Wellbeing Consultancy Counselling Service
• Occupational Health Service
• One Point Children’s Service
• Physiotherapy Service
• Durham Portage Worker Website
• Durham Educational Psychology Service
• Specialist Health Visitor
• Speech and Language Therapy
• The Service for Hearing Impaired
• The Service for the Visually Impaired 

How We Secure Specialist Expertise

The budget allocation is agreed between our school and the Local Authority at the beginning of each financial year. Detail of how this money is used to support children and young people with SEND is shown below. This is monitored each term by the Governing Body.

Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEND. At New Brancepeth Primary Academy, our notional SEND budget for 2025/2026 is: £80,395.00.

This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:

• Prioritising to tailor-made learning to ensure small steps of progress are continually made by all SEND learners.
• Purchasing Educational Psychology time to identify additional support for learners.
• Buying into the Crisis Response SLA to support our most vulnerable pupils.
• Buying into ASC / Cognition and Learning SLAs to support SEND pupils.
• Paying for the Next Steps Wellbeing Counselling Service to provide on-going support to children and parents.
• Training staff in relevant areas to meet and support the needs of SEND pupils.
• Providing direct support for children in terms of the staff that support them throughout the day to meet their needs.
• Purchasing a range of SEND resources (such as wobble cushions, wedged seating cushions, writing slopes and fidget toys) to support pupils.

If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes – Top Up Funding (TUF).  A Costed Provision Map (CPM) will be developed in liaison with the child, young person, parent, or carer with detailed evidence of supporting resources provided in school. This will itemise support and give detailed costing for all provision.