Supporting learners with SEND at the Hospital Education Service 

The Hospital Education Service (HES) forms part of the Education Entitlement Team in Coventry and works in partnership with the local authority’s SEND team and Alternative Provision offer.

Our School SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) is Kay Griffin. 

The referral routes for HES include commissioning via the Local Authority’s ESNAAP (Extended Non-Attendance Advisory Panel) through which Coventry Schools identify specific pupils for advice. As such, at HES all pupils are identified on the HES Register of Additional Need as being at our Tier 1 support, which we equate to ‘SEND Support’. Pupils arrive to HES with established needs as identified by their donor school and will typically be centred around communication and interaction difficulties and SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health) needs.

We support our pupils with the following:

  • provision of a smaller setting
  • higher staff-to-student ratio
  • curriculum with a strong social-emotional component
  • Learning personalisation
  • Smaller teaching groups
  • Staff body with a high level of expertise in working with ASC and SEMH needs. 

Where a pupil is viewed to require more formalised support through an Educational Health Care Plan, HES will liaise with the home school to initiate statutory assessment and contribute to the statutory assessment process.

This process is outlined in more detail within our ‘SEND Information Report’ and follows national guidance [https://www.gov.uk/children-with-special-educational-needs/extra-SEN-help].

Key SEND information