This is a legal document drawn up by The Learning Trust which describes a child's Special Educational Needs and details the help they should receive. If the Learning Trust decides to issue a Statement it considers the recommendations of all the reports collected during the Statutory Assessment and sends the parents a proposed Statement. This describes the child's Special Educational Needs and gives details of the extra help the child will get.

The Learning Trust will classify the pupil's needs as being of 'high' or 'low' incidence based on how severe and complex they are and the degree of difficulty they create for the child in gaining full access to the school curriculum. High incidence needs are funded from the school's existing budget. Low incidence needs receive special funding from the Learning Trust.

Parents are invited to give their views on the proposals set out in the Statement and on which school they would like their child to attend. The Hackney Parent Partnership Service may be able to help at this stage.

The Trust seeks to meet a pupil's needs within a mainstream school whenever possible. However, there are exceptional cases when it is felt that the child should attend one of the Trust's Special Schools , a school with Resourced Provision or a specialist school in a neighbouring borough. Once agreement has been reached on the proposed resources and the school placement the final Statement is written.

All Statements are reviewed annually at a meeting held at the school to which the parents/carers and a representative of the Learning Trust are invited. This meeting will:

• assess the child's progress towards meeting the goals specified in the Statement
• assess the success at meeting specified targets over the past year
• plan the aims for the following year
• consider whether the Statement needs amending or should be discontinued

Related Material:
Hackney Parent Partnership Service
Resourced Provision
Special Schools