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Lewis, Joe

Bolton, Paul

Sandford, Mark

Further education funding in England

2023 Industry Training Board (ITB) review : Transforming the construction workforce : January 2025

Guidance
Special educational needs
(SEN) and disabilities:
guidance for school
governing boards
Updated 3 February 2025
Applies to England
Purpose of this guidance
This guidance is intended to:
support school governing boards’ understanding of their role and responsibilities
in relation to children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and
disabilities
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Home Education, training and skills Running and managing a school School governance
SEN and disability duties: guidance for school governing boards
Department 
for Education
Contents
Purpose of this guidance
The role and responsibilities of the governing board
SEN and disability checklist
Use of data
Further resources
empower governors and trustees to hold their schools to account
The board is the decision-making body of the school and is accountable and
responsible for what the school does. It is vital that boards play an active role in
providing support and challenge, to ensure schools are providing the best support
for pupils with SEN and disabilities.
School governing boards have responsibilities to children and young people with
SEN and disabilities under the Children and Families Act 2014 (the 2014 Act) and to
disabled children and young people under the Equality Act 2010.
The governing board should be taken to mean the accountable body for the school
or group of schools. In local authority maintained schools, this will be the governing
body and in an academy trust this will be the trust board. (Committees that have
been delegated functions by the board should consider guidance to the board, to
the extent that it relates to their delegated responsibilities).
The role and responsibilities of the
governing board
The board is responsible for setting the values, culture and tone of the organisation.
This includes creating an environment in which all pupils can thrive and play a full part
in the life of the school.
Boards play an important role in ensuring high quality outcomes for pupils with SEN
and disabilities. The board, in collaboration with executive and senior leaders, should
establish the school’s policy and strategy for addressing the SEN and disability
requirements of pupils.
While overall responsibility rests with the board, there should be a lead member of
the governing body or a sub-committee with specific oversight of the school’s
arrangements for SEN and disability. The lead member will:
champion the school’s support for pupils with SEN and disabilities, including good
practice in pupil engagement
ensure that the board has the information it needs for assurance about the
school’s practice
work closely with the head teacher or principal, senior leadership team and (in the
case of mainstream schools) the SENCO
Responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 may benefit from the oversight of the
same lead governor, trustee or sub-committee as the 2014 Act responsibilities or
they may sit with other equalities responsibilities.
There is a close connection between the duties relating to SEN and equality duties
relating to disability. For example, equality objectives and information should typically
include matters relating to the experience of disabled pupils and their education and
employment outcomes. Some disabled pupils will also have SEN.
The board should get appropriate and regular training to help it discharge its duties
in relation to SEN and disability and to help ensure the best possible outcomes for
those pupils.
The maintained school governance guide and academy trust governance
guide provide information on the knowledge, skills and effective behaviours required
by the board. This guidance should be used in conjunction with the SEN and
disability information in the compliance section of the guides. This has more detail
on the relevant legal duties and responsibilities placed on governors and trustees.
Legal duties owed by boards in relation to pupils with SEN and disabilities are set
out in Part 3 of the 2014 Act, the Equality Act 2010, and related regulations. This
includes a duty on boards to have regard, when exercising relevant SEN and
disability functions, to the SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years.
SEN and disability checklist
Governors and trustees should ask the right questions of senior leaders to assure
themselves that the school is providing appropriate support for pupils with SEN and
disabilities. Whilst not an exhaustive list, this checklist can help governing boards to
understand their role and responsibilities in providing appropriate support and
challenge when those responsibilities are not being met.
Checklist 
Governors and trustees will wish to be assured that:
the school promotes an inclusive culture
there is effective communication and engagement between the school and
parents of pupils with SEN and disabilities
parents are involved closely in keeping the school’s general SEN and disability
policy and practice under review
the pupil voice is central to decisions about support for those with SEN and
disabilities, at both individual and school level
funding, including SEN funding, is allocated and spent effectively
the school works effectively with the local authority in reviewing the SEN and
disability provision available locally and developing the SEN and disabilities Local
Offer
staff have the expertise needed to support those with SEN and disabilities and
that the school has access to external specialist skills where required
Governors and trustees should be satisfied with how the school:
identifies a pupil with SEN or a disability and how it uses the ‘graduated approach’
to respond to that need
monitors the progress and development of pupils with SEN and disabilities
supports pupils in Preparing for Adulthood at each age and stage, and monitors
outcomes and destinations - some tools and resources are available from the
National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi).
Governors and trustees of mainstream schools should also ensure that a qualified
teacher or the head teacher is designated as the SENCO and that they:
achieve the relevant mandatory qualification within 3 years of appointment
have sufficient administrative support and time away from teaching to enable them
to fulfil their responsibilities in a similar way to other important strategic roles within
the school
are empowered to support high quality outcomes for pupils with SEN and
disabilities
Schools have a duty to prepare and regularly update:
a SEN Information Report
equality information - information to demonstrate compliance with the Public
Sector Equality Duty
equality objectives
an accessibility plan (setting out how the school plans to increase access for
disabled pupils to the curriculum, the physical environment and to information)
Governors and trustees should also be familiar with the school’s SEN and disability
policy and ensure that it is reviewed regularly (working with parents and pupils) to
reflect changing needs of the school community.
Governors and trustees will wish to be assured that these documents help the
school to:
understand the impact of its policies, practices and decisions on different groups
of pupils
identify areas of inequality that may need to be addressed
help plan for the school to be increasingly inclusive over time
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidance for schools on Publishing
equality information has more information.
Use of data
It is an important part of a board’s role to analyse school performance data and build
an evidence base to underpin its strategic oversight. In relation to SEN and disability
the board may find the following data sets useful:
data on the population of those with SEN or disabilities in the school and
comparisons with data from neighbouring schools, the local authority and
nationally
what percentage of the school population has SEN or a disability (mainstream
settings)
what percentage is at SEN Support (mainstream settings)
what percentage has an education, health and care (EHC) plan (mainstream
settings)
what the breakdown is of pupils with SEN or a disability by category of need
data relating to SEN funding information, for example, notional SEN funding and
top up funding, and:
how that funding is spent and its impact
if that funding is targeted strategically based on what is known of the school
SEN and disability profile
if the funding provided for those with SEN and disabilities is contributing to
improved progress and if so, how
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Further resources
SEND Governance Review Guide has information on the 6 features of effective
governance and a framework on how to ensure that pupils with SEN and
disabilities access high-quality provision
Early Years SEND Review Guide helps early years settings evaluate the
effectiveness of their provision for children with SEN and disabilities - useful for
boards of maintained nursery schools
Equality Act 2010 and disabled pupils: a guide for governors and trustees – a
detailed guide from the Council for Disabled Children
Commissioning high-quality trusts has guidance on how the department makes
decisions on the creation, consolidation and growth of academy trusts (including
the 9 descriptors of a high quality and inclusive trust) - useful for schools that are
academy trusts
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Special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities: guidance for school governing boards : Updated 3 February 2025

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You can use these tables to convert raw scores to scaled scores for the 2025 key
stage 2 (KS2) national curriculum tests.
A scaled score between 100 and 120 shows the pupil has met the expected
standard in the test. The lowest scaled score that can be awarded on a KS2 test is
80. The highest score is 120.
Pupils need to have a raw score of at least 3 marks to be awarded the minimum
scaled score.
For further information, please also refer to our guidance on understanding scaled
scores at KS2.
English grammar, punctuation and
spelling
Raw score Scaled score
0-2 No scaled score
3 80
4 80
5 82
Guidance
2025 key stage 2 scaled score
conversion tables
Published 8 July 2025
Menu
Home Education, training and skills School curriculum Primary curriculum, key stage 2 English (key stage 2)
Key stage 2 tests: 2025 scaled scores
Standards
& Testing
Agency
Contents
English grammar, punctuation
and spelling
English reading
Mathematics
6 83
7 84
8 85
9 86
10 86
11 87
12 88
13 89
14 89
15 90
16 90
17 91
18 92
19 92
20 93
21 93
22 94
23 94
24 95
25 95
26 96
27 96
28 97
29 97
30 98
31 98
32 98
33 99
34 99
35 100
36 100
37 101
38 101
39 102
40 102
41 103
42 103
43 104
44 104
45 105
46 105
47 106
48 106
49 107
50 108
51 108
52 109
53 109
54 110
55 111
56 111
57 112
58 113
59 114
60 115
61 116
62 117
63 118
64 119
65 120
66 120
67 120
68 120
69 120
70 120
English reading
Raw score Scaled score
0-2 No scaled score
3 80
4 80
5 82
6 83
7 84
8 85
9 86
10 87
11 88
12 89
13 89
14 90
15 91
16 92
17 92
18 93
19 94
20 95
21 95
22 96
23 97
24 97
25 98
26 99
27 99
28 100
29 101
30 101
31 102
32 103
33 104
34 104
35 105
36 106
37 107
38 108
39 109
40 110
41 111
42 112
43 113
44 114
45 116
46 117
47 119
48 120
49 120
50 120
Mathematics
Raw score Scaled score
0-2 No scaled score
3 80
4 80
5 80
6 81
7 82
8 83
9 84
10 84
11 85
12 85
13 86
14 86
15 87
16 87
17 88
18 88
19 89
20 89
21 89
22 90
23 90
24 91
25 91
26 91
27 92
28 92
29 92
30 92
31 93
32 93
33 93
34 94
35 94
36 94
37 94
38 95
39 95
40 95
41 95
42 96
43 96
44 96
45 96
46 97
47 97
48 97
49 97
50 98
51 98
52 98
53 98
54 99
55 99
56 99
57 99
58 100
59 100
60 100
61 100
62 101
63 101
64 101
65 101
66 102
67 102
68 102
69 102
70 102
71 103
72 103
73 103
74 103
75 104
76 104
77 104
78 105
79 105
80 105
81 105
82 106
83 106
84 106
85 106
86 107
87 107
88 107
89 108
90 108
91 108
92 109
93 109
94 109
95 110
96 110
97 111
98 111
99 112
100 112
101 113
102 113
103 114
104 115
105 116
106 117
107 118
108 119
109 120
110 120
Back to top
Help us improve GOV.UK
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visit today. Please fill in this survey (opens in a new tab).
Services and information
Benefits
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Education and learning
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Environment and countryside
Housing and local services
Money and tax
Passports, travel and living abroad
Visas and immigration
Working, jobs and pensions
Government activity
Departments
News
Guidance and regulation
Research and statistics
Policy papers and consultations
Transparency
How government works
Get involved
Help  Privacy  Cookies  Accessibility statement  Contact  Terms and conditions
Rhestr o Wasanaethau Cymraeg  Government Digital Service
 All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated
© Crown copyright


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