What is a statement/Note in Lieu?
Once the LA’s Case officers have collected all the advice and comments about your child’s educational needs, they will decide whether to make a statement of SEN for your child. They will normally tell you their decision no more than 12 weeks after they decided to carry out an assessment.
The statement describes:
what your child’s special needs are;
the objectives, or targets to be achieved;
how those targets are going to be met – the educational provision required;
the monitoring arrangements;
the school or pre-school setting your child will attend;
any non-educational needs your child has and how those will be met.
A statement of SEN is set out in 6 parts:
Part 1 gives your child’s details, such as name and address, age, home language and religion. It also gives your name and address as the person responsible for the child. Finally, it lists all the advice that has been used to produce the statement, with the name of the author and the date on which it was written.
Part 2 gives details of all of your child’s Special Educational Needs as identified in the assessment. It should give a complete picture of your child, including his or her strengths.
Part 3 describes:
What the long term aims, or objectives are;
all the special help that the LA think your child should get in school (or pre-school setting) to cover all the learning difficulties in Part 2, even where some of the provision will be made by direct intervention on the part of the authority, and some will be made by the school from within its own resources. This should normally be quantified, (in terms of hours of support and staffing arrangements) although there will be cases where some flexibility should be given to the school, in order to meet the changing needs of the child concerned.
The LA must specify appropriate facilities and equipment, support arrangements and access to the curriculum, with any modifications to or exclusions from the National Curriculum. It is the LA who is responsible for ensuring that the provision in the statement is made, irrespective of who actually delivers it, including speech and language therapy support, if appropriate,the arrangements for setting short-term goals, regularly reviewing your child’s progress towards those goals, and how your child’s progress is to be monitored.
Part 4 sets out the name of the school or pre-school your child will go to, in order to get the special help set out in part 3, or how any arrangements will be made out of school hours or off school premises. Before the statement is issued, the LA must send you a proposed statement, with this part left blank. You will be given an opportunity to tell the LA which school you prefer, or to agree to a proposed provision. The LA will advise you how to do this. Details of how to choose a placement for your child are given in Fact Sheet 6(Parents' Guide, for download below).
Part 5 describes any non-educational needs your child has, as agreed between the LA and the health services, social services and other agencies.
Part 6 described how these non-educational needs are to be met.
Note in Lieu
Following on from the assessment, the LA may decide that your child’s school or pre-school setting can provide the special help he or she needs without the need for a Statement of SEN. In this case you will be sent a Note in Lieu, which will:
describe your child’s Special Educational Needs;
explain why the LA has decided not to make a Statement;
make recommendations about the appropriate provision for your child, which may recommend the need for additional advice
support and teaching from specialist staff.
All the advice and reports that were collected during the Statutory Assessment process will be sent with the Note in Lieu.
Information about what to do if you do not agree with a decision is given in Fact Sheet 7(Parents' Guide)
For further information, please view or download by clicking the SEN Parents' Guide (
Microsoft Word, size 174kb) (MS Word).
Contact Us
Special Educational Needs(SEN)
Children's Services and Lifelong Learning
London Borough of Hounslow
The Civic Centre
Lampton Road
Hounslow
Middlesex TW3 4DN
Tel: 020 8583 2624/2673
Fax: 020 8583 2613
Minicom: 020 8583 2618