The definition of SEN

‘A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty if he or she:

a)     Has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

b)    Has a disability which prevents of hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for other in the same age in mainstream schools of mainstream post-16 institutions.

(SEN: Code of Practice 2014 p14)

The definition of disability

Many children and young people who have SEN may also have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 – that is…’a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.’  This definition provides a relatively low threshold and includes more children then many realise: ‘long term’ is defined as a ‘year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor of trivial’.

(SEN Code of Practice 2014 p5)