🧩 Support plans: when and how

Three kinds of plan

When does a child need one?

SEND support. Our SEND policy says:

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.From our SEND policy

That means a child who has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than most children of the same age, or a disability that stops them using what other children use. A plan is written when the SENCo, the key person and the parents have looked at the child’s needs together and agreed that support is needed. It often starts with:

• something a member of staff has noticed and raised;
• the 2-year progress check;
• progress that has stalled, even with good, adapted everyday practice;
• a parent’s worry, or a report from a speech and language therapist, health visitor or other professional;
• a diagnosis, or an EHC plan.

You do not need a diagnosis to ask for support — early conversations make the biggest difference.From our SEND page for families

Behaviour support. Our behaviour policy says:

From these observations and discussions, we will implement an individual behaviour support plan where a child’s behaviour involves aggressive actions towards other children and staff, for example hitting, kicking etc. The manager will complete risk assessments identifying any potential triggers or warning signs ensuring other children’s and staff’s safety at all times.From our Promoting Positive Behaviour policy

Repeated biting: the Biting policy says the manager carries out a risk assessment, particularly where a child bites repeatedly or has a special educational need that makes biting more likely.

Not on its own: one incident, a hard settling-in, or something you would expect at the child’s age. Record it (an observation, or a behaviour record) and keep watching. A plan comes from a pattern, and from talking to the parents.

What everyone does: you’ve noticed something

1. Write down what you actually see: when, how often, what you tried. Facts, not a label.
2. Talk to the child’s key person and your room leader.
3. Record it. A development worry goes on SEND: something noticed, which goes to the SENCo. Behaviour goes on a behaviour record, from the first time: that is how a pattern is seen.
4. The SENCo or manager takes it from there. You don’t have to decide whether it needs a plan, and you don’t need to be sure before you raise it.

How a plan is made: assess, plan, do, review

This is the graduated approach in our SEND policy. A behaviour support plan follows the same steps, with the manager’s risk assessment added.

1. Assess. The key person, the SENCo and the parents look at the child’s needs together.

   In identifying a child as needing SEND support, the key person, working with the SENCO and the child’s parents, will carry out an analysis of the child’s needs.From our SEND policy

2. Plan. The parents are told first. Then the plan is agreed with them.

   Where it is decided to provide SEND support, and having formally notified the parents, the key person and the SENCO, in consultation with the parents, will agree the outcomes they are seeking, the interventions and support to be put in place, the expected impact on progress, development or behaviour, and a clear date for review. Plans will take into account the views of the child.From our SEND policy

3. Do. The key person puts it into practice every day, with the SENCo’s support.

   The child’s key person will be responsible for working with the child on a daily basis.From our SEND policy

4. Review, at least termly. The key person and the SENCo look at what has changed, with the parents and the child’s views, and decide: carry on, change the plan, ask for a specialist assessment, or close it.

   Where there is little or no improvement in the child’s progress, more specialist assessment may be called for from specialist teachers or from health, social services or other agencies beyond the setting.From our SEND policy

   If a child needs more than the nursery can put in place, the next step can be an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. See the EHCP section of the SEND policy.

Who does what

Talking to parents about a plan

Most parents hear “plan” and think one of two things: something is wrong with my child, or they think I’m a bad parent. That is especially true of a behaviour plan. What you say in the first thirty seconds decides which conversation you then have, so start with what the plan is rather than what prompted it.

Say this early

• It is not a label. “This isn’t a diagnosis and it isn’t a label. It’s a written plan for what we do.”
• It is how we track support, not the child. “It’s so everyone in the room does the same thing, and so we can see in a few weeks whether it’s working.”
• It is meant to change things, and then stop. “We review it every few weeks. When it’s working, it ends.” A plan is a piece of scaffolding, not a permanent record.
• It stays with us. “It’s ours, for the room. It doesn’t go anywhere else.”
• School only if they want it. “When they move on, it only goes to school if you want it to — and some parents do, because it saves the new teacher starting from scratch.”

That last one is our published promise, not a kindness you are inventing: the privacy notice says information is shared with schools upon consent from the parents, to support the move.

And the part you must not soften

Worth avoiding

Three things that make it land better

• Not at the door, not at pick-up. Five minutes somewhere quiet, arranged, so they are not hearing it with a coat half on and other parents behind them.
• Ask before you tell. “What do you see at home?” first. Parents who helped write a plan follow it; parents who were handed one often do not.
• Name something the child is good at, and mean it. Not as a softener before bad news — because a plan built only on what goes wrong will miss the thing that fixes it.

There is a course that practises this: 🎓 Talking to Parents About a Plan — the five reassurances, the limit, and what to do when a parent is upset or says no. Reading it is not the same as having said it out loud.

[CONFIRM — owner / SENCo] Where a child has an EHCP, or a professional outside JLK is involved, information sharing may not be the parent’s choice alone. This page tells staff to promise only what we can keep, but the exact wording for those cases should be checked against the SEND policy before it is taught on a course.

Keeping it private

• Plans are kept by the SENCo and managers on the portal. The room has a printed room copy: keep it in the room file, not on display.
• Don’t photograph a plan, and don’t discuss a child’s plan with other parents or outside the team.
• A child’s name never goes in a group chat or on Discord.

For the SENCo and managers

Write and review plans in Support plans. You can start one from a concern on SEND Concerns or from the behaviour log, and the child’s details come with it. A new plan’s review date is set 12 weeks ahead by default; change it to suit the term. Every Monday, the SENCo and the site’s manager and deputy get a Hub reminder of reviews due in the next two weeks. It gives the number only, never names. Print the room copy for the key person and the parent copy for the parents to sign.

Learn more