hearing or visually impaired; the educational psychology service; child health or child and adolescent mental health services; social services; and advisers or teachers with a knowledge of information technology for children with special educational needs.  Arrangements for securing help from these services will be affected by local policies, with which the SEN coordinator should be familiar.  LEAs should provide information to all schools in their area about the range of services available.  Help will also be available from publications on information technology and special educational provision, for example those produced by the National Council for Educational Technology (see Glossary).

2:102.   Paragraph 3:7 below recommends that LEAs should gather information from maintained schools about registered pupils who live in the LEA's area and who are at stage 3. To ensure that the LEA's records are up-to-date, the head teacher or SEN coordinator should tell the responsible LEA whenever a child moves to stage 3.

Information required

2:103.   The SEN coordinator and the child's class teacher or form/year tutor will consider:

·   all information gathered by the school over stages 1 and 2

·   reports of stage 2 reviews.

Assessing and meeting the child's needs

2:104.   The SEN coordinator should then call in an appropriate specialist from a support service.  This specialist will be qualified and experienced in the particular area of the child's special educational needs.  The school may turn to a range of professionals, such as those listed in paragraph 2:101.  Educational psychologists will play a key role in helping the school assess the information collected and the action taken to date; plan stage 3 special educational provision; and review that provision.

2:105   On the basis of all the information and advice gathered and the views of the external specialist, the SEN coordinator will decide whether:

·   to seek further advice from other agencies

and/or

·   to draw up a new individual education plan, including the involvement of support services.

2:106.   Whatever course of action is decided, the child's parents should be informed, wherever possible in person.