Assess, Plan, Do, Review Cycle

The SEND Code of Practice 0-25 promotes the use of the ‘assess, plan, do, review cycle’.

This cycle can be used to meet the needs of children/young people and improve practice at many levels ensuring that:

• individual children/young people at SEN support and those with an EHC plan receive the best possible provision and achieve positive outcomes
• SEN provision made by an educational setting evolves to meet the needs of all children/young people with SEN
• the EHC needs assessment, planning and review processes support children/young people, their families and educational setting

Evidencing the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle - for individual children and young people 

Assess - clear analysis is made of needs based on:

• views of the child/young person and their parents / carers
• teacher assessments and observations
• pupil’s current attainment
• pupil’s previous progress and attainment
• tracking of progress and comparisons with national data
• assessments by external agencies if appropriate.

Plan - following assessment, the teacher, SENCO, parent / carers and pupil, agree on a plan of action to include:

• time limited outcomes for the pupil
• the adjustments, support and interventions to be put in place
• a date for review

All planning must be pupil centred and outcomes focused and recorded.

Do - all the pupil’s teachers and support staff are made aware of the plan and implement the adjustments, support and interventions.  Teachers are responsible for:

• differentiating and personalising the curriculum
• delivery of ‘additional and different’ provision  for a pupil with SEN
• planning, support and impact measurement of all group and one-to-one interventions delivered by support staff
• linking interventions to classroom teaching

The SENCO supports teachers in the effective implementation of provision

Review - the quality, effectiveness and impact of provision is evaluated by the review date.

This includes sharing information with pupil and parent/carers and seeking their views.

The cycle then starts again at assess with the updated needs of the pupil being considered before planning a continuation of or change to provision.

A template for recording the cycle of Assess, Plan, Do, Review can be found here -

Using the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle –  to inform whole school developments and update the school SEN Information Report

Every school must publish an SEN Information Report (see SEND Code of Practice 6.79 – 6.83 p106 - 107) 

This document must be dated and updated annually.  This is an ideal time for each school to:

• review the provision that has been made over the last year
• assess the changes that need to be made to provision
• plan for the coming year
• recording what the school will do.