What is a Section 23 process?
- A legal duty from the Child and Families Act requiring health professionals to notify the local authority when they believe a child under compulsory school age has, or is likely to have, Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND).
- Designed to support the earliest possible identification of children who may require additional support and ensure that appropriate services can respond in a timely way.
How should it work ideally?
- Health professionals identify developmental, communication, learning, sensory, physical or social-emotional concerns at the earliest opportunity.
- Parents are informed and involved in discussions about concerns and next steps.
- A Section 23 notification is submitted promptly to the local authority.
- Information is shared effectively between health, education and SEND services.
- Children and families are signposted to relevant support and early intervention services.
- Agencies work together to assess needs, plan support and monitor progress.
- Children are tracked to ensure emerging needs are not missed and support is reviewed as required.
How can a good Section 23 process support early identification?
- Creates a clear and consistent route for identifying children who may have SEND.
- Ensures concerns are recognised and acted upon before children start school.
- Reduces the risk of children being missed or experiencing delays in accessing support.
- Improves information sharing between health, education and local authority partners.
- Enables earlier intervention, which can improve developmental and educational outcomes.
- Supports smoother transitions into early years settings and school.
- Helps families access advice, guidance and support at the earliest opportunity.
- Provides local authorities with better intelligence about emerging levels of need and demand for services.
What needs to happen to implement a strong Section 23 process?
- Clear governance and ownership with agreed leadership across health, SEND and local authority services.
- A shared multi-agency protocol outlining roles, responsibilities, thresholds and timescales.
- Staff awareness and training so relevant professionals understand their duties and referral routes.
- Consistent notification criteria to reduce variation in practice.
- Simple referral systems that minimise administrative barriers.
- Strong parental engagement processes.
- Robust information-sharing arrangements.
- Clear response pathways into support and intervention services.
- Tracking and monitoring mechanisms for all notifications.
- Data collection and quality assurance processes.
- Regular multi-agency review meetings.
- Alignment with the Assess, Plan, Do, Review graduated approach.
- Effective transition planning arrangements.
- Continuous improvement informed by feedback and outcomes.
Indicators of Success
- Increased number of appropriate early notifications.
- Reduced delays between identification and support.
- Improved multi-agency working and information sharing.
- Positive feedback from families regarding communication and support.
- More children accessing early intervention before school entry.
- Evidence that notified children are being tracked and receiving timely support aligned to their needs.