Glossary - S
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S17 - Section 17 of the Children Act 1989. Local Authority duty to safeguard and promote welfare of children in need.
S47 - Section 47 of the Children Act 1989. Local Authority duty to make enquiries about children suspected of being 'at risk' and decide whether further action need be taken.
S140 - Section 140 of the Learning and Skills Act (about special needs).
SA - Spelling Age.
SA - Statutory Assessment. Process by which an assessment is made of a child's special educational needs.
SACRE - Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education.
Salamanca - Salamanca Statement 1994. UNESCO statement of the right of every child to an appropriate education.
SALT - Speech and Langauge Therapy.
SAS - Special Agreement School.
SAS - Self Assessment Schedule.
SATs - Standard Assessment Tests. Taken at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
SCAA - School Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
SCBU - Special Care Baby Unit.
Schedule One Offender - Someone found guilty of a violent or sexual offence.
School Improvement Support (SIS) - The School Improvement Support service will be a new team that includes a community-based learning strand and that will integrate the previously separate strands of work covered by the AIS (Advisory Inspection Service), School Management Support and the Behaviour Support Team in Pupil Services. It will include the Adult Learning Service, The Music Service and the Schools Library Service.
School with serious weaknesses - Not as bad as a failing school but found by inspectors to have problems that need help. The action plan will have to set targets to remove all causes of weakness within a year and there will be re-inspections during that time to act as a backstop or confirm recovery. Ofsted will also monitor action plans and local authority statements to ensure they are adequate.
SN - School Nurse.
SCIE (pronounced 'sky') - Social Care Institute of Excellence, replaced the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) as the body to inspect social care.
SCITT - School-Centred Initial Teacher Training. School-based teacher training course leading to Qualified Teacher Status.
Scrutiny - Process of examining decisions made by public services.
Scrutiny Committee - Group of councillors that reviews and investigates Local Authority services and other issues, monitors the work of a mayor or cabinet and holds members of the Executive to account for their decisions. Introduced by the Local Government Act 2000.
Secondary Care - Specialist care, typically provided in a hospital setting or following referral from a primary of community health care professional.
Secondary Disclosure - In Data Protection terms, where a person to whom data has been disclosed passes it to another agency or individual.
Sectioned - Refers to powers in the Mental Health Act 1983 that allows the detention of people who are suffering from mental disorders. Initially, an approved social worker or close relative can apply to have a person detained for assessment based on the recommendations of two doctors, one of whom must be a qualified psychiatrist. The grounds for the application are set out under different Sections of the act. Under Section 2, the doctors must confirm that the person is suffering from a mental disorder to a degree that warrants medical care and attention. They must be satisfied that the patient should be detained for their own health and safety, or to protect others. Section 2 allows detention for up to 28 days. Section 3 allows patients to be held for six months at first, and then for a year a time. Under this section, the mental disorder that the patient is suffering from must be specified, as well as any treatment proposed. Section 4 covers emergency cases and enables one doctor to order a person to 'rest' in hospital for 72 hours. Patients can be compulsorily treated – including with medication – under Sections 2, 3 and 4. Patients are free to leave hospital when it is deemed they have made a recovery, or if the Section Order comes to an end.
Self-Assessment - A means by which people set out their own estimation of their needs for support, usually on a standardised form.
Self-Governing Schools - Scottish schools which are equivalent to grant-maintained schools in England.
SEN - Special Educational Needs.
SENCO - Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. All schools must have such a teacher.
SENDA - Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2002. Brought DDA 1995 into education, and linked with Revised Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs 2001.
SENLIT - Special Educational Needs Literacy Team.
Sensitive Personal Data - 'Personal Data' that contains information regarding race, ethnicity, political views, religious beliefs, trade union membership, health or criminal record.
SEO - Society of Education Officers.
Service Directory help4me - A service directory for young people and professionals working with them.
Service User - Person who uses Services. They may also be referred to as a client, patient or consumer.
SHA - Secondary Heads Association.
SHA - Strategic Health Authority.
Shared in-tray (Or shared in-basket) - Method of distributing referrals between several different services to ensure each receives the most appropriate form of support.
Short-term memory - A temporary storage site in our mental consciousness, which can only hold a limited number of items.
SHB - Sexually Harmful Behaviour.
Short Break Care - Overnight care for disabled children and young people to give them and their parent(s)/carer(s) a break from each other.
SI - Statutory Instrument. Subordinate legislation made under the authority of an Act of Parliament, usually authorised by the Secretary of State or one of his ministerial team, and which is normally laid before Parliament. It has the same force in law as an Act of Parliament.
SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
SIMS - Schools Information Management Systems.
Single Agency Working - Where only one agency is involved with a child, young person or family.
SiX - Schools Information Exchange.
SL - Sensory Loss.
SLA - Service Level Agreement.
SLC - Student Loans Company.
SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication Needs.
SLD - Severe Learning Difficulties.
SLDD - Students with Learning Difficulty and/or Disability.
SLI - Specific Language Impairment.
SMART - Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Timed.
SMT - Senior Management Team.
SO - Supervision Order.
SOC - Schools Organisation Committee.
Social Exclusion - To describe people or areas experiencing a combination of factors including unemployment, high crime, low incomes, and poor housing. The Government looks to tackle these issues through regeneration policies dedicated to exclusion as a whole rather than its individual elements. This is a complex area of debate and there is no complete, agreed definition of a much-used term.
Social Regeneration - Process of tackling the social problems that lead to deprivation, such as crime and drugs. The process is different from physical regeneration, which tackles run-down buildings and communal areas, and economic regeneration, which is aimed at creating jobs and wealth.
SOLACE - Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers.
Solitary Workers - Individuals who prefer to work on their own, and learn best if not distracted and are able to ‘get on with things’ in their own time.
SORTED - Substance misuse service for young people under 18.
Special Health Authorities - Health authorities with unique national supra-regional functions that cannot be effectively undertaken by other kinds of NHS bodies.
Special measures - Required where a school is judged by Ofsted to be failing, or likely to fail, to provide an acceptable standard of Education.
Special Schools - State schools in England and Wales which are provided by local education authorities for certain children with special educational needs.
Specialist Schools - This type of school includes technology, languages, sports and art colleges operating in England.
Specialist Schools Programme - Additional funding enables secondary schools to develop strengths in a particular subject area, supported by local industry and in partnership with local schools and the wider community to share resources and expertise, while still delivering a National Curriculum-based education.
SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulties. For example, dyslexia.
SRB - Single Regeneration Budget.
SRE - Sex and Relationship Education.
SRS Safer Routes to School - A government initiative to make the environment safer to encourage children to walk or cycle to school, thereby avoiding school car runs. Schools and local education authorities work with local community and transport planners to facilitate safer routes to school.
SSA - Standard Spending Assessment. How central government decides how much money to give to each Local Authority.
SSD - Social Services Directorate.
SSI - Social Services Inspectorate (no longer used, see CSCI).
SSSS - Secondary Subject Shortage Scheme.
Stakeholders - People who have an interest in an organisation, its activities and its achievements, including customers, partners, employees, shareholders, owners and government regulators.
Standard number - The number of places available at a maintained (other than special) school for pupils of any age group in which they are admitted. The standard number is an indicator of the school's physical capacity to accommodate pupils. The school’s admission authority may fix a different admission number which may be higher but not lower than the standard number.
State Nursery Schools - These take children from the age of three or four and are open during school term time and normally offer five half-day sessions a week. There must be at least one adult for every 13 children. Staff are qualified teachers and assistants.
State Schools - Otherwise known as publicly funded schools and attended by over 90 per cent of pupils. Parents do not pay any fees. Scottish state schools are maintained and controlled by the local education authority
Statement - Legal document setting out a child's SEN and provision required.
Statutory Authority - An organisation that is required by law to provide public services and receives central of local government funding, for example Health Authorities and Local Authorities.
Statutory Services - Refers to service provided by the Local Authority as a matter of course. Examples of statutory services include benefits, social services, hospital treatment on the NHS and schools.
Strategic Health Authority (SHA) - From 2002, the strategic management support for local PCT's and hospitals.
Strategy meeting - Meeting between professionals to plan a course of action, particularly a child protection investigation.
STRB - School Teachers Review Body. A body appointed by the Prime Minister to examine and report on such matters relating to the statutory conditions of employment of school teachers including teacher's pay.
Study Support - Voluntary learning activity outside normal lessons which aims to improve children's motivation, build their self-esteem and help them to become more effective learners.
Subject Access - (Data Protection) The right of the person to whom the information relates to see the information held about them (there is no right to see the record itself however).
Subject Access request - (Data Protection) Data subject's formal request to a data controller to access the information held about them
Substance Abuse/Misuse - The use of a mood-altering substance in such a way that it is either socially unacceptable or impairs, social, medical and/or occupational functioning.
Sudden Infant Death (SID) - Now usually referred to as Sudden Unexpected Death (Infancy SUD).
Supervision - Method of professional and management accountability for social workers. Generally carried out through regular meetings between the social worker and their immediate line manager, however may also take place as a team or group activity. Operates at all levels of Social Services Department.
Supported Accommodation - Accommodation for vulnerable people e.g. young people leaving care.
Supported Housing - Accommodation for vulnerable people needing care. Includes homeless hostels and housing for those with learning disabilities.
Supporting People - New initiative for funding housing for vulnerable people.
Sure Start - Sure Start is a cornerstone of the government's drive to eradicate child poverty in 20 years, and to halve it within 10. It aims to improve children’s life opportunities by working with parents and parents-to-be in deprived areas and providing better access to family support, advising on nurturing, health services and early learning.
Suspension - A process where a member of staff is told to stop working at the school temporarily, usually while a problem involving him or her is being investigated.
SW - Social Worker.
SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
The information contained in this glossary has been sourced from various external sites in good faith. Therefore, CYPSP assume no responsibility for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies contained within this glossary.