Social, Emotional, Mental Health Needs
Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs are a type of special educational need in which children and young people have severe difficulties in managing their emotions and behaviour. They often experience:
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difficulties with building and maintaining relationships with others;
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managing their feelings and response to situations;
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and feel anxious and misunderstood within the school environment.
This section is aimed at children in EYFS, but it is recommended that practitioners consider a child’s developmental age when planning for their needs. It may be appropriate to refer the Key Stage 1 section in some cases.
Meeting needs: Supporting identified needs through a Graduated Approach
Strategies are organised under three headings using the Thrive Framework:
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Getting advice (adjustments in the setting).
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Getting help (targeted/group interventions).
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Getting more help (specialist or 1:1 interventions).
Strategies are suggestions and not a tick list and it should be the case that some children just need the first section and others need the first two and others need all three.
Hyperlinks have been included to make it easy to locate information about suggested approaches and interventions.
Additional Resources
