When the person who knows a pupil best leaves, changes class or goes on extended absence, the risk is not simply that a file is hard to find. The risk is that the receiving colleague acts on an old plan, misses an open action or asks the family to repeat information the school already held.
A workable handover should give the new colleague five things within the first five school days: the current approved record, the support being delivered now, the pupil’s and family’s recent views, open decisions and actions, and the date and owner of the first review. It is a working transfer of responsibility, not an archive dump.
The five-day timetable below is our suggested way to organise a handover, not a statutory deadline. Some information cannot wait for that schedule: any safeguarding information, and the day-one practical support a pupil relies on, such as a medical or intimate-care routine, an evacuation need or a communication method, must be shared before the receiving colleague takes responsibility for the pupil, not on day four or five.
Day 1: identify the current record
Start with the record that the school treats as approved. Check the pupil’s current SEN Support Plan, EHCP-related school actions where relevant, pupil passport, provision summary and any recent review note. Do not assume the file with the newest filename is the live version.
Write down the record owner, approval date, next review date and any known disagreement between documents. If the school cannot tell which record is current, that is the first handover action. Resolve it with the SENCO or named lead before asking the receiving teacher to act on it.
The SEND Code of Practice provides the statutory guidance context for identifying needs, planning support and reviewing what is provided. The handover is a school workflow for making that current information usable. It does not replace the school’s professional judgement.
Days 2 and 3: compare planned support with delivered support
For each important adjustment, ask four direct questions:
- What was supposed to happen?
- What actually happened in the last few weeks?
- What evidence or observation shows whether it helped?
- What should the receiving colleague do differently from the first day?
Avoid phrases such as “needs support with regulation” unless the record also says what staff should do. Replace it with an observable instruction, such as “give the first instruction as a written two-step prompt, allow processing time, and check the pupil can repeat the first step before the task starts”. Note any part of the provision that was not delivered consistently. That is useful information, not an embarrassing detail to hide.
Day 4: capture pupil and family views
Speak to the pupil in a way they can understand and record their view separately from the adult summary. Ask what helps, what makes the school day harder, what they want staff to change and how they will know the change is working.
Contact the parent or carer using the school’s normal secure route. Ask what has changed since the last review, whether the current description still matches home experience and what the family wants the receiving colleague to know. Record the date, the person contacted, the view shared and any action agreed. Do not make the family reconstruct the whole history when the school already has it.
When records are transferred, the DfE data-protection guidance for schools says the transfer should be secure and traceable. It also describes the need to identify who needs information, why it is being shared and how it will be kept secure. Use the minimum relevant information for the receiving colleague, while keeping the full record available to authorised staff.
Day 5: close the handover with ownership
The receiving colleague and the current SENCO or line manager should agree:
- the first three actions for the next week;
- the person responsible for each action;
- the evidence that will be checked;
- the first review date;
- what should happen if the planned support cannot be delivered.
Send a short confirmation to the people who need it. Then test the handover by asking the receiving colleague to explain the pupil’s current support without opening the old history. If they cannot identify the live provision, the owner or the review point, the handover is not finished.
Record what was actually delivered, not just what was planned
Check the handover against delivery records. For each key adjustment, note how often and for how long it actually ran: 'daily 10-minute reading session' is more useful than 'reading support', and 'planned twice weekly, one session recorded in the last four weeks' exposes a delivery gap. If records are incomplete, say what is unknown rather than estimating sessions as though they were verified. Say plainly where support was missed or changed, and why, so the receiving colleague is not caught out later.
Where accounts differ, attribute each view and leave the disagreement visible rather than smoothing it into one version. If the class teacher thinks an adjustment helped and the pupil says it did not, record both and mark it unresolved. Carry the review decision into the approved next plan so it is not stranded in the handover note. For how that decision should feed the next cycle, see how to write a SEN support review and next plan.
A fictional example
A secondary pupil has moved from one form tutor to another. The old record says “support with transitions”, but the last two reviews show that the difficult point is the five-minute movement from science to maths. The pupil says the crowded corridor is the trigger. The family reports that mornings are now easier, but late changes to rooms still cause distress.
The handover records a quiet route for that transition, a written room-change prompt, the new form tutor as owner and a review after two weeks. It links to the recent chronology entry but does not copy the whole history into the current support summary. The first review checks the pupil’s view, punctuality to maths and whether the adjustment was actually used.
That is the level of detail a receiving colleague can use. It is more valuable than ten pages of background with no owner.
What happens to the old material?
Keep the previous approved record according to the school’s retention policy. Do not delete history simply because a new colleague has taken over. Mark it as superseded, keep the current record obvious and record the reason for the change. The ICO records-management guidance recommends that schools know what records they hold, why they hold them and when they should be reviewed or securely disposed of.
A digital system helps only if the workflow is clear. MeritDocs can keep current SEND documents, review dates, source material and exports in a searchable record, so a receiving colleague is not dependent on one person’s inbox. Staff still decide what is current, what the evidence means and what provision the school will approve.
The five-day handover test
At the end of the first week, ask the receiving colleague:
- What is the current approved record?
- What should I do for this pupil today?
- What has changed recently?
- What does the pupil and family say?
- What action do I own, and when will it be reviewed?
If any answer requires a hunt through email or a call to the former staff member, fix that part of the record while the context is still available.