Guidance on recording disability in SIMS 2015 / 2016
Disability is defined as:
Disability has a broad meaning. It is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a
substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day
activities. ‘Substantial’ means more than minor or trivial. ‘Impairment’ covers, for example, longterm medical conditions such as diabetes and severe asthma, and fluctuating or progressive
conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or motor neurone disease. A mental impairment includes
mental health conditions (such as bipolar disorder or depression), learning difficulties (such as
dyslexia) and learning disabilities (such as Down syndrome). Some people, including those with
cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDS, are automatically protected as disabled people by the Act
from the point of diagnosis. People with severe disfigurement will be protected as disabled without
needing to show that it has a substantial adverse effect on day-to-day activities.
Recording disability in schools
Schools currently record on SIMS pupils and students who have special educational needs. This
means that many disabled pupils and students are recorded and their achievement, attendance
and experiences in school including bullying are tracked and monitored.
The SEN Category Types are recorded for pupils, using the following codes:
 K – SEN Support
 S – Statement (being phased out at part of SEN review)
 E – EHCP
For these pupils, the corresponding SEN codes are as follows:
SEN Code
SPLD
MLD
SLD
PMLD
SEMH
SLCN
HI
VI
MSI
PD
ASD
OTH
NSA
Description
Specific learning difficulty
Moderate learning difficulty
Severe learning difficulty
Profound & multiple learning difficulty
Social, emotional and mental health
Speech, language and communication needs
Hearing impairment
Visual impairment
Multi-sensory impairment
Physical disability
Autistic spectrum disorder*
Other difficulty / disability
SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need
*this is the term used in SIMS, but the preferred term by many is autistic spectrum condition or ASC.
Pupils who have physical or mental impairments but who do not have special educational needs,
are recorded differently from school to school and some are not recorded at all. This may include
for example pupils with facial disfigurements, some physical impairements and some health
difficulties. This means that this group of pupils who may be vulnerable to bullying, social
exclusion or under-achievement are not consistently monitored, tracked or reported on. All
disabled people are covered by the Equality Act and so it is important to know who is in this group
in a school setting.
Therefore, we suggest that schools do keep records of this group on SIMS by following the
procedure outlined as follows. If this data proves to be useful at school level, we will consider if the
local authority should collate this data at city level to review and monitor it.
Recording disability (with no special educational needs) in SIMS
To add a SEN Status code of D - Disability in SIMS:
 Go to Tools | Lookups | Maintain
 Click on Search and double-click on the lookup entitled SEN Status
 Click on New on the right hand side and complete the fields to reflect the following example:
 Click on OK and then Save in the top left
 You will need to close SIMS and log in again to see the new code
This code will now be available for you to assign to pupils and students in the Basic SEN Details
area of SEN but remember not to assign a SEN Need
N.B. When you Search at Focus | Pupil | Special Educational Need, by “Any SEN” a total of
‘Matches Found’ appears at the bottom left of the screen denoting how many SEN pupils are on
the register. As the pupils with D – Disability are not SEN, you should note this number, then filter
the pupils just to show the pupils with D – Disability and subtract that number of ‘Matches Found’
from the previous number noted. This will represent the true amount of SEN pupils on the SEN
Register.
You will now be able to identify this group of pupils separately in reports in SIMS. (See Appendix
for examples). Please make sure that colleagues in the school with responsibility for Assessment
or Attendance data are aware of these changes.
Disability data recorded in this way will not be extracted by the School Census, but neither will it
be transferred by CTF (Common Transfer File) so you need to be aware of this with new pupils
and ensure that these are recorded in SIMS when they join your setting.
Informing parents and carers
It would be good practice to ensure that parents and carers are aware of the recording of disability
even if their child does not have special educational needs. You will need to explain to the parent
that this is to effectively monitor the achievement and progress of the child or young person and
not to label or stereotype them.
Appendix
SIMS.net Reports
-
Design Filters
Analyse Attendance
–
Group Analysis by Vulnerability Report
Analyse Assessment
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optional marksheet group filters