The Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) is a statutory service which is run at ‘arm’s length’ from the Special Educational Needs decision makers and provides free, confidential, impartial advice, guidance and support to:
- Parents of children and young people up to the age of 25 with special educational needs and disabilities.
- Young people up to the age of 25 with special educational needs and disabilities
- Parents with initial concerns about their child through to those with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
We aim to:
- Encourage cooperative working to ensure that children and young people's individual needs are met
- Help parents, carers, children and young people to express their views
- Provide information and support to enable parents, carers and young people to make informed choices for their child or themselves
We are here to listen to any worries or concerns and provide a range of flexible services which include training and help with the following:
- To understand and write reports and letters
- With the Statutory Assessment process for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
- With annual reviews
- Support with the conversion of a statement to an EHCP
- Support in meetings with school, college or early years setting
- Support in meetings with education, health and social care professionals
- To explore different options open to you for your child/young person’s education
- Signpost to other organisations and support groups
- Promote disagreement resolution where communication with a school or Local Authority is breaking down
- Support if your child/young person is at risk of, or has been excluded from school
- To explain the right of appeal through the SEN Tribunal system
To support parents, carers children and young people undergoing assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan or an LDA we can offer access to an Independent Supporter, either from within our service or from Adviza. These Independent Supporters are specifically trained to support through this process.
We hold a drop in service once a month for further details please visit the Special Educational Needs (SEN) drop in surgeries directory listing.
Helpful guides
SENDIASS have produced a number of useful guides to help you navigate the SEND system. These guides include a useful checklist to use when visiting a school, tips to help when a child is transferring to secondary school and understanding the Education, Health and Care assessment process.
To view the guides go to the SENDIASS guides webpage.
Annual report
Read the SENDIASS 2019 annual report which gives details of the work carried out during the academic year 2018/19.
It has been an exceptionally busy year, with case load continuing to increase. Satisfaction with the service remains high, with very favourable results from our user satisfaction survey and complimentary comments in the recent SEND Ofsted inspection.
There is a significant amount of service development work being undertaken, including:
- a new service for young people
- a training programme
- a website for parents, carers and young people
This will ensure we are able to successfully meet both current and future demand.
Referral by a professional
If you are a professional and would like to refer a parent, carer, child or young person you can do this by complete one of the request forms below. Consent by the person being referred will need to be obtained first:
How our service can help and support young people
Watch the video by the Council for Disabled Children, funded by the Department for Education to learn about the support on offer from Information, Advice and Support Services.
- Provider:
- Service provided by Wokingham Borough Council
