SENDIASS Spotlight - January 2024

SENDIASS UPDATE

Following recent recruitment our team has expanded! Amy Legett has joined us as SENDIAS Advisor to cover Maternity Leave and Laura Back and Jo Thompson have joined us as our two new Engagement and Advise Workers.

All three members of the team are in the process of undertaking their IPSEA Legal Training but will be up and running within their roles soon.

Sally Bailey is almost at the end of her training and will be on the SENDIASS Helpline very soon as our new and dedicated Helpline Advisor.

In previous newsletters we talked about our internal restructure within the service, this is almost complete now and means that very soon we will be able to offer more casework, more services to children and young people including advocacy and more training to parent/carers, children, young people and professionals.

Keep an eye on future newsletters to read about our new members of the team and hear more about what we’ve got coming up for 2024!

SIGNPOSTING

Part of our role as a SENDIASS is to signpost parent/carers, children and young people to other services that may be able to offer some support and information.

Visit our website for links to Information services, support with diagnosis, family services, health and respite support.
 

Phase transfer
 

Phase Transfer, which is the amendment of an EHCP when moving from one stage of education to another, is getting closer.
Those with children moving from for example:

• early years education to school;
• infant school to junior school;
• junior school to secondary school;
• primary school to secondary school;

should expect to receive a new EHCP by the 15^th of February. Those with Young People moving from secondary school to post 16+ should expect to receive a new EHCP by the 31^st of March. The Local Authority has a legal duty to provide the final EHCPs by these dates per regulation 18 of the SEN Regs.

Around the Autumn term the year before your child or a young person moves to a different setting a ‘phase transfer’ review of the EHCP should have taken place. This review will be like a normal annual review except at the review meeting you will be asked to think about what school/post 16+ placement you would like your child to go to for the following September. If that has not been the case contact your EHCP coordinator immediately.

If you don’t receive a final EHCP either on or before the dates set out above, you should contact your EHCP coordinator as a matter of urgency and lodge a complaint with the Local Authority via this link. You can also make an appointment with us to discuss any concerns you have.

It is important to look over the new EHCP carefully when you receive it, paying close attention to sections B, F, and I.

We recommend firstly going through the documents in Section K and, using 2 different coloured highlighters, highlighting all your child’s, or young person’s, needs (what they struggle with) in one colour, and then highlighting all the provision (what the school have to do) in another colour.

It is then important to cross-reference what you have highlighted in the reports with sections B and F, to ensure all your child’s, or young person’s, needs have been listed and there is provision to meet every single need which has, or should have, been mentioned. Pay particular attention to the wording in Section F: is it specific enough? Go through and ensure that words and phrases like ‘regular’, ‘may benefit from’, ‘small group’ are not used. All provision should be specific. This means that they need to tell you exactly how long a session will be, how often a session will be, exactly how big a group will be e.g. will the session be once a week or once a month?

Then look at section I as that is where the educational setting will be named. Do you agree with that setting?

If you have any issues with the final EHCP, you can then lodge an appeal. To find out more about lodging an appeal, you can make an appointment with us for advice and support.
Phase-transfer-with-an-EHCP.pdf (norfolksendiass.org.uk)
 

Norfolk SEND Youth Forum Update

Happy New Year!

In our first meeting of the New Year, we had eight young people attend and several visitors.

We were joined by Stephanie and Gemma, who work for the NHS, and who we invited to the meeting, following a meet up with members in the summer.  Members told us they would appreciate further information about these Health Checks and wanted an opportunity to ask questions and discuss these further.

After our usual introductions, we watched a presentation about post 14 Health Checks for young people with Learning Disabilities and members shared both positive and negative experiences of these.  For further information about these please click on the link below:
https://www.justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/child-development-additional-needs/additional-needs/14plus-health-check/

We also welcomed Maxine and Alison, to hear about the planning for SENDFEST 24, and this was an opportunity for our members to make suggestions and share their ideas on what they would like to see this year!  We learnt that this year the festival will run over two days, (1^st & 2^nd June) and there will also be a Digital version for those children and young people and their families who may have difficulty accessing the in-person event but wish to take part. 

If you are interested in joining the Norfolk SEND Youth Forum, we would love to hear from you; you can register on-line or contact our main number.


Bridget Robinson, Engagement and Advice Worker