Barnsley SENDIASS
Barnsley SENDIASS is a statutory service provided by Barnsley Council. We work with children, young people, parents and carers of children with SEND, and provide advice and support on SEND-related issues.
We're a separate service and at arms-length from the rest of the council. Our service is free and confidential, and we'll give you impartial information and support. Meet the SENDIASS team.
Our information can also be found on the Barnsley SENDIASS Local Offer website.
We don't share your details or discuss your case with anyone without your permission. This includes Barnsley Council, the NHS or your education setting. We also won't attend meetings unless you're also present. This is described in the SEND code of practice and the SENDIASS minimum standards from the Information Advice and Support Service Network (IASSN).
Our aims
- To help you play a valued and active role in your own, or your child's, education.
- To help you to make informed choices.
- To encourage and support joint working between you, the school or setting, the council and other agencies.
How we can help you
We can help with a range of SEND-related issues, such as if you or your child:
- need help to learn
- have concerns or questions relating to SEND
- want to know how your nursery, school or college can help you
- want to understand how Barnsley Council, social care or the NHS can help you
We can talk to you about your concerns and questions and guide you to best information. We can also support and help you to put your thoughts, wishes, feelings and aspirations forward.
Contacting us
If you have a general question or enquiry you can:
- contact us online
- email sendiass@barnsley.gov.uk
- call 01226 787234 and press option 1 to leave us a voicemail
To refer yourself or your child, find out how to make a referral to SENDIASS.
Services we can offer you
- The chance for you to talk things through and say what your concerns are.
- Help when writing letters to school, early years and post-16 settings, and the local authority.
- Help with statutory assessments and the education, health and care plan process.
- Information, advice and support on subjects such as:
- local policy and practice
- the law on SEN and disability
- health and social care
- Advice or issues around school or setting placement.
- Support at meetings.
- Advice on transport arrangements.
- Help when things go wrong, including resolving issues and giving support to manage appeals, exclusions and complaints on SEN matters.
- Information about other groups that might be helpful to you.
How we work with Barnsley Council
- We help parents, carers and young people in discussions or meetings with the council. This can include:
- education, health and care plan (EHCP) processes
- early help assessment (EHA) and team around the family (TAF) meetings
- child in need (CiN) meetings
- home-to-school transport
- complaints
- We contribute to the strategic development of services by the council and NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
- We give anonymous statistical data about common issues. This is from the experience of parents, carers, children and young people we help.
- We fulfil the obligations and expectations of an information, advice and support (IAS) service as set out in chapter 2 of the SEND code of practice.
- We meet the standards expected of IAS services that can be found in the IAS service quality standards.
Informal mediation processes between SENDIASS and EHC Team
We're working to develop more formal protocols between SENDIAS and the EHC Team for informal mediation processes locally. As a result, managers with responsibility for SENDIASS and the EHC Team created the following internal processes as a joint working practice standard within the two SEN services in the local area.
Practice standards:
- SENDIASS are not part of the decision-making processes.
- Service users are given a decision and advised that they can speak to the EHC team in the first instance. They are also advised they can speak to SENDIASS.
- When SENDIASS receive a referral/enquiry following a decision made for a child/young person, a check is made to see if an enquiry has been made to the EHC team first.
- SENDIASS will offer information about informal mediation as part of the IAS offer and share the contact details where required.
- SENDIASS may, dependant on the needs of the family, and in their full agreement, initiate informal mediation processes between the family and the EHC team.
- SENDIASS/EHC Team will where required coordinate diaries to support a family with informal mediation processes.
- SENDIASS/EHC team will review the progress and outcomes for children following informal mediation processes.
How we work with nurseries, schools and colleges
- We support parents, carers and young people in discussions or meetings with education settings, including:
- SEN support meetings
- school focussed plan meetings
- exclusions relating to SEND
- transport
- transition
- complaints
- We give insight and feedback to the council's SENCO inclusion network at a strategic level.
- We don't discuss specific families, children or young people without supporting the family directly. We encourage settings and professionals to support a family to refer themselves to us.
How we work with the NHS
- We help parents, carers and young people in discussions or meetings related to SEND-specific issues. This includes the provision of speech and language therapy, advice on education settings or making referrals for assessments.
- We don't discuss specific families, children or young people without supporting the family directly. We encourage professionals to support a family to refer themselves to us.