Who are we?

Barnsley SENDIASS is a statutory service provided by Barnsley Council. We give information, advice and support on SEND related issues. We work with children, young people and parents and carers of children with SEND.

We're a separate service which is at arms-length from the rest of Barnsley Council. We offer free, confidential and impartial information, advice and support. 

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'll also not attend meetings unless you are present. This is described further in the SEND Code of Practice and the IASS Minimum Standards. These are both from the National Information Advice and Support Service Network (IASSN).

How can Barnsley SENDIASS help me?

  • Do you or your child need help to learn?
  • Do you have concerns or questions relating to SEND?
  • Do you want to know how your nursery, school or college can help?
  • Do you want to understand how Barnsley Council, social care or the NHS can help?

We can talk to you about your concerns and questions and guide you to relevant information. We can also support and help you to put your thoughts, wishes, feelings and aspirations forward.

If you have general questions, you can contact us online using the form below, email us at sendiass@barnsley.gov.uk, or call (01226) 787234.

Contact the SENDIASS team online

If you would like to refer yourself or your child to us, please fill in our online referral form.

Refer yourself or your child to SENDIASS

Our aims

  • To help you play a valued and active role in your own, or your child’s, education.
  • To enable you to make informed choices.
  • To encourage and support joint working between you, the school or setting, the council and other agencies.

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. This includes 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 the local authority (Barnsley Council)

  • We help parents, carers and young people in discussions or meetings with the local authority. This can include:
    • Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) processes.
    • Early Help Assessment (EHA)/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 local authority/NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
  • We give anonymous statistical data about common issues. This is from the experiences of the parent’s, carers, children and young people we help.
  • We fulfil the obligations and expectations of an 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 Services Quality Standards.

How we work with education settings (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 and complaints. 
  • We give insight and feedback to the local authority's SENCO Inclusion Network at a strategic level. 
  • We don't discuss specific families, children or young people without supporting the family directly. Settings and professionals are encouraged to support a family to refer themselves to us. 

How we work with the National Health Service (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. Professionals are encouraged to support a family to refer themselves to us. 



Case studies

Read our case studies which show and describe some of the help we're able to provide.

Referrals

Find out more about our referral process and make a referral to the service

Find out about referrals

Our documents

Discover our policy documents, annual reports, useful resources and more

Browse our documents

Our steering group

Learn more about our steering group and how they give us direction and help to design the future service offer.

About the SENDIASS Steering Group

Meet the team

Learn a little more about the Barnsley SENDIASS team.

 

 

Read more about the team