Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Information, Advice & Support Service for Bournemouth, Christchurch, & Poole

About Us

All local authorities have a legal duty to provide children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities, and their parents, access to fair and unbiased information and advice relating to education, health, and social care.

The Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Information Advice & Support Service (SENDiass) responsibilities are contained in Chapter 2 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 and include the importance of providing an impartial, confidential and accessible service, with the capacity to provide face-to-face, telephone and electronic support. Our services are free to those families living in Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole. We are trained to support and work in partnership with parents, children and young people and aim to promote independence and self-advocacy to enable children and young people and their parents to engage in discussions and decisions about individual support and local provision as fully as possible.

SENDiass4BCP offers help and advice to parents and carers who may be concerned about their child or young person’s educational or other needs, and/or the provision made for them. We also offer a service to children and young people with SEN and/or disabilities, who may want to receive information, advice or support themselves. We are funded by the Local Authority, but work as an “arm’s length” service, which means that we operate separately from the services which have responsibility for making provision for children, young people, and their families.

Referrals to SENDiass4BCP

SENDiass4BCP accepts referrals from young people and parents/ carers themselves through email or via telephone calls to our dedicated adviceline. We can hold meetings and conversations via video conferencing. Face to face appointments can be arranged (In a Covid secure manner, restrictions allowing), at your own home or an agreed venue local to your address. On occasion, where a
parent or young person is unable to refer themselves independently, initial contact by a family can be supported by another practitioner already known to them. We
ask that the practitioner seeks consent from the family concerned in the first instance, and calls us in the presence of the individual to request our involvement or supports the individual to make a written request (email/letter) for SENDiass4BCP support. A member of the SENDiass4BCP team will then contact the child, young person, or parent to discuss what we can offer and to ascertain
whether we can help.

Children, young people, and their parents can refer to SENDiass4CP as many times as they wish. We will continue to work with individuals for as long as they need our support, with the aim of increasing their knowledge, skills, and confidence.

What do we offer?
Our services include:

• Access to a confidential Adviceline.
• Information about options, rights, and responsibilities
• Advice and information about the responsibilities of schools, colleges, and Local Authorities
• Advice and information about the EHC Needs Assessment process
• Help with paperwork - filling in forms; reading/writing letters and reports
• Support in preparing for and attending meetings
• Support in resolving disagreements
• Support in relation to school exclusions
• Support in managing mediation, appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) and complaints on matters related to SEN and disability
• Signposting other statutory and voluntary services, including local parent support
  groups and forums

We are also happy to support professional colleagues by providing information, advice,
and training as appropriate.

Contact Us

Phone: 01202 128181

Email: sendiass@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
Please note that we log client details and email content on our secure database. If you don't want your details to be held in this way, please respond accordingly.