Special education needs and disability information advice and support service

Sunderland SEND Information, Advice and Support service provides free information, advice and support for children and young people with special educational needs and their families

This service is impartial. This means we will not tell you what to do, we will not take sides

We will give you the information and support you need to make your own choices.

This service is confidential. That means our meetings will be private. You do not have to tell us your name or anything about yourself if you don't want to. We will only tell people what we talk about if you say it is ok. Sometimes we have to tell someone else what you said if we are worried that you or someone else is being hurt or might be hurt. If this happens we will try and talk to you about it first.

For Parents and Carers

If you are a parent or carer of a child with a disability or with special educational needs, we can help provide help, support and advice with issues relating to school, college or training and health, care and support.

This service is free, impartial and confidential - we don't share any information unless you give us permission. The only exceptions to this would be if we had concerns that someone was being hurt. We would try and talk to you about it first although this is not always possible.

If all you need is someone to talk things through with then we can do that and...

We can explain what you can reasonably expect from your child's school.
We can help you work through the legal aspect of Special Needs procedures and processes and related documentation including exclusion.
We can support you in meetings, ensuring that your voice is heard and your wishes are taken into consideration.
We can advise about choice of school or provision - particularly at transition stage from nursery to reception or year 6 to year 7.
We can support you through the Special Needs Tribunal process. Drawing on a wide knowledge of what is available both nationally and locally we can signpost you to other relevant professionals, voluntary organisations and parent groups. We can advise you on next steps and how to make things move forward. If things are going wrong we can support you raise the issue and help put things right. We can pass on concerns, ideas and suggestions about all aspects of the process to the relevant people.

Contact us by phone or email - you may have to leave a message but we try and get back to you within 48 hours although this may be longer during school holidays. Please indicate a convenient time to contact you. We can arrange a telephone or face to face meeting.

Tell us

If you are not happy with our support then please tell us how we can make it better.

Sunderland Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support service is overseen by a steering committee made up of service users and professionals. If you wish to be involved in shaping policy and practice directly through the Steering committee please phone 0191 549 3768 .