The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) offers free, confidential and impartial information, guidance, advice and support.
The service used to be called the Parent Partnership Service.
It's available to all children, young people and parents and carers of children and young people who:
- have a special educational need (SEN) or disability
- are aged 0 to 25 years old
- live in the borough of Barnsley
Please visit our SENDIASS coronavirus help, advice and guidance pages that can help you during the coronavirus pandemic.
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 opportunity for you to talk things through and say what your concerns are.
- Support 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.
- Advice or issues around school or setting placement.
- Support at meetings.
- Advice on who you should contact if there are behavioural, emotional or social difficulties.
- Information on appeals to SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) tribunal.
- Advice on exclusions.
- Advice on transport arrangements.
- Information about other organisations that might be helpful to you.
We can arrange to meet you at a venue you prefer or also offer meeting sessions in our offices around the borough.
Please contact us to book an appointment so that we can make sure we have time to talk with you.
Services we can offer groups
- Workshops for young people and parents and carers.
- Drop-in advice sessions for young people, parents and carers at schools, colleges and children's or family centres.
- Advice and support on starting support groups.
- Training to become an independent supporter.
Please contact us to discuss more about the services we can offer.
More about Barnsley SENDIASS
You can find out more about us in the documents below.
- SENDIASS service information leaflet
- Referral criteria
- Confidentiality policy
- Annual report 2019-2020
- Our funding application and IASP guidance
- Intervention levels of IASS
- SENDIASS minimum standards
- Assessments and the Care Act factsheet
SENDIASS steering group
You can take a look at the minutes from our meetings to see what we're working on:
Forms
Legislation and law guidance
Department for Education guidance
SEND guidance
Changes to special educational needs and disability support
- Easy Read Guide for Parents on SEND Reforms - December 2014
- Easy Read Guide for Children and Young People on SEND Reforms – December 2014
Children with special educational needs
- Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- Apply for school transport for a child with special educational needs and disabilities
Equality Act
Help if you have a disabled child
Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years
- SEND code of Practice (0-25 Years) - January 2015
- Early Years Guide to the 0 to 25 SEND code of practice - September 2014
- Further education guide to the 0-25 SEND code of practice - September 2014
Special educational needs and disability
Education
Alternative Provision
Attendance
Children missing education
Early Years Foundation Stage (birth to 5 years)
Elective Home Education
Exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England
Fair Access - protocols and principles
National Curriculum
- National Curriculum
- Key stage 1 access arrangements
- Key stage 2 access arrangements
- Languages programmes of study
Performance Attainment targets for Children with Special Educational Needs
School Admissions
Health and wellbeing
Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs
Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools
- Behaviour and discipline in schools - January 2016
- Getting the Simple Things Right: Charlie Taylor's Behaviour Checklists - November 2019
- Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools - November 2018
- Use of Reasonable Force in Schools - July 2013
- Reducing the Need for Restraint and Restrictive Intervention in Schools - June 2019
Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions
- Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions - December 2015
- Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions: Links to other Resources - August 2017
Support for children and young people
Children’s Activity Passport Checklists for Children Under 11
Careers Guidance
Preventing Cyber Bullying
Transport
Home to school transport
Post-16 transport to education and training
Complaints
Education Settings
Research reports
Further legislation and law resources
- Children and Families Act 2014 (Full act of law - GOV.UK legislation)
- Children and Families Act 2014 (IPSEA guidance)
- Young person’s guide to the Children and Families Act 2014 (DfE – GOV.UK)
- Equality Act 2010 (GOV.UK legislation)
Other agencies
- IPSEA (Independent Parental Special Education Advice)
- Good Schools Guide
- IASSN (Information, Advice and Support Services Network)
- Council for Disabled Children
- National Children's Bureau
- Special Needs Jungle
- Cafamily
Useful resources our service users recommend
- A family guide to SEND
- Report of the Children and Young People's Health Outcome Forum
- Using the Children and Families Act 2014 to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEN and disability: a briefing for health services
Useful resources and support
ADHD support
- NHS - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD
- What is ADHD: Explaining everything you don't understand about ADHD
Advocacy services
Anxious and phobic support
Asperger's support
Autism support
- Autism Education Trust - Finding a School for Your Child
- Autism support for parents and carers
- Barnsley Council - Autism Spectrum Conditions
- Brain in hand personal technology for independent living
- National Autistic Society
- National Autistic Society - early bird support group
- NHS Learning disability support
Bereavement support
- Barnsley Bereavement Support Service
- Barnsley Hospital bereavement support
- Bereavement support groups
- Bereavement Support Payment
- BereavementSupport.co.uk
- Care for the Family
- Live Well Barnsley
- MIND
- NHS - coping with bereavement
- SupportLine
Bullying and harassment support
- Anti-Bullying Alliance
- Barnsley Safe Places
- Barnsley Council - Get help if you're being bullied
- Bullying UK
- Contact - Bullying advice
- GOV.UK - Preventing bullying
Carer's support services
Children and young people's activities and support groups
- Ad Astra Barnsley
- Army Cadets Barnsley
- Barnsley FC - Disability Sport
- Barnsley Targeted Youth Support
- CHILYPEP
- IGNITE Barnsley
- TADS Barnsley
- Sea Cadets Barnsley
- Study in the UK - Information for students with disabilities
- TIAG - Targeted Information, Advice and Guidance
- YMCA Barnsley
Down syndrome
Dyslexia support
- British dyslexia association
- British dyslexia association: Empowered parents 2019-20
- Dyslexia trust
- Dyslexiatest
- Helen Arkell - child support
- The Dyslexia SpLD trust
- IPSEA - dyslexia getting extra help with exams
- NHS dyslexia conditions
- Dyslexia explained ebook
- Parent Champions - understanding dyslexia
- Special Needs Jungle - spotting signs of dyslexia
Dyspraxia
Early Help Assessment (EHA)
EHCP (Education health and care plan)
- EHC plan leaflet for young people
- Getting to know your EHCP
- IPSEA: What to do when you receive your draft EHC plan
- IPSEA: What an EHC plan contains
- IPSEA: What to do when you receive your final EHC plan
- IPSEA: Annual Review
- IPSEA: The annual review process
Education/EOTAS (Education Other Than At School)
- Barnsley Council - school admissions and transfers
- Barnsley Council - Education for Children who can't attend school due to health needs
- Barnsley Council - Education Welfare Service
- Dept. for Education - Early Years Outcomes
- Good schools guide
- GOV.UK - school performance tables
- School search website
- Special needs guide
- Springwell learning - EOTAS
Education welfare
Exam support
Exclusions
- ACE Advice - School Exclusions
- Barnsley Council - Excluding Pupils from School
- Child law advice - school exclusion
- GOV.UK school exclusion
- IPSEA advice - exclusion from School
Family centres
Global development delay
Health and wellbeing
- NHS Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group
- NEDA - National Eating Disorder
- NHS England: Ask, Listen, Do
- Healthwatch Barnsley
- KidsHealth
- LiveWell Barnsley
- NHS
Interpretation services
- Barnsley Council - Access for Disabled People
- Barnsley Council - Hearing Support
- Barnsley Council offices
- British Deaf Association
- thebigword
- Language Empire
- Sign Solutions
Parent and carer forums
LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, bisexual, Transgender, Gender diversity)
- Action for Children - LGBT
- Childline - Sexuality
- Gender Spectrum
- TransYouth Family Allies
- Mermaids
- Safe Schools Coalition
- Supportline - Sexuality
- Time to Listen
- Transfamily
Makaton
Mental health support
- CAMHS - child and adolescent mental health service
- Chilypep - mental health page
- Healthy place
- The Mix
- Hopeline UK
- Rethink Mental Illness
- Young minds
- We are mind space
- Ad Astra Barnsley
- Mind
- Rbmind
Organisations supporting SEND and mental health
- Action for children
- Ad Astra Barnsley
- Barnardos Barnsley
- Barnsley Education Inclusion Services
- Cerebra
- Contact
- Council for disabled children
- Dial Barnsley
- Disabled Living
- coram: family and childcare
- Family Information Service - Local Offer
- Family lives
- Hand in hand parenting
- Kids
- Mencap Barnsley
- National Children's Bureau
- Scope
- Sense
- Social, Communication and Interaction Team
Pathological demand
Prader Willi syndrome
SEN support
Sensory impairment (Visual/Hearing)
Sleep issues
Specialist schools / colleges
- The Good Schools Guide
- GOV.UK: Find and compare schools in England
- School search
- Which School? for Special Needs
Studying in the UK as a student with disabilities
Toileting
- ERIC: The Children's Bowel and Bladder Charity
- TheSchoolRun: Managing toileting problems in primary schools
Transport support
Translation services
- Barnsley Council - Access for Disabled People
- Barnsley Council - Hearing Support
- Barnsley Council - Education Inclusion Services
- Barnsley Council offices
- British Deaf Association
- thebigword
- Language Empire
- Sign Solutions