A specialist one-stop information advice service & online resource support for SEND* families in Southend & surrounding areas.
We are here to encourage, support, inform, grow your confidence, increase your resilience, empower and enable families to provide the best possible help to their children via a range of online resources.
What we do
- The provision of support: One to one support, support groups both on and offline, to support families before, during and after diagnosis of a special educational need and/or disability. Both support from our trained and experienced team will be available, signposting given where needed as well as peer to peer support networks developed to reduce the social isolation faced by such families. Our team is also trained to act as appropriate adults for children and young people when needed and advocate with families in meetings with statutory and other bodies & services. Where needed we will work with the family's pre-diagnosis to arrange emergency assessments and guide them through that process. We will react to the needs of the families we work with and adapt the detail of our work overtime. This will ensure we can remove the barriers faced by disabled children and young people and those with SEN in achieving their true potential.
- The provision of information; Our trained team will provide appropriate guidance, advice, and information around SEND issues to the families we support. This will be through newsletters, online sessions with speakers, one to one communication and mass messaging through social media etc. We will share positive stories from SEND families to inspire and stimulate optimism within our community. This will act as another mechanism for supporting families to navigate the services they will encounter. We will encourage parents to share suitable information between them as part of building a peer support network.
- Networking: Our team has already built strong partnerships with other third sector organisations, schools, local authorities, and other statutory bodies to raise the profile of SEND. This will seek to ensure they adapt and improve their work by including the voice of SEND families in the design, delivery, and evaluation of their activities. This will also enable us to signpost families, as necessary. Through our campaigning and networking, we aim to be a recognised voice of SEND families in our locality.
- Campaigning: Linked to our networking we will seek to provide evidence through case studies in our network to enhance policy so that the lives of disabled children and young people and those with SEN and their families are improved. We will where necessarily hold agencies to account for their interventions always ensuring that the wellbeing and best outcome for the family drives that work. By blending these activities together, we will work towards ensuring that all disabled children and young adults and those with SEN are and feel valued members of their communities, with strong physical and mental health, supported adequately and appropriately so that they realise and reach their aspirations.
*Special Educational Needs & Disability (0-25)
(Previously known as Southend SEND Parents and Community)