We asked participating organisations/teams in last month’s Virtual SEND Local Offer Drop-in to collate questions that parents asked them so we can share the information to more parents & carers.

Below are the questions that parents asked at the May SEND Drop-in (click or tap a question to view the answer):

We shared the information on Facebook and asked partners to help promote the project to parents.

Please contact 01612119016 or email equaleducationchances@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Visit Equal Education Chances’ website to learn more about their charity.

“This parent enquired about transition to high school planning for her daughter who is in Y5 in specialist education, as she is thinking of requesting a place at an independent specialist school for her daughter. I provided advice about statutory processes, transition reviews and recommendations about who to contact.”

You can also read more about school transitions at the SEND Local Offer and at the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities website.

“Hello Mr M,

You want [preferred school] for September / when schools reopen.

I can see from the records that your son’s EHC plan is overdue for review. (* should have taken place in April )

The temporary amendments to EHC law because of COVID-19 relaxed some of the rules on when reviews should be carried out but since your child’s review was before the enactment of the relaxation of the rules, the Local Authority must ensure a review is carried out.

What to do next

  1. Contact [current school] and request an urgent review.
  2. State that you want the LA to consult with [preferred new school].
  3. Come back to me if you need any further advice or are encountering difficulties.

Regards,

[IASM Staff Member]”

“We sent an email with information about stuff to do and referred to Short Breaks for assessment.”

We suggest subscribing to the SEND Local Offer newsletter for email updates, including stuff to do and resources you can access from home.

Also, check out our Coronavirus SEND Info Hub and follow us on Facebook or Instagram for regular updates from us.

“These parents enquired about activities to do with their Nursery aged son and concerns that his development may be regressing because of time away from nursery. I recommended some strategies and resources.”

Please contact One Education for questions related to your child’s education. They have an educational psychology helpline available 1-3pm every Monday to Friday during the lockdown.

Short breaks enquiry about entitlement this year and activities to do with 8 year old during lockdown. I have referred her to the Short breaks team and sent her email with a link on Local offer Covid 19 page stuff to do for activities.

Short Breaks entitlement during the lockdown was widely discussed during the March virtual drop-in. Please check out our FAQ from that session for more details.

Please note that most of the answers above are information we pulled from various partners who participated at last month’s drop-in. We have put such answers within quotes (“”) to make it clear that the answers are not our own.

Where we put our own commentary in, we separated our answers using a horizontal line and our comments are in green text. This will be clear when you’re reading each FAQ item above.

We hope this helps. Any questions, please send us a message or contact Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Manchester or visit the SEND Local Offer.