Practitioner / Professional
We are a direct referral service and we require the referral form to be completed by the parent/carer or young person. However, we appreciate that some parents and young people may need assistance in contacting us.
You may wish to support a young person/parent to complete our referral form or alternatively, contact us for general information and advice on a particular query, and a member of our team can talk it through with you. You can call our helpline on 01245 204338 or email us on send.iass@essex.gov.uk.
It may be helpful for you to read our information on How We Can Help and How to make a referral. These pages provide details on what we do, what we don’t do and provides further details on our areas of support such as helpline, casework and tribunal support.
The level of support we offer will be determined on a case by case basis, with a view to supporting as many families as possible. This may mean that email or telephone support will be offered in the first instance. Due to the high demand of our service, support at meetings will only be offered where there is a clearly identified role for SENDIASS, which other services involved are not able to fulfil.
It helps us if you can:
- Identify the targeted piece of work around special educational needs that is necessary
- Make it clear to parents/carers/young people that a referral to SENDIASS is being made and their engagement is required
- Ensure parents/carers/young person have given their permission for their details to be shared with SENDIASS and they are aware that we will be contacting them. Following the referral received, SEND IASS will contact the parent/carer or young person directly.
If you have identified a role for SENDIASS and there is a necessary targeted piece of work needed, please complete on their behalf either the parent/carer referral form or the young person referral form.