Welcome to SENDIASS

SENDIASS Leicester offers free, confidential and impartial information, advice and support to parents and carers of young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) as well as young people themselves.

How we can help

We can offer you advice and information on key issues like Special Educational Needs and provision. We can also offer support on Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments and Plans and matters relating to social care and health.

We can also give you practical support with tasks such as:

• Understanding complicated documents and reports
• Completing paperwork
• Attending meetings with you to ensure your views are heard

Contact us to discuss how we can support you.

What is SENDIASS?

SENDIASS stands for Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service. We were formerly called the Parent Partnership service and have been supporting parents and carers in Leicester City since 1999.

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Who we support

At SENDIASS Leicester we can provide information and advice for:

• Parents and carers of children and young people aged 0 – 25 in Leicester City who are concerned about their child/young persons educational progress
• Children and young people aged 0 – 25 in Leicester City with SEND who are concerned about the educational progress they are making or the support they are receiving.

How we can help you

Our staff:

• work at arm’s length from the local authority education, social care and health services
• are trained in SEN and disability law
• work to national standards

We aim to empower families to have the SEND knowledge and understanding they need.

We provide information, advice and support to parents, carers, children and young people by: 

• understanding your concerns and issues, and answering your questions
• helping you to understand SEND law, policies and procedures and how they apply to you
• explaining what your options are
• signposting you to other relevant sources of help

We can do this in the following ways:

Information

This is general and generic information about SEND processes and procedures, including signposting.  This may be provided at your initial point of contact or by email or a pre-booked telephone appointment in response to your enquiry.

Advice

This is more specific and detailed advice about SEND processes and procedures, which is relevant to your situation.  We will provide you with advice about your options and signpost you to any other services or agencies who can help you.  This is provided by email or a pre-booked telephone appointment.

Support

In some exceptional cases we can provide face to face support for a specified period of support undertaken with an agreement of specifically what this will address.  This may include attending a meeting with you or for a SEND Tribunal appeal. This is dependent upon the complexity of the situation and service capacity.

We will always give information and advice in the first instance, as in most cases this provides the help you need.  You can refer back into the service if you need more advice in the future, for the same or a different issue.

Get Started

The information, advice and support we provide is confidential, impartial and non-judgemental, so don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss your needs.

You can also find out more in our SENDIASS Frequently Asked Questions.

What is an Information, Advice and Support (IAS) service?

How must information, advice and support services be run to meet the minimum standards?

What must information, advice and support services do to meet the minimum standards?