New resources for special educational needs

As many parents will testify, getting the right help and support for heart-children at school can often be a complicated and frustrating process.  It helps to know what your child is entitled to and what the school and other organisations can do to help.  The Children’s Heart Federation have a fact sheet for parents called “Your Child and Special Educational Needs” which you can download from their website: www.chfed.org.uk or call 0808 808 5000 to order.

There are also a couple of new resources available to parents.  Contact A Family have recently produced a podcast about S.E.N. which you can listen to – visit www.cafamily.org.uk.  As well as going through what to do if you are concerned that your child has S.E.N., the podcast also has more information about how to request a “statutory assessment”, the “statementing” process, how to make sure any provision best meets your child’s needs, and what to do if you are unhappy or want to appeal against a decision.

The Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) has a number of useful advice booklets for parents, which are now free to download from their website.  They cover a range of issues, including asking for a statutory assessment, disability discrimination, extra help in early years and getting the statement right.  Visit www.ace-ed.org.uk for more information.

We will put direct links to all the above resources from our own ECHO website in due course – just keep checking the Information section.