Guest blog - SENDIASS

Published Friday 4 October 2019

Hertfordshire's SENDIASS is a free service that provides confidential and impartial information, advice and support on issues related to SEND for parents of children and young people up to the age of 25.

In this blog post, SENDIASS talks to us about how they're working to improve the service they offer and reach more families across the county.

In the past...

...we've always worked with families who approach us first - through a call or an email, we then work on their case. With limited resources however, we work hard to serve as many Hertfordshire families as possible, but we feel that our casework approach isn’t the only way of getting things done.

If we could find a way to solve issues for families who have smaller queries for example, or just need a bit of advice, then we could help more people on top of the cases we already take on. We could also reach families who would benefit from our advice, but might not contact us otherwise, for any number of reasons.

We thought that a way to achieve this would be to go to families- instead of just making families come to us.

What are we doing?

We're working on developing a new website, and introducing a triage service to ensure your queries get answered appropriately and in a timely manner. Alongside this, we're strengthening our partnerships with local voluntary organisations such as Families in Focus, who have agreed to work with us in trialling some 1:1 advice sessions at different venues across Hertfordshire.

You can come along and meet with members of our SENDIASS team to discuss your individual concerns. The session times and venues are:

• Hemel Hempstead - 14th October (9:30am- 11:30am)

South Hill Centre, Cemetery Hill, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1JF

• Hatfield - 7th November (7pm- 9pm)

Oxlease House, Travellers Lane, Hatfield, AL10 8TJ

• Harpenden - 9th January (7pm- 9pm)

The Harpenden Trust Centre, 90 Southdown Road, Harpenden, AL5 1PS 

• Watford - 3rd February (7pm- 9pm)

Stanborough Centre, Armstrong Room, 609 St Albans Road, Watford, WD25 9JL

• Stevenage - 5th March (9:30am- 11:30am)

Stevenage Phoenix Centre, The Hyde, Stevenage SG2 9SE

Booking for a 1:1 session is essential, and you can do this by emailing francine@familiesinfocus.co.uk 

Contact us

You can read more about our service on our SENDIASS website. If you'd like to contact us for information, advice or support you don't have to wait for a referral- you can refer yourself. Your call or email will come directly to our team and together we will explore ways in which to help you resolve your concerns: