Background to Independent Support
Improving life chances, opportunities and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs, has been and will always be a priority for successive governments.
In 2014 the largest reforms to the system for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) were introduced.
This involved new legislation and a new Code of Practice for those working to support children and young people with SEND. It brought with it the requirement for Local Areas to have a local offer so that parents and young people could see what was on offer in that Local Authority and surrounding ones also.
The transfer of all children who had statements of SEN and those Young People with Learning Difficulties Assessments (LDA’s) onto Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP’s) was one of the largest system changes, involving thousands of children, young people and their parents and families.
In order to support these families, through what was a whole new landscape the then Children’s Minister, Edward Timpson, invested heavily in a new and additional layer of support, on top of what was already provided by statutory Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Services funded by Local Authorities. This additional support was called Independent Support (IS) and was managed by The Council for Disabled Children to ensure that there was an IS available in every Local Authority area. This was a specific additional resource to support families and young people transferring from statements or LDA’s to EHCP’s and those who were applying for new EHCPs.
Time limited support
Wraparound has been absolutely delighted to have managed this service in Trafford since July 2014.
In some ways it seems a long time ago but in others only yesterday.
As this service was only ever intended to be time limited we have been informed that the funding from central Government will be ceased from July 31st 2018 which will mean that we have been honoured to support Trafford families and their children and young people for just over 4 years.
We cannot begin to describe what a journey this has been both for our team members and for the families we have supported. There have been ups and downs, swings and roundabouts but all along we have put the child at the centre of everything we have done. It has been an emotional journey since 2014 and it has truly been a privilege to have had contact and been allowed into the lives of so many Trafford families.
We thank you for your honesty, your compassion, your amazing sense of humour, your tenacity, your stubbornness, and allowing us to mop up the tears occasionally.
The Future
We will be getting in touch individually with the families we have supported since 2014 to inform them of the what happens next.
Plans for a small (ish) celebration are underway, likely to be early July, please do get in touch if you would like to help us plan something.
Invites will be sent to all families we have worked with.
