What is Wirral SENDLO?
We know that this website might contain a lot of words and descriptions that you may not have heard before when it comes to the SEND services that are available.
First of all, we need to tell you what SEND is. It stands for Special Education Needs and Disabilities. It means that we understand your child might have some additional needs that may make things more difficult for them at school or at home. There could be a lot of different reasons for this. We want to help to you to understand this and support you in supporting them more.
LO stands for Local Offer. This means Special Education Needs and Disabilities help for the people who need it and who live in the same area as you.
When you put the two together in Wirral, you get Wirral SENDLO.
More information about SEND
SEND describes the help a child might need with their health, care or education until they are an adult. Help is also available for the people who look after the child, like their family or carers.
The child might need this help at any time in their childhood. It can be given to them by their families at home, in school or other places where they live their lives.
The Wirral SENDLO website has a lot of information on it to help children, their families and their carers understand more about special education needs and disabilities.
The way Wirral SENDLO helps people with SEND and their families
Lots of children in Wirral will be changing class or moving from primary school to high school in September. Others will be going from school to college or even from college to university or onto a job. It can be an overwhelming and uncertain time, but we are here to help.
At Wirral SENDLO we want to every child in every school or college to do the best they can.
When they do not find learning easy, we want to help them.
There are four different stages of this:
First stage:
Imagine a full classroom with every child learning at the same rate and pace. We think of a class where no pupil needs SEND services as our starting point. At this stage, there are a number of support steps that can help children. These are known as ‘ordinarily available provision’.
Second stage:
Teachers will tell us that some children are finding it hard to learn. These children can get some more help at their school, which helps them catch up with their classmates.
Third stage:
If there are some children still finding things difficult, they can get help from experts who are not teachers at their school.
Fourth stage:
If there are some children who are still finding it hard to learn, they can get help that is just for them and nobody else. They will follow something called an EHCP, which stands for Education, Health and Care Plan.
What Wirral SENDLO services are there?
There are a lot of ways that Wirral SENDLO’s team of experts can help children with special education needs and disabilities and their families.
Speech and Language Therapy (SALT):
Some children find it difficult to make the right sounds when they speak, or they find it hard to listen.
Others might not want to speak when they are in a place they do not know or if they are with people they do not know. Others might not talk at all.
If a child is feeling like this, our speech and language therapy team can help. It is sometimes called the SALT team.
Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS):
Sometimes children and young people feel like the world is a very difficult place to live in. When they feel like that, it can be hard to do even simple things.
If a person aged under 18 feels like this, Wirral SENDLO’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services department can help them. You might see this shortened to CYPMHS, because it is the first letter of each word in the name.
How do you get the help you need?
If you think your child or a person aged under 18 that you look after needs extra help with their learning, there are some things you need to do. You do not have to go to a doctor at first.
Speak to the special education needs co-ordinator at the nursery, school or college that the child or young person you look after goes to. Their job title might be shortened to SENCO, so you might hear them being called by this name
Teachers will see if you or the young person needs extra help. If they do, the teacher will decide how much
If the child or young person needs help that costs money, the SENCO can find out if the money is available
If the child is still struggling to learn while they are getting this extra help, their parent or person who looks after the child, or the SENCO, can ask to try and find another way they can help
If you are the person who looks after the child, you can ask for advice from the Wirral SEND Partnership at any time. Call them on 0151 522 7990 or email ias@wired.me.uk
You can also look at the Wirral SENDLO page on Facebook which has lots of information about events and support for young people with SEND in Wirral and their families.