Welcome to the Spring edition of the Somerset SENDIAS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support) newsletter for 2023! The SENDIAS Team provides free impartial, confidential information, advice and support about education, health and social care for children,…

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to learn more about supported internships and how they can benefit your child. This online event from the NDTi is particularly designed for parents, carers, and representatives from the Parent Carer Forum.  There…

Confused about who does what? There are a lot of professionals and services when it comes to SEND, all with different names, roles and abbreviations, many of which sound very similar! To ease the confusion, check out our new ‘What…

Do you know a young person who would like to share their expertise and experiences with professionals and services to reflect disabled children and young people’s needs?  Council for Disabled Children are looking for disabled young people and young people…

A year-long project to make Somerset more accessible for Disabled people was launched on 1 April 2023. ‘Accessible Somerset’ is an ambitious project which will ask Disabled people how their life could be improved in various areas. The project is…

Somerset Youth Forum – a group of young people who meet to influence local policy and services – is looking for young people with ideas and enthusiasm aged between 11 and 18 years (or up to 24 years for young…

I am very happy to have this opportunity to introduce myself and the next edition of SEND News. As you may be aware, I’m the Executive Member for Children and Families at Somerset Council, a role I love. What this…

March’s meeting started with an activity by Barney from Young Somerset; he came in to do some research with us. His research was on how young people would like care workers, nurses, and doctors to act when they interact with…

COVID-19 continues to infect thousands of people every week and those at highest risk of severe illness should top up their immunity ahead of the planned autumn booster programme. For this reason, over-75s and those with weakened immune systems (defined…

Step Up to Social Work is an intensive, 14-month full-time programme for people who want to become social workers, but do not have a degree in social work. The application window closes at noon on Friday 24th March The Department…

I was really thrilled to be asked to introduce myself and my new role within the Inclusion team at Somerset Council. In December I started my role as Head of SEND – this has meant that as well as the…

This weekend we had our March meeting, we can’t wait to update you all soon on the work we’re beginning. We also had a visitor join us this weekend, we plan to fill you in on the next SEND news.…

The Community Inclusion and Activity Team have published their latest calendar of events for the Easter holidays (3-14 April). The calendar is full of fun activities for children and young people who have a disability or additional needs. Activities include…

Somerset Council is consulting the public on proposed term dates for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years for Somerset schools. The decisions made from the results of this consultation only apply to terms dates for Voluntary Controlled and Community schools.…

Wednesday 29th March and Thursday 27th April – 9-4:30pm A two-day training event to explore the themes of grief, loss and change within school communities. The training goals will be to: Learn about the grief process and understand how to…

For parents of children aged 0-5, the workshops cover topics including sleep, speech and language, and early years entitlements. Contact, a charity that helps families with disabled children has a series of workshops available including: Early years entitlements Support for…

The Unstoppables had their first meeting of 2023 at the beginning of February! We started off with updating each other about what is new with ourselves as it is the first time, we’ve seen each other this year. We had…

A three-year project (2021-2024) to support young people with additional needs to build confidence, provide motivation and make plans for the future.  If you are aged 16 to 25, then you could join NDTi’s new programme. Time to Talk Next…

The National Deaf Children’s Society hosted a series of monthly Stay and Play sessions at Compass Wellbeing in Taunton between November and January with the aim of bringing together families of deaf children living in Somerset and allowing deaf children…

An updated checklist is now available to download for schools to use when requesting an Education and Health Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA). Created by a multi-agency working group including Educational Psychologists, representatives from the SEND team, Learning Support Team and…