1. Aspire Personalised Care Solutions Independent Support

2. Reminding ourselves - The vision behind the SEND reforms:
“We want children and young people with special needs and disabilities to achieve well in their early years, at school and in college; find employment; lead happy and fulfilled lives; and have choice and control over their support.
The special needs reforms will implement a new approach which seeks to join up help across education, health and care, from birth to 25. Help will be offered at the earliest possible point, with children and young people with SEND and their parents or carers fully involved in decisions about their support and what they want to achieve. This will help lead to better outcomes and more efficient ways of working.”
What the DfE want to achieve through these reforms.

3. The role of an Independent Supporter:
Helping the parent or young person understand the local referral process and local offer;
To act as a named contact person for the parent or young person during the EHC assessment and planning process;
Supporting parents and young people through the transfer of a Statement of SEN or Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA) to an EHC plan (transfer reviews);
Working with parents of children who are new EHC referrals, and/or young people (and their parents) who are coming up to school leaving age and would have had a LDA under the old system;
Understanding the range of local services and supporting the parent or young person to decide who should contribute the information required for an EHC needs assessment and plan;
Providing information to parents and young people on personal budgets;
Signposting parents and young people to local Information Advice and Support (IAS) services (formerly Parent Partnership Service), when the issue is outside the remit of an Independent Supporter.
You may wish to take some time to explore these key aspects of the IS role further depending on the outcome of the previous activity. Before you move on be sure to have checked everyone’s understanding of their role which is fundamentally impartial, a facilitator, navigator and sign poster
You may want to check trainees’ understanding of impartial
Check for any points that may not have come out of the activity, for example, signposting to the local IASS and check whether trainees can cite situations where they would refer parents or young people on to the IASS
Draw out any local variation, for example, whether IS are only providing support to parents and young people during the transfer review or whether they are providing support to first referrals 3
RoIS F2F

4. Mythbusting! We are part of the Local Authority – FALSE!
Support will stop when you get an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) – False! Independent support will cease but support from others will remain in place
We are the same as SENDIASS – FALSE!
The Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) is the same as the statement – FALSE!
We only offer up to 8 hours of support per family – FALSE!
The Local Authority will take no notice of my views – FALSE!
We are checking up on families – FALSE!

5. Independent Support
Is your child / young person going through the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process? Are you aware of what information the plan contains? Or even what it looks like?
Have you got the date for your child’s / young person’s transfer review meeting? Are you unsure what that is? Or what to expect?
Have you received lots of unfamiliar paper work?
Are you wondering what is going on with these changes and what it all means for YOU and YOUR CHILD / YOUNG PERSON?
Are Wondering what Aspire can do for YOU?

6. Independent Support – what we can offer
We help to empower parents and young people to help to raise confidence in the new system:
We offer a personalised approach – we come to you and we are there for you and your family.
We provide choice of how you interact with us: Face to face, Freephone, Mobile, Text and .
We offer consistency of Independent Supporter.
We can support you and/or young person when attending multi agency and other meetings.
We can help you with ALL the paper work. Whether you are at the very start of the assessment process, mid-way through assessment or at the end of the assessment period.

7. Types of Support – Understanding the new EHC system
Go through the new timelines with you and discuss what must happen at each stage of the process.
Help you to see where your views and the views of your child/young person feed into the plan.
Help you to understand the new terminology in the plan and what this means to your child or young person e.g. aspirations, outcomes.
Provide information of specific areas of the plan such as personal budgets.
Signpost you to other services such as SENDIASS.
Help you to understand the Local Offer and how to access it.
Help you to ask the right questions!!

8. Types of Support - getting to know your EHC plan
The Local Authority must send out a draft EHC plan to the child’s parents or young person and allow at least 15 calendar days to allow for their views and comments regarding the content.
The draft EHC plan is usually sent out in the second half of the 20 week process.
At this point we can:
Help you to understand the content of the EHC plan.
Help you to understand the detail in each section of the EHC plan and the implications.
Ensure that your views and those of your child or young person are reflected in the EHC plan. 
Help to ensure that each section contains what the SEND Code of Practice says should be included.
Make you aware of what happens next when you send your comments back.

9. Types of support – Person Centred Planning
We use person centred planning to gather the aspirations and views of your child/young person and ensure that these are reflected in the plan.
We use your child/young person’s interests and hobbies to draw out their aspirations and views for their future – using a range of resources including arts and crafts, lego, PECS etc.,
We make it an interactive session and FUN!
We help you to gather your views and and ensure that these are reflected in the plan.

10. Feedback from Parents “I couldn’t have done this without you”.
“Its nice to know you are there for us”.
“Having independent support is invaluable and everyone should have access to it”.
“Seeing her likes and dislikes made me realise that my daughter is just like any other 16-year-old”.
“You have made sure that my child’s views and my views have been included in the plan and it is much more personal”.

11. Key Contacts for Parents
Aspire Personalised Care Solutions Telephone: Freephone: