The Skylarks SEND advice service is here to provide support for parents, carers and young people.
We have a small team of 2 advisors; Jonathan Rourke and Gemma Smith. They offer support and advice relating to all aspects of Education for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
If you need advice or support around your child's education, please first of all register with us at www.skylarks.charity/register
You can then contact Jonathan and Gemma with any questions after you have registered with Skylarks via email to Education@skylarks.charity
We aim to provide as much information as possible via talks and mini advice sessions to enable us to offer as much support as possible to families.
So please, see here for our full offer of talks and consider booking on any of these that might be useful the range includes;
Talks in Twickenham and Hounslow (Face to Face): A series of larger talks on issues that are of interest to families around subject like: Transition between school phases, Understanding SEND support in School/ Considering an EHCP, and Social Care Support and your EHCP. Some of these are delivered by the SEND advice Service and some by outside professionals
Micro Talks (Online): A series of online talks covering a range of different elements of SEND process, Micro Talks will have a maximum of 6 families attending giving you plenty of time to ask questions and learn/ support from each other.
The full range of Micro talks includes;
- SEND support in Nurseries, Schools and Colleges
- Making a parental request for an EHCP
- Refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment
- How assessments inform an EHC assessment
- Reviewing Your Draft EHCP
- Refusal to Issue EHCP Appeals
- Tribunals Appeals and Forms
- The Annual review process
- Specified and Quantified Provision in an EHCP
- Supporting children and young people who are out of school or find attending difficult
We can also provide further support by Face to Face meetings (In either Twickenham or Hounslow), Video Calls, Phone Calls or Email support. For this support please contact the team by email at Education@skylarks.charity
The team will then Triage your email and will respond and advise on ways that we can support you, this may include directing you to talks that are in our programme or booking calls to discuss your needs.
In most cases we will be looking to provide advice to enable you to take actions for yourself but In some cases we can provide ongoing support but we will discuss this with you after we have responded to your request.
We urge you to read our information sheets before contacting to see if you can find the answer to your questions here.
Below is a list of alternative providers who may also be able to assist you:
IPSEA have a Phone line you can call here as well as lots of information on their website. here All Local Authorities have to provides a SENDIASS which you can find here for your area. The SENDIASS service for Richmond and Kingston can be contacted here. Hounslow SENDIASS can be contacted here RUILS also offer SEND advice for Richmond residents here South West London Law Centre provides free 30 minute consultations with an Education Solicitor. Details are here.
