Children's Learning Disability Service (CLDS) feedback opportunity.

🌟Southend SEND Information Day 🌟 Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF), and the Southend SEND Local Offer Team are delighted to invite parent carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), as well as professionals to our SEND Information Day. 📅 6 November 2025 🕘 9:00am to 3:00pm (drop in anytime) 📍 Southend Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, SS2 6ER. Come and meet a wide range of local services and organisations who support SEND families across Southend-on-Sea at our SEND Marketplace. You'll be able to speak with teams including The Specialist Teaching Service, Educational Psychology Service, Early Years Team, and many more. There will also be talks on key topics: ▪ 10am to 11am: Transitions from the Children with Disabilities Team to adult social care ▪ 11.30am to 12.30pm: Health information session; Decision making; young people with additional needs ▪ 1pm to 2pm: Collaboration Counts: Supporting your young person with SEND in education No booking needed, just drop-in at a time that suits you. Free tea, coffee and water will be available. Food can be bought from the Civic Centre cafe, or people are welcome to bring their own. Civic Centre parking is limited, so attendees are advised to use public transport or town centre car parks. Please note, the event is for adults and there will not be a creche provision or activities for children. The marketplace is open to all, but we kindly ask that babies and young children are not brought into the information sessions. Please contact the Local Offer Team at localoffer@southend.gov.uk with any questions. We look forward to welcoming you! Visit the Livewell site for more information.

One of our favourite Events is our regular monthly coffee morning, where Parent Carers can get together to share their experiences. Every month we have the Local Offer team with us and invite 1 or 2 additional special guests from for example Health, Social Care, Education and more, to offer guidance and advice. There is also a sensory play creche available for your little ones aged 0-5 with Chaos & Calm. Come along and chat to other ParentCarers, get advice from one of our SEND support service guests and enjoy a hot drink with something sweet. Booking is not required.

“School Attendance Matters” but its not that simple! We know that that in recent years, at this time of year, social media and sometimes the news outlets too, become awash with campaigns relating to attendance at school and that this can be really distressing for some Parent Carers. Unfortunately, in the information widely circulating there is no clarity in how this affects children and young people with medical conditions, serious mental health challenges, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). As Parent Carers, our first instinct is always to protect our children and young people. Many of us are navigating incredibly complex situations, where our children maybe want to attend school but the reality of doing so is far from simple. It can feel deeply unfair to then open social media and be confronted with campaigns suggesting that not being in school will damage our child or young person’s future. When you’re already doing everything, you can to support your child – often against huge challenges - messages like these don’t feel supportive. Instead, they leave us feeling blamed, judged, or as though we aren’t doing enough. When in reality, we are working tirelessly to give our children and young people the best chance in life! We know there can sometimes be so much information that you don’t know where to turn but we thought it would be helpful to share some websites and information to find out more. We know that it is long but we have attached the “Working together to improve School Attendance” guidance document here and in particular the section relating to our families can be found at the end of Paragraph 2, pages 23-26. The guidance acknowledges that children and young people with long-term medical conditions, serious mental health challenges, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can face extra barriers when it comes to school attendance. Schools are encouraged to have compassionate conversations with families in these situations, recognising that it isn’t always straightforward. If your child or young person struggles with school-based avoidance the first step we would encourage you to take is to reach out to their class teacher, SENDco or sometimes if available, the school mental health lead. If you feel that you aren’t being supported, the Local Offer have lots of information available on their website which can be found here , including links to books and apps that may be useful and details of who you can speak to, for example, the Access and Inclusion Team. SENDIASS also offer resources on their website with useful information about support available. Their information can be found here. Young Minds is a charity offering advice and information to give young people the tools to look after their mental health. They also aim to empower parents and professionals to be the best support they can be to the young people in their lives. You can find lots of resources on their website here . Similarly, Kids Inspire is a mental health charity that offers personalised recovery plans for children and families who have experienced trauma and have lots of information and resources on their website which can be found here. If your child or young person is experiencing high anxiety or very poor mental health we would strongly encourage you to speak with your GP to seek further support.  If you feel able to, we would be grateful to hear about your experiences, please use our family feedback form on our website or better still come along and see us at one of our Coffee mornings! 😊