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Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advices and Support Service

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Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advices and Support Service

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Help with understanding your rights and the school Special Educational Needs System

Support with the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Supporting with meeting preparation and advocacy

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Hints and tips for home/pre-school children.

Ten tips to encourage your child to learn to talk

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Time To Give It Up? Here’s how...

Make giving up the dummy as rewarding and as fun as possible

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Top tips for parents for learning an new language.

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Lots of games naturally encourage you and your child to be face to face.

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Ideas for play at home - Here are some things you can try at home. Remember, always follow what your child is interested in and play their way! Get down to your child’s level so you can see what they are doing and really get involved. Most of all, have fun!

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Promoting Speech and Language Skills, hints, tips and activities.

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Children’s understanding of language takes time to develop. They can understand more than they can say. Children learn language by listening, copying and making links between what they see and what they hear. You are your child’s best language teacher.

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Using language is a complex skill. We must think about the idea we want to express, then think of the words (vocabulary), and then put them into a sentence (grammar). Children benefit from models to help them to develop language.

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Represent parents of children and young people with SEND

Provide support through coffee mornings, drop-in sessions and information events

Gather parent views and share with Local Authority and Health Services

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On Friday 28th April at Down Syndrome Cheshire the PCF held their first informal coffee morning where parents and carers were able to catch up with other parents and speak to local organisations. Thank you to Little Lungs, Cheshire Buddies, Mathew Southall (Children's Therapies-Health, OT, Physio, SALT), Disability Positive and Carers Trust. At each of our events through the year we will have people from education, health and charities. ﻿ Pop along so you can ask them any questions about accessing their services. We also attended SPACE coffee morning on Friday 19th May, with Kola North West, IASS, Live Cheshire and Steamtistic. It was great to meet new families.

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Parent Carer Forum | Cheshire West | Chester

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We are a voluntary group of Parents & Carers in Cheshire West & Chester who have children / young people with special education needs.

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Starting well offers, free resources to help your child learn, grow, and thrive. From fun play activities and childcare support to school readiness, mental health advice, and free books through Bookstart.

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The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) outlines what adults must do to help children learn and develop and to be healthy and safe. This guide is for parents and carers of children from birth to five years old. It will help you find out more about your child's learning and development in the EYFS.

The EYFS includes seven areas of learning and development, split into three age bands:

Birth to three

3-4

4-5 (the reception year in school)

In each band, there are suggestions about what your child may be doing, and how you can help them. It's important to remember that children develop in different ways and at different rates. After each age band you will find top tips for fun, playful experiences that you and your child can do together at home.

For more information on what to expect in the EYFS, view What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage: a guide for parents (pdf).

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The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) outlines what adults must do to help children learn and develop and to be healthy and safe. This guide is for parents and carers of children from birth to five years old. It will help you find out more about your child's learning and development in the EYFS.

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Koala North West is a charity organisation that looks after the emotional wellbeing of families, offering practical support and solutions to everyday parenting. We work with a team of dedicated volunteers who are experts in their field to bring you the dedicated support you deserve.

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SPACE is a charity that provides support for children with additional needs and their families,

Our centre provides an accessible soft play frame and café, an activity room with lots of arts and crafts, messy play and imaginative play opportunities alongside a fully equipped sensory room all of which are open and available during our stay and play sessions.

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Family Fund supports families living across the UK who are who are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person up to the age of 17. Our support is focused on those on low incomes with a child/children who have a high level of additional support needs.

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Family Fund deliver grants for families raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young people on a low income across the UK

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Offer activities for children & young people (no diagnosis required for access to activities)

Offer Parenting Training Workshops

Provide practical support and groups for parents

Provide a counselling service for adults

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Feedback from a Parent | Parental Training Course

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Cheshire Autism Practical Support | Cheshire

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Cheshire Autism Practical Support offers practical help & training for parents of autistic children. Join us for community events today!

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Makaton is a unique communication programme that uses symbols (pictures), signs (gestures) and speech to enable people to communicate. It supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall and organisation of language and expression.

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We would like to announce that The Makaton Charity has successfully acquired the intellectual property rights of Special iApps, a renowned creator of award-winning educational apps. These apps are specially designed to provide support to children with special educational needs, fostering language and communication development.

With Special iApps, users can effortlessly create personalised learning resources in minutes, making it easier for children to access the educational tools they need.

We are excited to continue the legacy of Special iApps and further enhance the impact these remarkable apps have on individual's learning journeys.

Next steps

Our goal is to enhance and modernise the existing Special iApps functionality through updated technology and advancements. We are aiming to relaunch the apps by Summer 2024.

We are delighted to announce that as part of their membership package, all Makaton Members will have exclusive access to the apps. This means that Makaton Members will be able to benefit from the incredible features and educational resources offered by Special iApps, further enriching their membership experience.

Previous Special iApps customers

The apps will also be made available free of charge to previous Special iApps customers for a period of six months. During this time, we encourage users to provide feedback on the development and usability of the apps. This valuable input will help us further improve and refine the apps.

Sharing your data

If you were a previous Special iApps customer and you would rather not have your personal data stored with The Makaton Charity, please email vicki.partridge@makaton.org and we'll ensure it is removed from our database.

More information regarding these exciting developments will be released later in the year. Makaton has worked closely with the Founders of Special iApps and is committed to continuing and expanding upon the remarkable work they have accomplished.

Stay tuned for more updates on how we will be taking this important work forward!

The Makaton Charity

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Makaton is a unique language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate. It supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall and organisation

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Bookstart is designed to support families discover the magic of shared reading from their earliest days. Find out more about the programmes we offer.

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Bookstart is designed to support families discover the magic of shared reading from their earliest days. Find out more about the programmes we offer.

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We offer a lifeline for families, providing life-changing and life-saving specialist equipment when and where it’s needed. Childhood cancers, birth defects, accidents, diseases and infections can all cause disability. They are affecting children and their families every day.

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Every day, Newlife is changing the lives of disabled and terminally ill children across the UK.

We offer a lifeline for families, providing life-changing and life-saving specialist equipment when and where it's needed. Childhood cancers, birth defects, accidents, diseases and infections can all cause disability. They are affecting children and their families every day.

With your support, we can ensure more children get the best possible start in life and fulfil their potential.

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Newlife the Charity - Changing the lives of disabled children

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Every day, Newlife is changing the lives of disabled and terminally ill children across the UK. We provide thousands of items of equipment.

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Trusted health advice and guidance for parents

Welcome to Best Start in Life, the new home of Start for Life.

You'll still find the same NHS advice on pregnancy, babies and supporting your toddler's development. Now you can also find out about childcare and education support too!

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The Community Children’s Occupational Therapy team sees children and young people who have difficulty joining in with the activities they need and want to do every day. We call these activities ‘occupations’.

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Toilet Training Advice for Children with Autism

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Toilet Training Advice for Children with Autism

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ERIC, The Children’s Bowel & Bladder Charity is the UK’s leading charity supporting all children and teenagers with a bowel or bladder problem.

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With your help, we can keep offering free support to those who need us.

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Merlin’s Magic Wand is a dedicated children’s charity, bringing joy and connection to children around the world.

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Welcome to our website. Merlin’s Magic Wand is an international children’s charity. We work to provide magical experiences for children who need them most, and we do this as the children’s charity of Merlin Entertainments. Learn more about our work today.

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Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children

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Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children

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Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children may help with the extra costs of looking after a child who:

is under 16

has difficulties walking or needs much more looking after than a child of the same age who does not have a disability

They will need to meet all the eligibility requirements.

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To claim DLA for a child you need to be their parent or look after them as if you're their parent. This includes step-parents, guardians, grandparents, foster-parents or older brothers or sisters.

If your child currently lives in England or Wales you can apply by either:

printing off and filling in the DLA claim form

phoning the Disability Living Allowance helpline and asking for a printed form

If your child moves from Scotland to England or Wales

Your Child Disability Payment will stop 13 weeks after your child moves.

Apply for DLA for children as soon as possible after moving to avoid a gap between payments.

When you'll be paid

DLA can be paid from the start of your claim. It cannot be backdated. Your claim will start on the date the form is received or the date you call the enquiry line (if you return the claim pack within 6 weeks).

You'll usually get a decision letter about 8 weeks (40 working days) after your form is received. The letter will tell you when you'll get your first payment.

If the child might have 6 months or less to live

There are special rules if a medical professional has said the child might have 6 months or less to live, so they can get DLA more quickly.

Phone the Disability Living Allowance helpline to start your claim. Ask a medical professional for form DS1500. They'll either fill it in and give the form to you or send it directly to the Department for Work and Pensions.

If you disagree with a decision

You can challenge a decision about your claim. This is called asking for mandatory reconsideration.

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Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children

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Skip to main content We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We'd like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

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0-5 Early Years Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Pathway

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0-5 Early Years Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Pathway

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The Early Years SEND Pathway forms part of the broader SEND 0-25 Inclusion Framework, which is being developed. This will provide detailed guidance on how educational settings identify special educational needs and disabilities and how to meet these needs across the 0-25 age range.

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Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA)

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Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA)

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If you are a parent of a child or a young person over the age of 16 but under the age of 25, you can request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment  using our online Education, Health and Care Hub (EHC Hub).

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Who can request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment?

If you are a parent of a child or a young person over the age of 16 but under the age of 25, you can request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment using our online Education, Health and Care Hub (EHC Hub). In addition, anyone else can bring a child or young person who has (or may have) SEN to the attention of Cheshire West and Chester Council, particularly where they think an EHCNA may be necessary. This could include, for example;

Foster carers

Health and social care professionals

Early years practitioners.

Bringing a child or young person to the attention of Cheshire West and Chester Council should be undertaken on an individual basis where there are specific concerns. This should be done with the knowledge and agreement of the child's parent or the young person.

Parental requests

Although parents can make requests directly themselves, the Council would recommend discussing submitting a request with the child or young person's class teacher or the school's Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCo). This will provide school with the opportunity to discuss your child's progress and present the relevant documentation to support a request.

If you have not registered for an EHC Hub account, you can still submit a request by clicking here.

A number of short video demonstrations are available below to help you navigate and contribute in the EHC Hub. It is not recommended to use your mobile phone to access the EHC Hub. Unfortunately the amount of information available is not easily displayed on a phone device. The EHC Hub is compatible with all tablet, laptop or desktop devices.

Setting requests

If you are a setting including nurseries, schools or colleges, you must have an EHC Hub account to request an EHCNA. Please contact via email ehchubsupport@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk if you have any questions relating to this.

A number of short video demonstrations are available below to help you navigate and complete your request in the EHC Hub. It is not recommended to use your mobile phone to access the EHC Hub. Unfortunately the amount of information available is not easily displayed on a phone device. The EHC Hub is compatible with all tablet, laptop or desktop devices.

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Requesting an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment

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If you are a parent of a child or a young person over the age of 16 but under the age of 25, you can request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment using our online Education, Health and Care Hub (EHC Hub).

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Here you will find:

Types of schools and education

Information to help when considering the right school

Search for schools across Cheshire West and Chester

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Early Years Specialist Teaching Service (EYSTS)

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Early Years Specialist Teaching Service (EYSTS)

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The Early Years Specialist Teaching Service (EYSTS) is a team of experienced specialist education professionals, who provide advice and support for Early Years providers to help them support and successfully include children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

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Children cannot be referred into SPOTSS until they are in school (reception) but there are great resources and information available through this page. They also have a regular information line that you can book a slot to get advice from SPOTSS Occupational Therapists.

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Sensory Processing Occupational Therapy Support Service (SPOTSS) :: Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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The info line is a service offered by SPOTSS to chat through any general pre-referral queries.