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30 Hours Childcare

All children aged 3 - 4 years are currently entitled to 15 hours per week funded childcare over 38 weeks, or less hours per week over more weeks up to a maximum of 570 hours per year. This is known as the Universal entitlement. What…

Accessing the Local Offer

Here in Sunderland, we have developed our Local Offer with colleagues from education, social care, health, the private and voluntary sector, parents and carers as well as young people. We are still keen to gather as many thoughts, suggestions and opinions as possible, so if…

Changes to Special School placements for non-maintained schools

Important information for parents and carers about how the Council buys placements. From February 2018 the Council (along with the other North-East local authorities and health partners) will begin to use the NE12 framework for all: Placements in Department for Education-registered, non-maintained and independent special…

Disability Access Fund (DAF)

Disability Access Fund (DAF) is a one off payment of £828 that is given to any registered early years provider who is providing an early education place for any three or four year old who successfully claims Disability Living Allowance.  The Disability Access Fund (DAF) will…

Disability Matters - Free resources

Disability Matters This is a suite of free resources that are designed to improve awareness of disability issues for everyone who may work or volunteer with disabled children and young people. Although not primarily intended for parent carers, the resources should be interesting and useful…

Disagreement Resolution, Mediation and Tribunal services

Most disagreements about special educational provision can be resolved by talking with the early years setting, school, college or local authority.  If you need help with this you can contact the Information, Advice and Support Service, which has two sections: Parent Partnership, which offers advice…

Draft Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy 0-25

Together for Children (Sunderland) Draft SEND Strategy 2019-2022 "Working together for children, young people and families" outlines the vision and the key objectives for supporting Sunderland's children and young people with SEND and their families. Our vision for all children and young people with SEND…

Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)

What is it? Three and four year old children attending an early years education setting such as a nursery school, nursery class, private nursery or childminder may be eligible to receive Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP). Children must receive free Early Years Education to attract…

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

If you have a child or young person with SEN (they have a learning difficulty or disability) they may sometimes require a level of support that is more intensive than the resources usually available in their school.  In such a case, you or your child's school could consider…

Feedback and comments

In this section we would really like to hear from you using our online survey about the content, how easy you find the site to navigate and search and what you liked/didnt like, so we can continue to improve the website to meets your needs. Sunderland…

Frequently Asked Questions - Parents & Carers

What is meant by special educational needs (SEN)? The term special educational need has a legal definition. A child with special educational needs will have a learning difficulty or a disability that will make it harder for them to learn compared to most children of…

Frequently Asked Questions - Young People

Sunderland's young person's advocate group City Equals noticed that the FAQ's that had originally been posted on the  Local Offer site seemed to have been asked by adults - and nthey were right, they had.  In response to this we asked the young people to send…

Health Services and Support Organisations

Below are a list of national and regional organisations that offer services, help, or support and guidance for a large range of health issues.  Each service entry has a link to the organisation's own website where you will be able to find further information about…

Help paying for Childcare

There are a number of ways that the goverment can help you and your family with chidcare costs.  Whether you have toddlers or teens, you could get support.  Information about some of the schemes are below: TAX FREE CHILDCARE for working families in the UK,…

Help, Care and Support

Some children and young people (aged 0 - 25) with special educational needs (SEN) may have disabilities or other needs which mean they require support from social care services. Depending on the age of the child or young person these services may be provided by…

How can an Education, Health and Care Plan help me?

City Equals is a group representing the voice of young people with learning disabilities or difficulties (LDD) living in Sunderland.  A number of young people from City Equals worked with staff from Sunderland City Council and a company called Little Big Butterfly to create an…

Including All Children and Young People - Expectations of Schools

Framework"Including All Children and Young People" aims to outline what is expected through a 'graduated response' to SEN, linked to the Code of Practice.  It utilises the SEND Code of Practice areas of difficulty/need and uses the following structure: Cognition and learning Social, emotional and…

Jargon Buster

Professionals can sometimes use language, phrases, abbreviations and acronyms that are difficult for parents, carers and young people to understand.  Sometimes acronyms or abbreviations may mean different things across two different sectors / professional bodies, which could lead to unnecessary confusion.  As a result we have produced the guide below which…

Leisure attractions in the North East Region

Families often tell us that it is difficult to find new, different or interesting places to go with a disabled child, espcially if there is an entry charge.  Often it can be quite expensive for the whole family to visit somewhere and if you then have…

Money and Benefits

There are a number of benefits that could be available to you, depending on your or your families circumstances. Sunderland City Council Welfare Rights service have lots of information on the Council's website that you may find useful, visit the page: https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/article/13327/Benefit-entitlement Below we have tried…
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