Staff who work for Essex County Council are trained to work closely with parents and to help you through the assessment process. They include:
Educational psychologists assess children’s needs and advise on the whole range of special educational needs of children and young people. They help people and schools to understand and address children’s difficulties.
Specialist teachers are employed to provide advice and support for children with special educational needs. They advise teachers about the curriculum, classroom, school organisation, resources and the setting of appropriate targets for children’s individual programmes.
Behaviour support staff are specialist teachers and workers who provide advice and support for schools in meeting the needs of children with emotional, social and/or behaviour difficulties.
The Statutory Assessment team consists of senior managers, locality casework managers, casework officers and Parent Partnership officers.
The staff have a good understanding of special educational needs and will be working on behalf of your child to help him or her to get the best out of the assessment.
They will be in touch regularly during the assessment to keep you up to date with what is happening. You are welcome to contact your area office at any time if you have any questions or concerns.
You will be invited to a coffee morning near the start of the assessment. This is an informal session where you can meet the team co-ordinating your child's assessment, ask any questions, and meet other parents going through the same process. Both parents and staff find these sessions very helpful, and say how much they like being able 'to put faces to names'.