Wirral SEND Service

Wirral SEND Service sits within the Children and Young People Directorate of Wirral Council.

Wirral SEND Service is part of the Local Area SEND arrangements which bring together Children’s Social Care, Education provision and Health services.

Wirral SEND Service operates in accordance with the local SEND Policy.

Wirral SEND Service contributes to delivery of the Wirral SEND Strategy 2020-24 and its partnership vision:

Our vision for children with special educational needs and disabilities is that they achieve well in their early years, at school and in college, and lead happy and fulfilled lives.

Everyone in Wirral SEND Service has an important role to play and makes a valued contribution to improving the lives of children and young people with SEND.

Click on the job role to find out more about their role and responsibility.

• Business Support Officer
  • Business Support Officers help the day-to-day operations of the service run smoothly. They answer calls, monitor mailboxes, file documents, and update spreadsheets and databases.
• Specialist Business Support Officer
  • Specialist Business Support Officers help the day-to-day operations of the service to run smoothly. They support other administrators and take on more challenging tasks around meeting management, record keeping and dealing with financial records.
• Finance and Data Officer
  • The Finance and Data Officer takes care of our day-to-day financial tasks which includes organising payments towards EHC Plans, funding agreements, and keeping the budget records in order.
• EHC Co-Ordinator
  • EHC Co-ordinators are the case holders supporting children, young people and families through the EHC Needs Assessment process until they have an EHC Plan. They work with families, education settings, social workers, health workers and other partners to co-ordinate support for children and young people. Our EHC Co-ordinators make recommendations for EHC Needs Assessment and EHC Plans.
• EHC Plan Writer
  • EHC Plan Writes work alongside EHC Co-ordinators to help children, young people and families who need them, get an EHC Plan which is easy to understand, meets needs and supports them to make progress.
• Annual Review Officer
  • Annual Review Officers work with children, young people, parent carers and education staff to review the EHC Plan on a yearly basis. They makes sure that the Annual Review Meeting is family-focused and that provision is appropriate to meet the required outcomes.
• Family Support Worker
  • Family Support Workers give extra help where families need it and this can be in a variety of ways, from helping with routines, to direct work with children, or helping parents to navigate services. Family Support Workers aim to make life a bit less stressful for families.
• Complaints Resolution Officer
  • The Complaints Resolution Officer aims to help those people who are unhappy with the service they are receiving or have received have their views heard, get a response form those involved and to have remedial action taken if necessary. The Complaints Resolution Officer helps to resolve issues quickly and in the least stressful way.
• SEND Participation Support Worker
  • The SEND Participation Support Officer works directly with families and other stakeholders to make sure that the voice of families is heard. An important part of their role is to engage with families about their experience of services finding out what works, what doesn’t and how people can work together to make them better.
• SEND Youth Engagement Officer
  • Our SEND Youth Engagement Officer spends most of their time with young people either in education settings or at Pilgrim Street Youth Arts Centre doing group work. They help young people with SEND to express themselves, their views and to contribute to the big decisions in the borough and in different services.
• SEND Participation Manager – Local Offer
  • The SEND Participation Manager leads on Wirral’s Local Offer. This means much more than just looking after the website, it is about working with SENCOs, partners, parent carers, community organisations and youth groups who can support children and young people with SEND and their families.
• Portage Worker
  • Portage aims to work with families to help them develop a quality of life and experience, for themselves and their young children, in which they can learn together, play together, participate and be included in their community in their own right.
• Early Years SEND Officer
  • The Early Years SEND Officers (EY SENDOs) support the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) in day nurseries, childminders and staff in 2-year-old provision in schools.  They upskill practitioners to better support children with SEND.
• Early Years SEND Manager
  • The Early Years SEND Manager oversees the work the Portage team and Early Years SEND Officers. Together they develop support to empower parents and upskill early years practitioners. The Early Years SEND Manager works with multi-agency staff to identify needs early and to enhance skills for years children with SEND and their families.
• Trainee Educational Psychologist

  • Trainee Educational Psychologists are completing doctorate training at university whilst working and supervised by members of Wirral Educational Psychology Team”  reflecting the fact that Trainees are usually highly qualified and experienced people prior to coming onto on the doctorate programme. The expectation, particularly for a third year trainee, would be that the trainee would be working / practicing as an EP, just with additional supervision and of course reduced workload  

• Educational Psychologist
  • Educational psychologists work with children, young people, families and schools, using psychology to promote positive outcomes in relation to wellbeing, communication and learning. This can include supporting children with learning difficulties or communication needs, and helping schools to meet the needs of young people who are finding it difficult to manage their emotions. The Educational Psychologists provide Advice to the EHC Needs Assessment which informs provision and support in the EHC Plan.
• Senior Educational Psychologist
  • The Senior Educational Psychologist supports the Trainee Educational Psychologists, undertakes psychological work for the EHC Needs Assessment and oversees the work of the ASC Team and the support they provide to education settings and families.
• Principal Educational Psychologist
  • Our Principal Educational Psychologist oversees the work of the Educational Psychology Team ensuring that it is high quality and effective. The Principal Educational Psychologist works to ensure that all education settings are supported in their graduated response to better meet the needs of children and young people in their learning journeys.
• SEN Manager
  • Our SEN Managers oversee the work of our frontline teams for EHCPs, Annual Reviews, participation and the Local Offer. They represent the SEND Service at multi-agency meetings, liaise with partners on provision, and make decisions for EHC Needs Assessment and work with the Decision Making Group to agree packages of support for children and young people.
• Head Of Service
  • The Head of Service is responsible for all activity within the service, making sure it is high quality and effective. The Head of Service ensures that all staff within the service have the support, resources and skills to do their jobs well. It is their responsibility to ensure that the Local Area is working in a way that plans for the future needs of children and young people as well as the present.

We collaborate with children, young people, parents, carers and partners to complete EHC Needs Assessments and agree EHC Plans

We review EHCPs to ensure that children and young people are making good progress

Our Educational Psychologists engage with children and young people to assess strengths, difficulties and need, providing advice which informs EHCPs

We support education settings to provide inclusive, accessible and positive learning experiences for children and young people through a Graduated Approach

We facilitate communication between children, young people, parents, carers and services

We maximise opportunities to allow effective and meaningful co-production to help us shape our service and future provision.

We work directly with parents and their children to support learning and development at home and in settings.

We work with parents and young people to navigate services and get the support they need.

We publish and maintain a clear, accessible local offer of services to support children and young people with SEN and disabilities and their families

We provide learning opportunities for all stakeholders to ensure a clear and consistent approach to SEND is developed and maintained

All staff within Wirral SEND Service are asked to work in the spirit of our Every Child, Every Time mission:

1. We keep children and young people at the centre of all we do.
2. We collaborate with parents, carers, partners, and people who play a role in the child or young person’s life.
3. We are ambitious for children and young people with SEND.
4. We plan for the child’s future as well as the present.
5. We make a positive difference in the lives of children, young people, and their families.

We support the Wirral Plan ambition of Brighter Futures for Children and Young People

In the words of our staff, this is why we do what we do:

“To make a difference to children, young people and families”

“To get provision right so children and young people can thrive”

“To give back after a lived experience”

“I made a decision early on in my career to be the voice of the vulnerable”

“To support family life”

“Because we care (a great deal)”

“To help children with SEND have the best childhoods”

“By writing meaningful and pro-active EHC plans our CYP can achieve their aspirational goals”

“I want to make as much of a difference to the lived experience of Wirral SEND children and young people, and their families as I can within the remit of my role”.

“Because children and young people in Wirral deserve the best opportunities and support”

You said… Communication with parent carers should be a priority

We did… Introduced Open Sessions on a monthly-basis in local schools to improve direct communication and updated our Local Offer website to include notes from the Open Sessions and information on the SEND Transformation Programme (meeting minutes, plans, reports, etc)

You said… It’s not clear what people do or who makes decisions

We did… We’ve published our staffing chart and information on roles and responsibilities, which includes the decisions that different staff are involved in making

You said… Staff in the SEND team are overstretched they have too many cases and it takes ages for them to get back to you

We did… We have increased capacity in the SEND Service with 2 more fulltime SEND Managers (increasing from 1 to 3), 5 more fulltime Annual Review Officers (increasing from 2 to 7) and 4.5 more fulltime EHC Co-ordinators (increasing from XX to XX)