SEND Voices Wokingham are in contact with both the Children with Disabilities Team and the SEND Team at WBC, they have asked us to share the following with you. We will share any further information as soon as we receive it.
Message from WBC Children with Disabilities Team
The Children with Disabilities Services have been working very hard over the last week to ensure that we are able to continue to support Wokingham's most vulnerable disabled children. In order to achieve this, we have had to make some difficult decisions to scale back some of our activity to enable staff to focus on the provision of core and essential services to those who need them the most.Whilst we acknowledge that all services are important to children and their families, given the unprecedented situation we are facing, we are not able to continue to deliver at the usual level. Children with Disabilities staff from across our range of provisions have been communicating with families over the past week to discuss what this means for their specific circumstances and will continue to be in contact over the coming weeks as needed.
I would also like to reassure families that we are working closely with our Education & Health colleagues to ensure a continuity of service to those children who are additionally vulnerable due to multiple and complex needs.
As a service we are reviewing our activity on a daily basis to ensure alignment with Government and Public Health advice and are committed to ensuring the delivery of safe and effective services. We will continue to provide you with updates as changes occur.
Kelli Scott
Interim Service Manager, CWD and Early Help
Message from WBC SEND Team
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Service are working hard during this challenging time to ensure that we are able to provide relevant support and guidance to our service users whilst continuing to meet our statutory obligations with particular focus on requests for Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA), decisions to issue draft EHCP's Annual Reviews and Phased Transfers.
Whilst our aim is to maintain “business as usual" wherever possible, the unprecedented situation nationally around COVID-19 will have an impact on our statutory processes and timescales. For now we continue to hold weekly SEND panels virtually to consider statutory requests and attend annual reviews where they are taking place in efforts to reduce the impact. It is important to note that a large number of partners across education, health and social care are severely impacted by the current situation and we are working with them to reduce disruptions to the SEND service delivery wherever possible.
We continue to monitor he rapidly changing situation and as a service are reviewing our activity on a daily basis to ensure alignment with Government and Public Health advice and are committed to ensuring the delivery of services. If you have any queries, please do feel free to make contact with your allocated SEND Officer or email SENTeam@wokingham.gov.uk.
Wokingham Borough Council takes the safety and well being of all of its staff and service users incredibly seriously and thus during this time want to limit the amount of contact in order to reduce the risk of potential transmission of the Coronavirus and ensure that our delivery activity is in line with governmental guidance.
We thank you for your support and understanding during these difficult and exceptional times.
Sonia Aulak
Interim SEND Strategic Lead
