SENDSTART WIRRAL

Special Educational Needs and Disability Statutory Assessment and Review Team

To make the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) support for children, young people and parents on Wirral better the local authority is employing 38 new staff. All the new staff will be working in the team responsible for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

Below is an explanation of the changes and new team structure. This includes details of the new Locality teams. You can find out which Locality your setting is in, and who your new named case worker is. You will also find the new email address for your Locality Team.

There is information about what this means for you while the changes are being put in place. All the changes should be in place by the end of January 2025.

What is the new team called?

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Statutory Assessment and Review team will now be known as SENDSTART. This is the team that settings, parents and carers, children or young people ask for an EHCP needs assessment. SENDSTART follow a process that is explained in the SEND Code of Practice (2014). This team is tier 4 of The Graduated Approach.

What is the new structure of this team?

Before now there was a single SEND Manager, Danielle Smith, who was responsible for all the staff in the SEND Assessment team and their workload of EHCPs. Danielle is still the manager of the whole team. But, the new larger staff team have been split into 6 new groups that are now called ‘Localities’.

Each Locality has its own dedicated staff team.

Locality Manager.

Responsible for managing and supporting their team of caseworkers and support officers.

EHCP caseworkers. They are the front facing members of the team. Their role is to support schools and parents and lead the co-production of an EHCP.

Support Officers.  They support caseworkers with administrative tasks to make sure that caseworkers are available to the families and school for communication. They will also be responsible for some EHCP reviews.                            

Business Support Officers. They will be responsible for their locality email. General enquiries may be responded to by them. Their priority task will be logging new EHCP Needs Assessment requests making sure the process starts in a timely way. 

Many of these team members are in brand new posts. The SENDSTART team has nearly doubled in size.

Tell me about the new Localities

A Locality is either an area of Wirral or a group of schools. Some localities describe the age of the young people they support. Some describe the area on Wirral their school is in. Each locality manager also has expertise in one of six key aspects of EHCPs and will be able to support everyone in the SENDSTART team with advice and specialist knowledge.

Each Locality is listed below. When you select a Locality you will be taken to a new page with all the details for your Locality team. This includes a full list of the schools and settings in that Locality. You will also see the name of your settings caseworker except in the Post-16 team. They will be responsible for all post-16 placements as a team. There are still some vacancies, but this information will be updated regularly.

Do you have any questions?

Here you can find further information about the move to the new SENDSTART structure

  • For the moment we would like you to use your locality email address. You can find that address by selecting your locality above.

    The phone number for our team is 0151 666 4282.

    When you call this number, you will be given a list of options and you will be able to choose your locality option. This will then take you to your locality team Specialist Business Support Officer.

    Whilst this is being set up and tested, it would be best to email us using your locality email address.

    • If you already have an existing EHCP caseworker and you have their email address, you should continue to contact them.

    • If you are making a new request for an Educational Health and Care Needs Assessment, in other words your first EHCP, you should use the email address above for your locality.  You can still make a request in writing or by phone. You can find advice on how to request an Educational Health and Care Needs Assessment on the IPSEA website. You can also contact Wirral SEND Partnership for independent advice and support. There is a form that you can download here from SENDLO to make a request for a new Educational and Health Care Needs Assessment.

    • You can find out which team your school or setting is in by clicking on the name of each Locality above. Your school SENCO will also be able to tell you.

    • If you have general enquiries for the SENDSTART team you should use the email address above for your locality.

    • If you need any further help with this information, please talk to your setting, school or college SEND Coordinator (SENCO).

  • The new structure is only the start of the work that is happening to improve the EHCP process on Wirral. Over the next two months SENDLO will tell you and your settings when there is new information being shared with you.

  • It does take time to move from the old system to the new system. New staff will start at different times depending on how much notice they must give their old employer.

    It is expected that all new staff will be in post by the end of January 2025. By then you will know more about the new SENDSTART team and will start to see improvements in Wirral’s EHCP process.

    Everyone’s patience and understanding are very much appreciated by the SENDSTART Team.

    Thank You

  • The Early Years SEND Team remains the same. You can find full information about that team here.