Social care and short breaks

Our SEND service works with children and young people who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. Find out more about EHC plans.

It provides specialist children’s social care services for disabled children who've been diagnosed with profound and substantial disabilities that affect their daily life.

The team works with special schools, specialist health services at Wood Street Health Centre and all other agencies which support disabled children and their families.

If a child or young person has been assessed as having social care needs in relation to their SEND, social care teams:

• must secure social care provision assessed as being necessary to support a child or young person’s SEND and as specified in their EHC plan
• should give early years’ providers, schools and colleges a contact for social care advice on children and young people with SEND
• must carry out reviews of children and young people with EHC plans where there are social care needs
• should make sure that for looked after children and care leavers, this process is co-ordinated effectively to avoid duplication and delay 
• the SEND team does not work with child protection cases as they are referred to our children assessment team who specialise in this area.