SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Support Service – Autism Spectrum (A.S.)

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Our team is part of the SEND Support Service and works with staff in educational settings to provide the best possible education for pupils on the autism spectrum or who may display autistic traits.  In the Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council document - "Supporting Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs in Blackburn with Darwen - The graduated response in mainstream schools" the SEN area for AS is referred to as communication and interaction difficulties.

If your child has this type of additional need they may be described as having a lifelong developmental disability that affects how an individual communicates with and relates to other people and the world around them.  This involves issues with;

  •  Social communication and social interaction:
  1. Social-emotional reciprocity.
  2. Non-verbal communicative behaviours.
  3. Developing and maintaining relationships appropriate at the developmental level.
  •  Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities:
  1. Stereotyped or repetitive speech and motor movements.
  2. Excessive adherence to routines, ritualised patterns of verbal or non-verbal behaviour, excessive resistance to change.
  3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus.
  4. Hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment. 

This can restrict the ability to complete tasks in the classroom, be socially isolated as well as become agitated and upset.

 

 Our team provides a service to educational settings that includes;

  • Specialist assessment using a variety of informal and formal methods which will include talking to you or your child.
  • Advice to staff regarding successful inclusion with respect to their specific learning styles and needs in and out of the classroom in order to facilitate the young person accessing activities, enhance their communication and interaction skills, as well as attempting to enable the young person to remain in a controlled state for the majority of the school day.
  • Advice to staff about the best ways of teaching and resources to help improve attainment and progress.
  • Help to set individual targets and to develop programmes of work.
  • Assessment and training in the use of simple and complex technology which can help you or your child’s learning.
  • Specialist training for staff in schools.
  • Advice to parents, carers and guardians.  For example, providing training to parents in educational settings and contributing to the delivery of the EarlyBird Parent Programme.

We work closely with educational settings to tailor our service to meet the needs of individual young people and their families.  

Who to contact

Contact Name
Robert Robinson
Contact Position
Manager, Special Educational Needs and Disability Support Service
Telephone
01254 666 520 01254 666 520
E-mail
robert.robinson@blackburn.gov.uk
Parent Organisation
SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Support Service

Where to go

Notes

Our team is part of the SEND Support Service and covers all educational settings in Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

Availability

Referral required
Yes
Referral Details

If you or staff in an educational setting or both have a concern about the progress your child is making or knowing what steps to take next a representative from your child’s school, usually the Special Educational Needs and Disabilties Coordinator (SENDCO), will request involvement from the A.S. Team. An educational setting may decide to request our support as part of their general approach to meeting additional needs or as a result of a discussion at a review meeting.

In either case the educational setting will always discuss this with you first and will ask you to complete a consent form.

Once a request has been received from your child’s school a member of the team will make an appointment to visit the school, discuss these concerns and arrange a plan of support for the staff in the educational setting.

Other notes

This is a service for schools within Blackburn with Darwen .

The team is funded as part of Local Authority funding for children and young people with High Needs Special Educational Needs and is free to schools within Blackburn with Darwen Borough.

Schools are given a written report and a record of involvement for the work we undertake in school.  Schools are asked to provide written feedback of our work. A formal evaluation of the service is requested annually. We ask schools to comment on their satisfaction with the whole of the SEND Support Service; how the service has met school needs, their pupil’s needs and how the service can be improved.

Local Offer

Local Offer Age Bands
5-11 years
11-16 years
16-19 years
Needs Level
Low
Medium
High
SEN Provision Type
Targeted
Specialist

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