Derby SEND Advice Line
About the Derby SEND Advice Line
The Derby SEND Advice Line (DSAL) is an early advice service for SENCos, inclusion leaders and other frontline professionals such as GPs and family workers.
It can help you to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND as early as possible.
DSAL supports settings with an early conversation to help guide them through the graduated approach and signpost to next steps and resources to support meeting needs.
The advice line helps professionals to talk through the main worries or difficulties for a child or young person including:
- academic development and progress
- social and emotional development
- transition concerns
- social and communication difficulties
- behaviour concerns.
You can also contact DSAL if you are thinking about requesting an EHC needs assessment, to talk about your worries and to help you to decide whether a statutory assessment is the most appropriate route to support a child or young person.
Parent and carers should contact SENDIASS for advice.
What DSAL will do
DSAL will give you time to discuss concerns at an individual or whole school level. In most cases they will contact you within 48 hours from when your request is received.
A DSAL advisor will:
- signpost you to resources and links to support meeting a child’s needs
- direct you to the most appropriate services for a child’s needs
- if appropriate, arrange for contact back from an experienced professional such as an educational psychologist or early years specialist teacher
- talk through your DIT setting readiness (where appropriate) to look for further opportunities to support you
- coordinate a ‘Moving Forwards’ meeting to bring relevant people together to resolve an issue
- bring together a 'Team Around the School' planning meeting.
How to get help
DSAL and other Inclusion Services have created lots of resources on the School's Information Portal to help you.
However, if you are concerned about an individual pupil or whole school issues, you can request a call from DSAL. Please consider which staff member knows the child best and would be most suitable to have the discussion with the DSAL Advisor.
Alternatively, you can call us directly on 01332 956956 from Monday to Friday between 1pm to 4pm.