SENDIASS Volunteer

Can you spare a few hours as a SENDIASS Volunteer Practitioner?

You will be helping to support disabled children, young people and their families.

This is a great opportunity to develop your skills in a rewarding role, and gain a strong sense of achievement.

Croydon SENDIASS provides free, confidential and impartial legally-based information, advice and support relating to education, health and social care for families of children and young people aged 0-25 with SEND who live in Croydon.

Our aim is to empower families and young people to understand their rights and to be confident when making informed decisions and advocating for their child with SEND.

About Kids

We’re here for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities, young carers and families. We’re on a mission to create a world where all kinds of children and young people have all kinds of opportunities. We create life-changing opportunities by providing a wide range of support. Together, we’ll empower disabled children and families to stand up for their rights.

The Role:

SENDIASS Volunteer Practitioner

Duties may include all or some of the following-

General administrative support:

• Updating our database using our internal systems
• Sending out general IAS emails to support the service delivery
• Maintaining the safe and secure filing of personal data at all times
• Monitoring and recording contacts with the service (phone calls, voicemails, emails, Facebook queries)

Telephone Advice Line:

• Working with confidential information
• Capturing key information during the initial calls
• Providing information, advice and support as required

Face-to-face consultations:

• Supporting parents and young people to understand, interpret and/or complete relevant SEND paperwork

Focused support:

• Supporting parents and young people to understand and exercise their rights around a particular issue; and/or express their views and take part in discussions, for example, in a meeting with school, at Education, Health and Care Plan annual review meetings

Training and publicity:

• Supporting at our training sessions for parents and/ or professionals
• Attending events such as school SEND coffee mornings to publicise the service and offer information, advice and support to attendees

Personal Qualities:

Please note these are desirable but not essential

• Experience of working with/supporting families of disabled children and young people
• Being a confident communicator
• Being a confident IT user, with the ability to navigate bespoke database systems; MS Outlook; MS Excel and MS Word
• Having great interpersonal skills
• Having confidence and enthusiasm to offer help and information to service users
• Having the ability to travel independently to and from meetings and events

The details:

Employer –SENDIASS (hosted by Kids)

Contract – Volunteer Work

Location – Croydon SENDIASS, flexible:

• Office (24 George Street, Croydon, CR0 1PB)
• Meetings – as required, online or in person; locations vary, across the city
• Working from home