Home Our work & impact Special educational needs & disabilities

Special educational needs & disabilities

Getting the right help and support to help meet the needs of your children is not always easy. For those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), it can be even harder, which is why we have specialist SEND services providing support, advice and signposting to guide you through.

What we do for families & young people with SEND

Family Action is one of the largest UK providers of SENDIAS services. These statutory, free, independent services are designed to help young people and families navigate the health, social care and education systems and advocate for the right support at the right time.

As well as SENDIASS, we provide flexible and bespoke support for schools through our Behaviour Outreach programme and early support in the community for families with concerns about neurodevelopmental support needs. These services help schools and families support their children and young people through training courses, peer support, information and signposting.

FamilyLine is open Monday-Friday for any adult member of the family who needs emotional support, because we know how tough things can be for families often battling to get childrens’ needs met.

Stories from families we have helped...

Toy Appeal – gifting the magic of Christmas

Finding Little Stars – a group for children with additional needs

Our grandson’s ADHD rollercoaster

Back to school dread: a young carer’s story

Back to school tips for children with SEND

Little Stars helped my daughter develop at her own pace

How adult outreach service has widened my daughter’s world

Kamila’s story: how SEND diagnosis helped us as a family

Sammie’s Story: my daughter’s autism diagnosis and support

Hazel’s story: how our SENDIAS service empowers families

Support our work in special educational needs & disabilities

We don’t think it’s right that so many children and young people face a postcode lottery and huge waiting lists to get access to the support they need to access education. If you feel the same, you can help by choosing to donate, volunteer, partner with us as an organisation or commission our services.

Donate

Donations help us continue to give practical, emotional and financial support where needed.

Volunteer

From supporting families living with additional needs to working with those who contact FamilyLine, there are a variety of roles that you could make a real difference in.

Partner with us

We create bespoke partnerships that meet company objectives while helping families shape, or reshape their futures for themselves.

Commission us

If you would like to discuss how we might be able to support you with delivering a service, please get in touch.
Little boy drawing at a table in a community room with a lady next to him smiling
A child with SEND and a teacher sat smiling using an abacus
A team of adults with their arms streteched out to the middles of a circle, hands on top of each others'
A group of people at Wiltshire Community Outreach Service smiling outdoors

Just want to say what a brilliant service you are. You have and continue to help us so much. Don't know what we'd do without you! Thank you.

Parents supported by one of our SEND services

Our SEND services

Browse our services supporting families with any issue.

Find a local service

Our memberships

Family Action belongs to a wide range of alliances and networks to create spaces and platforms for families to share their stories, and enable us to share our organisational learning from service delivery.

Through our work in special educational needs & disabilities, we are proud members of the Council for Disabled Children.

Read about our work in other areas...

Children & families

Adoption & special guardianship

Food & financial hardship

Health & wellbeing

Young people

Schools & education

Skills & employability

Call, text, email or web chat FamilyLine

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, worried or upset about any aspect of your family life, FamilyLine is here for you. We offer free emotional support and guidance on family relationships, conflict, parenting, caring, financial worries and more.

Contact FamilyLine