What to expect from RIASS

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• What to expect from RIASS

Redbridge Information, Advice & Support Service offer free and impartial information and advice to children and young people (aged 0-25) parents and carers, in relation to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The service provides legally based, impartial, confidential and accessible information and advice.

RIASS cannot help with:

• making decisions for you 
• arranging meetings or take minutes
• writing letters or emails for you
• completing paperwork on your behalf
• printing or photocopy documents for you 
• reviewing benefits forms e.g., DLA or PIP
• providing any housing support
• immigration 

Information 

When you first contact RIASS we will take some more details regarding your enquiry. You may be sent some relevant resources to look through, these resources will often answer your questions. You may also signpost you to relevant support from other organisations, agencies, or local authority departments.

You will be provided with information on our Drop in Sessions as well as the use of our website.

Advice

If you need further help to apply this information to your own situation we can send you our welcome pack, which includes our contact form, our policies and other documents to help you. Once we have recieved your contact form we can then provide you with tailored advice.

Our team provide a wide range of information, advice, and support on all areas of SEND. They will listen to you and help you to gather, understand, and interpret information and apply it to your own situation. RIASS can:

• provide more in-depth information and resources to help you navigate processes
• help you to complete documents, understand policies and local practices
• understand your options and legal rights.

Support 

RIASS will only provide 1:1 support for:

• complex situations that require more in-depth support
• young people (0-25) accessing our service independently
• anyone who has their own additional support needs which mean they are unable to advocate for their child or themselves

Closing your enquiry

RIASS will close your enquiry when:

• the outcomes of your enquiry have been achieved
• you have reached a stage where you feel you can proceed without support
• the support you need is outside of the SENDAISS remit, in this case you will be signposted to the relevant services.

 You can come back to RIASS as often as you need by calling our helpline number or emailing us at riass@redbridge.gov.uk. 

After 3 months we will close your case and send you our evaluation form.

Feedback is very important to us as it not only helps to shape the future of the service, but it is required as part of the information we need to report to Children’s Disability Council (CDC).  All evaluations are anonymised when sharing this data with other organisations and we only ask for your name to make sure that the service has contacted you to complete this.