Arms-Length Agreement

Arm’s length agreement between West Northants Council and West Northants SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (IASS)

This document describes the relationship between the local authority (LA) and the Information, Advice and Support Service and the measures taken to protect the impartiality of the service.

Management:

Information Advice and Support Service staff are employed by West Northants Council.

The team has its own Service Manager who has no other LA duties.

West Northants SEND IASS team sits within the Commissioning & Partnerships – Public Health and Children’s Services. The Service Manager is responsible for the daily operational duties of the service, in addition to attending multi-agency strategic SEND Services meetings to ensure that a parent’s, children and young people’s perspective is included in discussions designed to inform and develop practice.  The Service regularly meets with the Parent Carer Forum (PCF)  lead.

Location:

Although the team is based in a local authority office, this is away from other SEND and children’s services and away from senior managers. This environment protects the confidentiality of the service whilst providing easy access to LA personnel.

Confidentiality:

The service has a confidentiality policy in which they adhere to.

• The service has a secure database. Any information that is recorded and stored by the service is confidential and is not shared with anyone without consent.
• IASS staff do not access information relating to a child, young person or their family without consent. 
• IASS staff do not contact services without consent. 
• Referrals into the service will not be accepted without consent.
• IASS staff do not disclose any information about a child, young person or their family to any other party unless they have their consent. 
• IASS service staff do not contact anyone involved with a child or their family without the parents/carers consent.
• IASS staff protect the identity of families when they communicate concerns to other parties.
• All data is anonymised to ensure that no child, young person or their family can be identified.

Role of the Information, advice, and support service:

• The service provides free information, impartial advice and support to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND, or who are excluded from school.
• The service supports parents/carers and young people with admission to school and colleges and participating in policy and service delivery decisions. It does not provide advocacy for parents/carers or young people.
• The service aims to ensure that the views of parents, carers and young people are heard and although local authority personnel are committed to listening to parents and trying to find resolutions to disagreements, they accept that the service must challenge their policies, procedures and practice at times.
• The service helps to resolve disagreements between parents/carers and schools or the local authority and informs parents and carers of their right to disagreement resolutions including mediation or to appeal to SEND tribunal.
• To avoid a potential conflict of interest, IASS staff do not attend tribunals with parents, except in a support capacity if required. The team do help parents to prepare their case and offer support after the tribunal decision. Parents/carers are signposted to national or local advocacy organisations if they want somebody to speak on their behalf at a tribunal.