Who can make a referral?
You can refer to Liaise for information, advice and support on SEND related issues if you are a child or a young person with SEND aged between 0 – 25 years old and you live in Lincolnshire, or you are their parent or carer.
Professionals can make a referral on behalf of the family with their consent (using the online contact form).
How do I make a referral to Liaise?
You can complete the online contact form and your referral will come directly to Liaise.
If you would prefer to speak with someone on the telephone you can call 0800 195 1635, and your call will be taken by the customer service centre who will complete the referral form and send it through to Liaise on your behalf.
What happens after I’ve made my referral?
A Liaise caseworker will review your referral to determine how we can best respond to provide the help you need.
We will aim to contact you within two working days of receipt of your referral.
You will receive either
- an email response to your query, or
- an email and a text message confirming an advice line telephone appointment
How can I prepare for my telephone appointment?
You will receive a text reminder two working days before your appointment.
If your child has an education health and care plan, please try to have a copy with you for your appointment, and also any supporting paperwork, for example the local authority decision letter. This will help us to provide you with the correct information during your appointment. If you need a copy please contact your SEND locality or download a copy from the SEND hub. Having the relevant paperwork with you is helpful as we are unable to access this from any other source prior to your appointment.
Emailing us a copy of any up to date, relevant paperwork before your call would help us prepare for your call beforehand.
On the day and time of your call, please ensure you are in a space where you are able to talk privately as the call may include the exchange of confidential information. It’s difficult for us to speak with you if you are driving or in the supermarket.
If the call is about a young person who is over the age of 16, we will check with you during the call whether they have consented to the discussion taking place. We can speak with the young person themselves if you or they would prefer.
What happens if anything changes?
If your situation changes and you no longer need to speak to us, that's fine, please just let us know by emailing us and we will cancel your appointment.
Please remember that we only have the information you gave us when you made the referral. If anything about your situation changes before your appointment it's important that you let us know especially if this will affect your appointment in any way. Your referral is confidential and we don't find new information out from anyone else.
On the day of your appointment
We will call you within your 30 minute time slot.
Our call may show up as a withheld or private number.
What happens if I miss my telephone call?
If you don’t answer the first time we call, we will try and call you once more during your 30 minute slot.
If we are unable to contact you during your allocated time slot, we won’t unfortunately be able to keep calling as we have other appointments booked in that day. We will instead send you as much appropriate information and advice relevant to your referral reason via email.
What happens if I need to re-arrange or cancel my appointment?
Please do let us know if you need to cancel or change your appointment by emailing us. We can reschedule your appointment for a different date or time and give your slot to another service user. This will help reduce our waiting times.
If you cancel your appointment three times we will not be able to offer you a further appointment, but we will do our best to email you with any relevant information and advice instead.
What happens after my appointment?
We understand that there may be a lot of information to process during your appointment, so don’t worry about trying to write everything down. We will always send you a follow up email after your appointment which will include a summary of everything that was discussed, along with any other helpful information and signposting.
