News and events

The Northamptonshire Information Advice and Support Service (IASS) has changed! 

IASS has been split into separate services for West and North Northants.

This change has happened following the Local Authority split into two Unitary Councils in April 2021. 

West Northants SEND IAS Service covers Northampton, Daventry and South Northants. 

North Northants SEND IAS Service covers Wellingborough, East Northants, Kettering and Corby. 

The new name for the service will be West Northants SEND IAS Service.

The change will happen on 1 April 2023. 

It is a duty of each Local Authority to provide an arm's length service to children, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families, and this will continue. 

You can still expect a supportive, child focused service from us and we will continue to work at arm's length of the Council. West Northants SEND IAS Service will continue to provide free, confidential, impartial advice, guidance and support. Staff will continue to be independently trained and have an understanding of the local offer, schools and local resources. 

Our branding will be changing after consultation with the Northamptonshire Parent Forum Group (NPFG) and with the IASS Young People's Advisory Council. The change in branding will support you to know you are contacting the correct team for your locality.

West Northants SEND IAS Service will continue to work in co-production with children and their families.

West Northants SEND IAS Service will still provide advice and support - you can continue to contact them on 01604 364772 until we update you further. 

You can contact us:

Iass.ncc@northnorthants.gov.uk

contact@iass.co.uk

If you have any suggestions about how we can improve WNIAS further, please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

The new name for the service will be North Northants SEND IAS Service (NNIAS) .

This change is happening as a result of the Local Authority splitting into two Unitary Councils.

The change will happen on 1 April 2023.

It is a duty of each Local Authority to provide an arm's length service to children, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families, and this will continue. 

You can still expect a supportive, child focused service from us, we will continue to work at arm's length of the council. North Northants SEND IAS Service will continue to provide free, confidential, impartial advice, guidance and support.

Our branding will be changing after consultation with the NPFG - North Northants parent forum Group and with the Young People's IASS Advisory Council. The change in branding will support you to know you are contacting the correct team for your locality.

There are plans for a larger staff team covering the North Northants area than was previously allocated when the service was county wide. The team will include a Service manager, an administrator, one IAS Officer and three case workers.  There are more staff in the new structure. 

One of the benefits of these changes, is that staff will have greater knowledge and understanding of the local offer, schools and local resources. 

North Northants SEND IAS Service will continue to work in co-production with children and their families - they will continue their commitment to involving children and young people with SEND and their families by becoming a signatory of the North Northants 'Co-production Charter'.

North Northants SEND IAS Service will still provide advice and guidance - you can continue to contact them on 01604 364772 until we update you further. 

You can contact us on:

If you have any suggestions about how we can improve NNIAS further, please don't hesitate to get in touch.  

IASS Young People's Advisory Council

On 29 September, we launched our brilliant IASS Young People's Advisory Council. Specialist senior schools from across the county all sent representatives to come together and form a young people's advisory group that will work with the Northamptonshire Information Advice and Support service.

The first meeting was great fun, it was so lovely to see the students mixing together outside of their school groups, and growing in confidence to share their views. We also had fabulous cake made by The Beehive and sweets from The Sweet Bee.

One school said:

 

 

Both students really enjoyed the meeting and came back to school telling everyone about it, they are looking forward to the next one."

If you would like your school to attend or are a professional that has something that they would like to discuss with our advisory group please get in touch with:

North Northants: Callum at Callum.Kirby@northnorthants.gov.uk

West Northants: Nikki at Nikki.Taylor@westnorthants.gov.uk

Cupcakes and Sweets by Sweet Bee / The Bee Hive.

Event images

12 people takig part in advisory group activity using string 13 people takig part in advisory group activity using string 7 people taking part in an acvitiy, with one person crouching under a piece of string Presenter addressing audience sitting at round tables at the advisory group.

Photographs by Keith Smith © kjs-images