Southend-on-Sea City Council and NHS Essex Integrated Care Board have welcomed the findings of the recent Area SEND inspection.

A report following the review recognised significant progress across a number of services supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), while also identifying areas where further improvement is needed.

We are pleased to invite you to the launch of Southend's Best Start Family Hubs!

You will enjoy fun activities with your child; discover simple ideas to support learning and development at home; visit the Essential Spot for information, advice and support; find out about local services available for children and families and meet the Best Start Family Hub team.

Southend-on-Sea City Council are pleased to have awarded Short Breaks funding to 10 local organisations to provide activities for Southend children and young people with disabilities.

A range of fun, inclusive things to do are available including cooking, arts and crafts, bouldering, padel, days out, youth clubs, stay and play groups, and after school and holiday clubs.

Southend Libraries offer a range of services for families, from Storyrhymes sessions for babies and toddlers, Storysacks, craft activities, fun reading challenges and much more.

Southend has 6 libraries, so pop along to your local one.

Join the Holiday Activities and Food programme team to a face-to-face session for potential providers who have any questions using the Proactis system.

Please note that we will not be offering advice or guidance on the content of your tender response but can answer general questions. Please bring your laptop for technical support.

Free parking on site for 2 hours.

Summer holidays look different for every SEND family, and we hope you’ve been able to enjoy some time together, in whatever way works for you. As the new term gets underway, we hope those first days back, new starts and transitions have begun positively for you and your families.

A quick reminder that our next Healthy Parent Carer Programme begins very soon! This supportive 6-week programme is designed specifically for parent carers, giving you time to focus on your own health and wellbeing and connect with others who understand. Places are limited, so don’t miss out!

We’re delighted to be back at SAVS for our monthly Coffee Mornings! Come along for a relaxed morning with other parent carers, our team and visiting professionals – plus, of course, coffee and cake! There’s no need to book, and we can’t wait to see familiar faces and welcome some new ones too.

We’re excited to be working behind the scenes to organise our next SEND Information Day! Plans are taking shape, and we’re looking forward to sharing more details with you very soon – watch this space!

Following the publication of Southend’s Area SEND Inspection report, SSIF has published our response for parent carers, including our thoughts on the findings and what happens next.  A huge thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and helped ensure parent carer voices were heard. 

Southend-on-Sea City Council's Public Health Team and partners, working collaboratively through the Southend Children and Young People's Mental Health Partnership Group, have published an updated Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Community Offer.

This has been co-developed with system partners to bring together an overview of NHS and council-commissioned services available to children and young people living in Southend.

The start of the new school year can be challenging. Your child may have just started in reception or may have just moved up into secondary school.

Read our transitions support information which includes resources from the Educational Psychology Team and the Specialist Teaching Service.

Looking for guidance, resources and practical support in one place? Our SEND Therapies SLN (Southend Learning Network) Mini Site brings together everything you need to support children with SEND and additional needs.

You'll find information on our Speech and Language Therapy (SALTA) intervention groups, decision-making trees to help identify the most appropriate interventions for your children, joint offer documents outlining support available from both Southend City Council (SCC) and EPUT, a wealth of Occupational Therapy (OT) resources, and our training programme for the year ahead.

It's your one-stop hub for therapies support – everything you need, all in one place!

Our next SEND Surgery runs on Thursday, 24 September from 9 to 11am at Milton Hall Primary School, Salisbury Avenue, Westcliff-on-Sea, SS0 7AU.

Services and teams attending this surgery include: Specialist Teaching Service, Early Years SEND Support Service, EHCP coordinator (school age), SENDIASS, NHS Occupational Therapy, Inclusion Team, Educational Psychology Service, CAMHS, School Nursing Team, Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF) and the Local Offer team.

New leaflets have been produced by the Government to provide guidance for parents and schools to support school aged vaccinations for children and young people with SEND.

The leaflets provide practical information about the importance and benefits of vaccination, advice on how to prepare for appointments and information to address common queries and concerns.

Flu jab bookings open for eligible people across Essex ahead of winter.

Last winter, flu vaccination uptake among people aged 65 and over across Greater Essex was 73.2%, just below the England average of 74.5%.

Flu can be much more serious than a bad cold. It can lead to hospital treatment and can be life-threatening for some people, particularly older people, pregnant women and people with certain long-term health conditions.

2026 marks 10 years of the #AskAboutAsthma campaign. NHS England are asking health services, schools and other organisations to set local goals to improve asthma care.

We’re developing a new digital strategy for health and care across Essex and we want to hear from you.

Essex residents have already told us that digital tools, such as the NHS App, can make it easier to access health services, information and support. But we also know that digital options do not work equally well for everyone, and some people may not be able to access them or simply prefer other ways of getting support.

Now we want to understand more about what works well, what could be better and how digital health and care services could be improved.

The survey closes on 30 September 2026.