Welcome to Support Connect

Here at Support Connect we are more than a learning support company. We specialise in providing comprehensive assistance and resources to apprentices and learners with disabilities or additional learning needs, with a focus on enhancing their experience, social mobility, and prospects.
Whether it's through personalised guidance, targeted resources, or effective strategies, we are here to help learners overcome obstacles and achieve their full potential.
In short - we exist to connect people with the support they need.

Helping Apprentices Succeed

Support Connect exists to connect learners with additional learning needs to the support and advice they need in order to progress and succeed. We also work with training and education providers and employers to make sure that they are able to deliver specialist support and adjustments themselves.

We use our extensive experience of delivering assessment and support in different learning environments to provide highly specialised, individually tailored learning and mental health support services to learners with SEND* who face barriers to their learning created by a learning difference or disability.

*Special Educational Needs & Disabilities

The challenge

It is estimated that around one in five people in the UK may have some form of additional learning need, though in reality the number may be higher than this. Despite this many of these people may not know that they have a supportable condition or are unaware that there is support available to them. For apprentices, for example, this might equate to roughly 160,000 starters each year!

In addition, training and learning providers may lack the  to deliver assessment and support services for their learners. They may also be unaware of the financial support available to their learners or and how to access this. Reasons include lack of specialist staff, capacity issues, the inability to assess support need themselves and the administration and tracking of support.

We meet this challenge by providing targeted screening, assessment, support and advice services offering learners and providers reassurance that all their learners are able to thrive and progress irrespective of any learning challenges that they may face.

Staffing

Most training providers are aware of and sensitive to people with additional learning needs and disabilities.
They normally have a number of staff members and instructors trained in supporting neurodiverse learners and others with additional learning needs.
Some even have a dedicated member of staff for this. However, it is often impractical for a small to medium size training provider to have in-house expertise in place to deal with diverse needs and to provide specialist support and solutions for learners.

Assessment

Training providers often do not have access to a reliable and accurate means of assessing the unique needs of their apprentices with additional learning needs and disabilities.
Some have opted for purely technological solutions which can be indicative, but is not as thorough as having a reliable technical assessment and having the results interpreted and needs assessed by a trained learning needs professional.
These results must justify sometimes substantial publicly funded support - as such must be clear and auditable.

Evidence

Once support has been put into place, the delivery of support and of assistive technology must be accounted for and impact tracked both for quality (OFSTED) and for justification (ESFA).
There must therefore be robust record-keeping of exactly what support has been delivered and why over the duration of the whole apprenticeship journey.

Awareness

One of the main barriers to meeting the additional needs of learners with SEND is lack of awareness and training.
This is often inadvertent and might result from a lack of understanding of the needs and perspectives of learners and where they face barriers and why.
There may also be a lack of information about the needs of learners and how these needs might be met.

Systems

Training and education providers may not have systems in place to ensure that they meet the needs of their learners with SEND.
These systems might include processes for disclosure and referral and the design and implementation of adjustments and interventions for learners.
Our services enable you to address all five challenges with confidence.

We support all learners with an additional learning need and can also offer assessments and screenings via the Do It neurodiversity screener.

We can therefore support SEND learners with dyslexia, dyspraxia, AD(H)D, autistic spectrum conditions, mobility and dexterity difficulties, sensory impairment, mental health difficulties and long-term medical conditions.

SEND learners may already have a Statement of Educational Needs (SENs), Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDAs), or Education Health and Care Plan (EHCPs).

They may also have a formal diagnosis or evidence of a learning difficulty, medical condition or disability.

However, many more learners have an undiagnosed learning need (LN) and we support them in getting suitable assessment of these needs.

Our learner support covers three distinct areas:
Assessment of Need and provision of support plans.
Provision of equipment, assistive software (AT) and AT training.
Delivery of Specialist Learning Mentoring and Wellbeing Support.
Our employer and training provider support includes:
  • Learner support – delivering the services that you cannot deliver yourself.
  • Training and development support – supporting you to develop your inhouse awareness, processes and delivery.

 

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