SEND advice and support for parents

SEND advice and support for parents

This is an introduction to what support, advice and services are out there to help you and your family on your SEND journey.

This is an introduction to what support, advice and services are out there to help you and your family on your SEND journey. You don’t need a diagnosis to access some of these services.

Early Years SEND Pathway

Starting Well Pregnancy to Birth

Health Visitors will provide you with the information and support you need to make decisions which help you to have a healthy pregnancy, improve your child’s health and development and plan your own future. More information on the roles and responsibilities of your health visitor can be found at Starting Well Partnership Heatlh Visitors

If your child is born with a registered disability your health visitor will:

  • refer your child to relevant health services such as a paediatrician, physiotherapists, specialist nurses etc
  • they will monitor your child’s progress via the Child Development Team meetings
  • refer to education services via a process called the Pre School Forum – this is a monthly meeting of specialist professionals who monitor children’s educational progress and refer to other specialist education services if needed

Attendance at an early years setting

All children can attend early years settings (nursery, pre-school, playgroup, child-minders.)  Some offer spaces for babies, others offer spaces from 2 years upwards.  

All early years settings work to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework; the standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5.

Find Childcare

Funding for childcare: Nursery Education Funding (NEF)

All children can access 15 hours of funded nursery education the term after their third birthday.  Some children, including some with special needs and disabilities, can access funded nursery education earlier in the term after their second birthday.  See if your child is eligible on the following Early Years web page:

Free childcare for 2 year olds

You should not be charged for the free hours. Some childcare providers offer free hours at specific times and many providers charge for extra services (e.g. lunch, nappies, and specific additional activities). The cost of these extra services should be clear and transparent to parents.

Some children are eligible for 30 hours the term after their third birthday, and you can see if your child is eligible on the following web page:

Free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds

SEND Support at early years settings

Most early years settings have staff who are experienced and trained to support a range of children with special educational needs and disabilities.  Each setting has a member of staff called a SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) who works closely with parents and the services who are working with your child (e.g. Speech and Language therapists, inclusion team).  The SENCO supports all the staff in their setting to promote equality of opportunity for the children in their care.

Find out more about the role of the SENCO in the SEND Code of Practice, Chapter 5:

SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25 from GOV.UK

The SENCO will work in close partnership with parent/carers as you are the expert on your child.  You will be involved in a process called the Graduated Response, where early years staff and other professionals involved identify, assess, plan, and review the support provided to your child, and the impact on their development.  Everyone will work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for your child. 

You can visit the Early Years Inclusion team webpages to see what advice and guidance are given to early years settings; all resources and factsheets that are useful for parent and carers too. Early Years Inclusion

If you are concerned about your child’s development

Talk to your child’s key person, as they support your child each day, and they will work with you and the SENCO to plan what they are going to do next.  They will follow the Graduated Response which includes:

  • observing your child to identify what they do well and what they need more support with
  • they may track your child’s progress on the EYFS Early Support Tracking documents, which details individual steps of development against expected milestones
  • put in place individualised support or small group activities focusing on a particular skill
  • with your permission, they may refer to other agencies such as Speech and Language Therapy Services to gain expert advice on supporting your child’s development

You can also discuss any concerns you have with your Health Visitor or GP:

Starting Well Partnership Families

The Graduated Response

Early years settings use the graduated response to support children with SEND and to identify children who have emerging needs.  The cycle of support follows this process:

  • assess: the child's needs
  • plan: to support their development in that area in partnership with parent carers
  • do: carry out the actions agreed
  • review: are the actions supporting the child's development or they need to do something different?

Graduated Response (SEND support in education provision)

Worcestershire Graduated Response in Education Settings can be downloaded from this link:

SEND Graduated Response PDF Document (Worcestershire County Council)

You can also download the ‘The Graduated Response - recommended paperwork for new and existing SENCOs’ to see what the Early Years Inclusion team advise settings to do and the paperwork they should use:

The Graduated Response - recommended paperwork for new and existing SENCOs - Worcestershire Children First Education Services

Support Available for Families - The Starting Well Partnership

The Starting Well Partnership supports families, parents, children, and young people across Worcestershire to lead happy, healthy, and fulfilled lives.  Information on support available to parent carers, including from your health visitor, can be accessed from the following website:

Starting Well Partnership

Inclusion Funding to Support Early Years Settings

Early years setting can apply for inclusion funding to contribute towards the support put in place within their setting for children with SEND.  This, along with the settings responsibilities are set out in the Local Inclusion Fund - Ordinarily Available in Early Years Guidance:

WCF Local Inclusion Fund Guidance - Worcestershire Children First Education Services

The key worker or SENCO should discuss the funding they are accessing with you, so you are fully informed as to how they will be using the funding to meet the needs of your child.  This funding can be used to increase staff ratios, or to purchase resource or SEND training.

If you child receives disability living allowance (DLA), you can also nominate your early years setting to receive the Disability Access Fund.  This is an annual payment paid to the setting for children with complex needs who are accessing their 3 and 4-year-old funded places. For more information download our information sheet:

DAF and DLA Guidance - Worcestershire Children First Education Services

Specialist Nurseries for children in their preschool year

Your child may benefit from more specialist input in their preschool year, which could include:

  • a specialist language unit
  • a specialist nursery assessment unit

The units provide children with high quality specialist support and assess the level of support they may need on entry into school.

To be referred to these units (along with some other specialist services) children must be known to the Early Years Inclusion Notification (EYIN). With parent and carer permission, your early years provider, health or educational professionals can refer your child to the Early Years Inclusion Notification.

Education Health Care Plans (EHCP)

Children with SEND may qualify for an Education Health Care Plan, which details the support and educational provision early years provider and schools are required to put in place to ensure your child can meet their full potential.

Parent/carers can gain independent advice on the EHC Needs Assessment (the process that considers whether a child meets criteria for an education health care plan) from SEND Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS). 

 

Other support on entry into school

If your child does not meet criteria for an EHCP, the Early Years Notification (EYIN) will consider whether they do meet criteria for either:

  • top up funding – this is called RETA funding and your child’s school can apply for this on advice from the Early Years Inclusion Notification (EYIN).
  • SEN Support – this is additional support or help provided in schools that is different to that which is generally available to other children of their age.

Find out more by visiting this web page: What SEN support will my child be given?

 

What to do if you have concerns about your child?

Some children may display symptoms or behaviours which may give you cause for concern. Examples of this could include speech and language delays, social and emotional issues, developmental delays and behavioural issues.

This can be a worrying time, however, if you have concerns about your child there are lots of professionals you could talk to, many of whom you may already be in contact with. These professionals are trained to support you and can then refer you on to a more suitable and appropriate service. Below is a list of services and professionals that can make a referral to an appropriate service.

Who can I contact?

Ante-Natal support and Midwives

Here you will find support and information to improve your maternity journey. This is a partnership between the NHS and partner organisations to offer you and your baby personalised care choices.

They care refer you to:

For more information please visit: NHS: Birthways

Childcare settings

They can refer you to:

Children’s Centres

They can refer you to:

For more information please visit: Children's Centres.

Doctor (GP)

They can refer you to:

Health Visitors

Health Visitors provide a family focused service to ensure children and families have a positive start in life. They are community based to ensure the service continues to be accessible to all. Health Visitors will also provide support over the telephone. 

They can help with are ranges of issues including;

  • keeping children safe and preventing accidents
  • support with healthier lifestyles. smoking cessation, alcohol and substance misuse
  • an unhappy or violent relationship or family conflict
  • immunisation and screening programmes
  • safeguarding children
  • general health advice and referral to appropriate services
  • supporting with healthy eating

They can refer you to:

For more information please visit: NHS: Health Visitors

Speech and Language Therapy Team

For more information please visit: NHS: Worried about a Child's Speech or Language

Starting Well Service

The Starting Well Service in Worcestershire brings together teams of staff who provide help and support to children, young people and families. The service provides support to expectant mums, newborn babies, school aged children and teenagers and work to encourage development and progress. There are Family Hubs located across the district that you can visit.

They can refer you to: 

For more information please visit:

NHS: Starting Well

NHS: Starting Well Family Hubs

Further support

You may want to talk things through with someone who can offer impartial information and advice about the different services. SENDIASS is a free service for families with a child or young person with SEND. This service is free, accessible, confidential, impartial and provided at arm’s length from the Local Authority.  

SENDIASS Support Service

All Local Authority areas have their own versions of the Local Offer website. Here are the links to the neighbouring Local Authorities Local Offer websites.

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