Early Years SEND Team: Personalised Support

The Early Years SEND TeamIs part of the 0-25 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Service. The team offers a range of support and intervention for families whose children aged 0-5 have significant developmental delay, social communication difficulties or disabilities, both at home and in Early Years settings.

The Early Years SEND team ensure that a package of support is delivered that reflects the individual needs of the child and their family, using a key working approach. The family are provided with advice and guidance to support their child’s learning and development at home and in the community when very young, progressing to choosing an early years setting, planning for school placements and support them through the Education, Health and Care Needs assessment process where appropriate.

The Early Years SEND team work closely with colleagues in health and therapy services in order to ensure children with SEND are identified at the earliest opportunity. They meet regularly with Croydon’s Designated Medical Officer (Consultant Community Paediatrician) to receive and discuss notifications from health of pre-school children identified as having (or likely to have) SEND. All notifications received for children aged 0-5 are assessed by the Early Years SEND Team and appropriate support is put in place to support the child and their family through their journey from home into school.

Early Years Settings are given advice for developing and managing personalised approaches to meet a child’s SEND and access to additional funding where required to implement packages of support. The team’s key working approach ensures holistic working with health, social care and voluntary services to meet the needs of children with a high level of need.

The Early Years SEND team provides support to the setting, child and family until the child moves into school. As well as ensuring that suitable support, equipment and training is provided to the setting, the Early Years SEND team also monitor children’s progress and offer educational advice to support the setting to submit Education, Health and Care Needs assessment requests when appropriate.

They help to support the family to consider possible schools that will best support their needs and ensure that the family’s preference is taken into account when school places are allocated. The team ensure that everyone working with the child and family communicate and share information in order to plan for the child’s move into school. Often a multi-agency meeting is organised with the family at the centre, to make sure that everything is in place before the child starts school.

The Early Years SEND team lead on the admissions for specialist nursery and specialist school provision for Reception, liaising closely with special nursery and school providers to ensure the process is equal, fair and takes parental preference into account.

The 0-7 social care team Provides a specialist service for children with disabilities and their families who require support over and above what is available through universal and community services. They work closely with other services such as health, education and community organisations. Assessments may lead to access to short breaks, respite and additional resources to manage needs within the home.

Early Years SEND Team: Personalised Support

The Early Years SEND TeamIs part of the 0-25 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Service. The team offers a range of support and intervention for families whose children aged 0-5 have significant developmental delay, social communication difficulties or disabilities, both at home and in Early Years settings.

The Early Years SEND team ensure that a package of support is delivered that reflects the individual needs of the child and their family, using a key working approach. The family are provided with advice and guidance to support their child’s learning and development at home and in the community when very young, progressing to choosing an early years setting, planning for school placements and support them through the Education, Health and Care Needs assessment process where appropriate.

The Early Years SEND team work closely with colleagues in health and therapy services in order to ensure children with SEND are identified at the earliest opportunity. They meet regularly with Croydon’s Designated Medical Officer (Consultant Community Paediatrician) to receive and discuss notifications from health of pre-school children identified as having (or likely to have) SEND. All notifications received for children aged 0-5 are assessed by the Early Years SEND Team and appropriate support is put in place to support the child and their family through their journey from home into school.

Early Years Settings are given advice for developing and managing personalised approaches to meet a child’s SEND and access to additional funding where required to implement packages of support. The team’s key working approach ensures holistic working with health, social care and voluntary services to meet the needs of children with a high level of need.

The Early Years SEND team provides support to the setting, child and family until the child moves into school. As well as ensuring that suitable support, equipment and training is provided to the setting, the Early Years SEND team also monitor children’s progress and offer educational advice to support the setting to submit Education, Health and Care Needs assessment requests when appropriate.

They help to support the family to consider possible schools that will best support their needs and ensure that the family’s preference is taken into account when school places are allocated. The team ensure that everyone working with the child and family communicate and share information in order to plan for the child’s move into school. Often a multi-agency meeting is organised with the family at the centre, to make sure that everything is in place before the child starts school.

The Early Years SEND team lead on the admissions for specialist nursery and specialist school provision for Reception, liaising closely with special nursery and school providers to ensure the process is equal, fair and takes parental preference into account.

The 0-7 social care team Provides a specialist service for children with disabilities and their families who require support over and above what is available through universal and community services. They work closely with other services such as health, education and community organisations. Assessments may lead to access to short breaks, respite and additional resources to manage needs within the home.

The Early Support Programme (ESP) Is for families whose children, aged 0-5, have complex additional needs and disabilities. These families often have many different people working with them to support their child: therapies, hospitals, community doctors and other specialist services. Croydon families are eligible for this service if they have (or are likely to have) at least four targeted services working with them to support their child. Working with so many people can become overwhelming and difficult to manage.

The ESP team helps families to coordinate all the different services involved with their child, helping everyone to communicate and work together with the child and family at the centre. Each family has an ESP key worker to act as a single point of contact for all the other people around them and will work with the family to identify the issues that are most important for them. Key workers and families work together towards agreed goals, which might include arranging meetings with all the professionals to discuss the things that are most important to families, sorting out appointments, obtaining information about a child’s condition, providing emotional support during times of stress and celebrating successes.

How do I find out more?For more information please email earlyyearssend@croydon.gov.uk or call 0208 604 7263.

Model of graduated response for children with SEND in the Early Years