From Carrie White, Early Years Lead SEND Teacher
Well here we are in lockdown number 2! I hope you are staying safe and keeping well. If you require anything from the EY SEND team including a listening ear, then please give us a call. We are here for you.
Inclusion
The SEN Code of Practice states:
‘All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with SEN or disabilities and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care’ (Section 5.12)
With this in mind, it has been very difficult for our team
to receive phone calls from parents saying they have been told by settings that
they cannot possibly meet their child’s needs.
Children who may potentially have a high level of need should have the
same opportunity as all other children. They should be welcomed into setting
with the view of calling the Early Years SEND team for support should you
require them. For many children with a
high level of need, an Education Health Care plan may be considered. The
evidence gathered by settings is so valuable in securing the correct provision
for the child. The impact of the early
education provided by our settings is huge and builds the foundation for all
future learning. Recently we have been
approached by several parents who have claimed they have been told that
settings cannot accommodate a child due to their high level of need.
We are working hard with our partners such as Speech and
Language, Occupational and Physical Therapists to recommend to all parents that
their children start off within a mainstream setting. Our team will not recommend one nursery over
another. We tell parents that all settings are governed by the SEN Code of
Practice and can begin to meet the needs of all children or can call on the EY
SEND team to seek additional support. If
you feel your setting requires more support in this area, please do not
hesitate to give me a call and we can arrange some team training for you.
Referral to the Indigo Pathway
For a child to progress on the Indigo Pathway, the child needs to be referred to the Health Visiting Team via the Public Health Nursing form on the Medway Children’s Therapy website. Please could you let us know if you are referring a child to the Health Visitors for an Indigo Pathway by emailing or copying tina.newman@medway.gov.uk when sending the form as we are keeping a log so we can see if the process is working well or not. We have been asked to provide feedback.
Team visits
As you know we are only able to complete one visit a day. The team are very keen to visit settings and support you and the children when you need us. However, with the current climate we will be limiting our visits to only those which really cannot be completed by telephone. SENCO surgeries should be completed by telephone. If you require us to come to your setting to work with a specific child, please may we ask that you provide the team a separate room in which to work with the individual child and their key worker. The parent of the individual child needs to know my team are coming in to work with their child. This will allow us to keep both settings and the team safe.
Currently the team are not carrying out any home visits.
Instead, we are inviting the most essential families into 1:1 session at select
Children and Families Wellbeing centres.
We are tracking those we invite to the centres for us to be able to keep
both the team and the families we work with safe.
Training
We will be running the Role of SENCO training again on Thursday 3rd December at 10:30 am. The EHCP process and Funding application training will run again on Thursday 17th December at 10:30 am. If you would like a place on either of these training sessions then please email Tina at tina.newman@medway.gov.uk with the name of your new SENCo and an email address they will use to join the session. Please note that this email address will be added to a Microsoft Teams group which may be seen by other delegates and EY SEND Team staff and that we delete the group right after each session.
There are several new SENCOs within Medway and if you
require more support, please contact your EY SEND practitioner who will be able
to support you. If in doubt, you may contact Tina Newman via email or at 01634
334016 or 07894 800396 to check who is the EY SEND Practitioner assigned to
your setting.
Funding
When sending requests for funding, please ensure you include enough details in each section of the provision map. Please include information about how you are helping the child and why this is above and beyond the support you would usually provide. The more details you include the better. Lots of provision maps have been scrutinised over the sections such as feeding, sharing and turn taking. You must provide additional information to show the panel how this child’s support is more than their peers to ensure you are given the money for the support you are providing.
All funding applications and invoices must be sent to eyhighneeds@medway.gov.uk