Is your child aged 0-5?
Are you concerned about their learning and or development or that they may have Special Educational Need or Disabilities (SEND)
All settings in Kirklees should offer a level of support for those pupils with SEND, this is called QFT or Quality First Teaching (more information can be found on the QFT page). When support is needed above Quality First Teaching, schools can offer SEN Support.
Kirklees has recently launched new guidance for all practitioners who work in early years settings, such as pre-schools and nurseries, providing childcare and education for 0-5 year olds.
This guidance is designed to help adults to identify the specific support needs of children with SEND and to adapt the way they work and plan effective teaching and additional provision where needed which will help children to make good progress.
The guidance is written for early years for professionals and is available on the Local Offer for everyone to see.
Children and young people with SEND have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children and young people of the same age. These children and young people may need extra or different help from that given to others.
More information about this can be found on the What are Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Local Offer page (opens in new window).
Whatever a child with SEND needs, schools should use the Graduated Approach which is often described as "Asses Plan Do Review". This is explained more in the diagram below.
Children’s needs can be broken down into four main groups:
Some children will have more than one sort of need. The school’s first job is to assess what sorts of needs a child or young person has.
The Local Offer has a service called the Inclusion Support Offer (ISO) which provides support for all educational settings from 0-25 to help to make sure they are doing everything they can to support children with SEND, without necessarily looking at additional funding or making referrals to assessed services.
You can find more information about this service on our ISO information page. This service is for schools use only, they do not take calls from parents or carers, but you can mention it to your child's educational setting and ask them to get in touch.
If you are worried about your young child’s learning and or development and think they may have a special educational need and or disability you can contact the Kirklees Early Years Special Educational Needs Service & Disabilities (EYSEND).
The service offers advice and support to children, their families, and the education settings they may be attending.
Early Years SEND (EYSEND) is an early learning support service that works with children aged 0-5 who have special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND). It is a referral based service who offer support, advice, guidance and training for parents / carers and professionals across a wide range of settings and the family home.
The Early Years SEND team consists of 14 trained professionals who all have a wide range of experience supporting and teaching young children. All members of the team have specialist knowledge around working with children with additional needs. They work closely with health professionals, nursery and pre school settings and schools. Working in partnership with parents / carers is a primary principle of the service.
The EYSEND Team can help to:
The EYSEN team has 4 strands of support:
Home Portage visitors offer regular (often weekly) visits to the family home when children are not yet accessing a nursery or pre- school provision.
Portage visits will focus on direct work with the child and the family identifying and implementing small step teaching programmes to support children’s learning and development. Parent / carers are central to the programme and will work alongside the home visitor to support their child’s progress. Portage home visitors will be involved in transition planning and visits as children start to access pre school provision be that in a childminder, private setting or a maintained school nursery.
Early Years SEN Inclusion Officers, along with the 2 Area SENCO Specialist Teachers ,work with children, parents and practitioners in pre school settings to ensure children’s needs are being met. Inclusion officers will meet with parents / carers and setting staff to gain a full picture of children’s needs within the setting. A plan will be put in place to identify the outcomes it’s hoped children will achieve and what needs to happen to support that achievement. Inclusion support will help with the planning of individual education plans and if necessary My Support Plans and Education Health and Care Plans ( EHCP’S) as well as working directly with the child.
Portex Teachers Support works along the same model as Inclusion support but this time with school Nursery or Reception class provision. Portex Teachers will work with parents / carers and school staff to identify outcomes and provision for children with additional needs as described above.
The specialist Practitioner for Complex Communication and Interaction works primarily with Home Portage visitors and Inclusion Officers to offer specialist knowledge and intervention for our children presenting with CCI. This may include supporting children with specific social communication needs including Autism. Support can also be offered with transition into school based provision.
email: Dewsbury.psychology@kirklees.gov.uk
Telephone: 01924 483744
You can make a referral to the EYSEND team by completing the EYSEND referral form.