There are different services for children:
There are 3 teams who can help:
- Portage service – working with children from birth until they are 3 years old
- Early Years SEND Inclusion team – working with children from 3 years until they go to school
- Early Years Inclusion practitioners – supporting children in settings and foundation stage of school who are at risk of exclusion
Ask for extra help
If you think your child needs extra help with their development, the first step is to discuss concerns with professionals involved. If needed, an application to the Early Years team can be made.
The Early Years Referral Panel will look at your application and decide which service is best placed to meet your needs. The panel meets weekly during the term-time.
Your child can also be referred by their:
- nursery, pre-school, playgroup or childminder
- public health nurse (health visitor)
- paediatrician
- any other professional involved
Funding available for families
Disability Living Allowance
- DLA leaflet
- DLA bitesize (YouTube)
- Apply for DLA (GOV.UK)
Other
- Community funding – funding and related support for community organisations
- Holiday and food
Make a referral to the Early Years SEND panel
If you need to make a referral to the Early Years SEND panel for support from the service, please complete our online referral form:
Complete our online referral form
When you have submitted this referral form, a PDF version of it can be downloaded for your own records.
If you cannot access the above link, please contact EYSENISAdmin@leics.gov.uk or phone 0116 3057136. They will be able to support you to access the link, or provide you with a paper copy of the referral for you to complete.
Portage service
Portage practitioners support children from birth to three years old. They build strong relationships with parents/carers and they give practical help and advice through home and/or setting visits. Children and parents are also offered access to group sessions and family events which are run in localities around the county.
Referrals to the service are considered at the Early Years Panel. Referrals can be made by parents, health professionals and setting SENCOs.
Leicestershire’s Portage service is a five star service accredited by the National Portage Association (NPA).
When your child is three years old
Your child may be transferred to the Early Years SEND Inclusion team if they continue to need support.
Early Years SEND Inclusion team
Specialist advisors and practitioners may visit your child and your family at home or at their nursery or both. They work with children who have a:
- much greater difficulty in learning than most others of the same age
- disability that stops them doing activities that most other children of the same age can do
They work with children from three years old until they start school.
Your Early Years SEND Inclusion advisor or practitioner can:
- support you with ideas to help your child develop
- give you and the nursery advice on how to improve your child’s learning, communication, personal and emotional skills
- contribute to an assessment
- tell you about other help you can get for your child
Early Years Inclusion practitioners
The Inclusion Practitioners work with children at risk of exclusion, until they are statutory school age. They work with children in settings, schools and at home in the holidays.
Visits can take the form of:
- Advice
- Modelling
- Intensive support
- Supporting dual placements
- Supporting statutory assessments
Early Years Inclusive Play and sensory play sessions
If you have contact with our service you can access one of our Inclusive Play or sensory play sessions. Inclusive Play sessions run in the school holidays and sensory play run in term time, in various locations around the county. More information can be sought from your child's practitioner/advisor.
Graduated Approach booklet
Where a child continues to make less than the expected progress, despite evidence-based support and interventions that are matched to the child’s area of need, practitioners in early years settings should consider involving appropriate specialists, the decision to be taken with the child’s parents.
The Graduated Approach booklet helps providers identify need and put in the appropriate strategies to support the child, before seeking this additional guidance from specialists. This is used as part of the Graduated Approach of Assess, Plan, Do, Review.
Accessing provisions if your child has specific medical needs
For some medical conditions, it is vital that the staff at the Early Years provision have the necessary training to be able to meet your child’s medical needs. This is something that you, as parents, need to start considering early to avoid any delays in your child's start date.
Most health care training is provided by the Diana Service. Training courses include:
- Enteral feeding (Gastrostomy and nasogastric feeding)
- Respiratory care (oral suction, inhalers and nebulisers and oxygen)
- Tracheostomy care
- Epilepsy awareness
- Mechanical ventilation
- Oxygen saturation monitoring
Sometimes in-house advice and training can be provided by professionals, such as a physiotherapist, such as showing staff how to remove and replace splints, how to position a child into a standing frame or how to help children who are non-ambulant transfer from one place to another.
Some children may have a specialist nurse who will come to the setting to talk about the child’s condition and how best to support them at pre-school; for example, diabetes nurses and Macmillan nurses.
The Early Years provision will contact the relevant teams to organise this training if needed.
Diana training - information for parents and providers
Home Learning Packs
We have developed some home learning packs that help you as a parent or carer to support your child. These activity sheets are no/low cost ideas of fun activities to help your child develop: