The SENDCO Helpdesk is a free early advice service that can discuss concerns at an individual or whole school/setting level. It is aimed to help support SENDCOs (or practitioners supporting SEND in early years) to consider the next steps when implementing the Graduated Response so that the needs of children with SEND are met as early as possible.
Services to help children with their education, health and social care needs (access to these services requires parental agreement).
Health Visiting Services offer support to families at home and in the community from pre-birth until the child turns 8 years old. See information on how Health Visiting and early years settings working together.
Early Help Children’s Services Early help refers to the collaborative approach taken by all services working with children and families to provide support for a family before problems escalate. Accessing early help can address potential issues and improve outcomes for children, young people, and families. More information
Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) is a multiagency form used to request support from various educational and health teams for children under 5 with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Services that can be requested include:
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Speech and Language Therapy (feeding)
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Early Years SEND team
- SENSS – Physical Disability
Complete the SPORFI form to make a request.
If there are concerns about a child’s vision or hearing the first port of call is usually the child’s GP (or optician for a visual difficulty). He or she will decide whether further specialist advice is needed.
Community Paediatrics: For children where there may be underlying medical needs contributing to their Special Educational Needs it may be appropriate to consider referral to the Community Paediatrician for assessment. These referrals must be made via the GP or Health Visiting Teams or other health professionals.
TheEarly Years SEND Advisory team work with individual children under 5 years of age who have complex learning, communication and/or social interaction differences. Individual children can be referred using an Early Support SPORFI form (docx format, 585Kb). Support is given to the family and/or the child’s early years setting or nursery class in collaboration with other agencies from education, health and social care.
The Early Years SEND Advisory team also provide universal and targeted support to Oxfordshire early years settings and schools in order to promote effective inclusion of children with SEND. Settings and schools can use the SENDCO Helpdesk to ask for ‘no names’ advice and targeted setting support.
SEN Support Services (SENSS) is made up of the following specialist teams:
- Communication and Interaction
- Deaf and Hearing Support
- Multi-Sensory Impairment
- Vision Impairment
- Physical Disability
- Down Syndrome and Complex Needs
- Assistive Technology Team (ICT and AAC)
TheCommunication and Interaction team is a countywide Special Educational Needs (SEN) teaching and advisory support service for schools supporting children from reception age onwards.
The Down’s Syndrome and Complex Needs team work with children and young people with Down’s Syndrome and complex learning needs from when they start Reception until the end of Year 11 at a mainstream school. This includes children and young people with a wide range of needs and significant difficulties in cognition and learning which impact on all areas of the curriculum.
The Behaviour Inclusion teamoffer guidance, advice and support to aid inclusion of children in school-age classes with SEMH needs, preventing suspension and exclusion and supporting reintegration into education. Advice from Behaviour Inclusion Officers can be accessed via the SENDCO Helpdesk or the schools linked Exclusion and Reintegration Officer to support a referral.
The Deaf and Hearing Support team work with children and young people 0-25 who have a permanent hearing loss or an ongoing temporary hearing loss that is likely to impact on a child or young person's education and has been prescribed personal amplification (hearing aids/BAHA).
The Multi-Sensory Impairment team work with children and young people 0-25 who have dual sensory loss i.e. an identified vision impairment together with an identified hearing loss (no matter which is identified first) which will impact on learning and communication.
The Vision Impairment (VI) team work with children and young people 0-25 who have: a long-term vision impairment which glasses cannot correct or any vision impairment which may affect educational progress
The Physical Disability team work with children and young people aged 18 months to 18 years with Physical Disabilities.
Educational Psychology Service: The Educational Psychology Service works with children, parents and teachers to promote children’s learning and development. They are responsible for statutory SEN functions and also offers non-statutory Traded Services.
The Special Educational Needs Casework team manages statutory assessment work relating to the Education, Health and Care process, including formal assessment of special educational need, changes of placement and annual reviews.
Children’s Integrated Therapies in Oxfordshire include:
The Occupational Therapy servicehelps children participate in everyday life and become as independent as practically possible at school and at home. The service provides assessments, advice, activity programmes and therapy for children with a range of physical or developmental conditions that affect their daily life.
The Speech and Language Therapy service support children and young people who have speech, language and communication difficulties to develop the best possible communication skills that they can. For some, this might be spoken communication, and for others it might be learning to use a communication aid, or an approach based on signs, symbols or gestures. Speech and Language Therapists also assess, treat and advise on eating, drinking and swallowing problems.
The Physiotherapy serviceare a team of trained physiotherapists who work with children and young people up to the age of 18 years, to help develop gross motor skills. The team help children move and function to the best of their ability, when they have been affected by injury, illness, developmental delay or other disability.
The Children's Housing Occupational Therapy service assesses children and young people at home to help determine solutions to enable them to continue to live as independently as possible in the family home.