Local education SEND support services

The EYAT for Inclusion supports all Early Years practitioners and setting Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) working with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities in private, voluntary and independent Early Years settings in Torbay.   

Inclusion support takes the form of training, advice and guidance around individual children’s needs and the early years setting’s inclusive practices.

We are a specialist service that supports both the Local Authority (LA) and schools to understand and increase the educational achievement of all children and young people within Torbay.

We have a team that includes fully qualified Educational Psychologists, Trainee Educational Psychologists and interns, who are psychology undergraduates gaining work experience within the service.

We carry out Statutory and core work as directed and paid for by the LA:

• Provide EP advice as part of an EHC assessment
• Provide assessments and reports for annual reviews
• Attend Annual Reviews
• Undertake assessments of young people over 16 in further education
• Monitor the implementation of EHCPs and providing advice to schools where necessary to ensure the plan is being properly implemented (Advisory Teacher)
• Monitor specialist provisions
• Provide support for schools at times of crisis

We also carry out other tasks as directed and paid for by schools or others as traded services:

• Training
• Assessment of individual children unless expressly directed to do so by the LA
• Observations and advice
• Support for school staff and staff surgeries
• Advice around classroom practice
• Direct intervention with individuals
• Consultation and reviews within SEN support
• Parent drop-in sessions

You may also wish to see Resources produced by Torbay Educational Psychology to support schools.

Working with Schools

The Consultation Approach

We operate through a consultation model of service delivery. A consultation meeting is a problem-solving meeting which values the knowledge and skills of everyone present. These are also the people that know the child well. Through this meeting the child’s strengths are celebrated, concerns are shared and plans to promote the best way forward are devised. Actions are agreed by everyone to create a positive change.

This means that after initial discussions with parents/teachers and possible assessment work with a child any interventions/recommended courses of action are usually undertaken, not by us, but by someone close to the child such as the child’s teacher, a member of the school support staff or the parents.

We provide the advice, support and training to assist:

• Parents of both primary and secondary-age children.
• Schools and parents of pupils with Special Educational Needs when those children are due to transfer to secondary school.
• Looked after children attending school in Torbay.
• Schools regarding pupils who may be at risk of an exclusion as well as those returning after an exclusion.
• Children who are receiving ‘Education other than at school’, for instance those pupils attending a ‘Assessment Centre’
• The in depth assessments and written advice required for children undergoing Statutory Assessment.

We also deliver and support:

• INSET opportunities for teachers, other professional colleagues, governors and parents.
• Other courses, forums, and an annual conference for Special Educational Needs Coordinator’ s (SENCO’s) to promote their continued professional development

For more information please see Traded Services Brochure, also embeded at the bottom of this webpage.

Referal forms for schools & early years settings:

• Service request referral form – Service request form for Educational Psychology
• Access arrangements referral form – Consent for access arrangements (Only)
• Early Years Settings Referral form for Educational Psychology – Service request form for Educational Psychology

Information for Parents

Every school has the support of an Educational Psychologist, who is a specialist on how children and young people develop and learn. Schools have to buy this service to meet their responsibilities. As schools are free to choose how they spend their budgets to best effect we do not necessarily provide the same range of services to all schools as it depends on what they included in their contract with our service.

We work with schools and provide them with support, advice and training.

We also assess the needs of children who may be having difficulty with their learning and development. Advice is offered to the parents, pre-school, school and the Local Authority about a child’s special educational needs and ways in which to help them. Only our statutory and core work is directed by the Local authority rather than bought in by schools.

If parents are concerned that their child may have special educational needs they should speak first to the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) at the pre-school or school setting. They will be able to intervene and monitor progress. If the difficulties persist the SENCo, with parental agreement, will ask for further advice from the Educational Psychology Service.

• Informed Consent
  we only work directly with children and young people with a parent/carer’s permission after agreeing the need to do so with the child’s pre-school/school.
• Parenting Courses
  we assist some pre-schools and schools in running parenting courses
• Statutory assessment process
  A statutory assessment of a child’s Special Educational Needs may be undertaken if there is evidence that the needs may exceed those that can be provided for within the school’s resources or expertise. The SEN department has specific criteria for deciding whether such an assessment should be undertaken. As a result of statutory assessment, the authority may decide to make additional provision in some cases and issue an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Parents of children with Special Educational Needs have the same rights as other parents, to choose where their child should be educated. However, in deciding where needs are best met the SEN department of the local authority must consider the efficient use of resources. In most cases this means that children are educated in mainstream schools where their parents would normally have sent them, with additional resources or support provided by the local authority. However a very small minority of children will be offered places in specialist schools.

When Children are under 5 years old the pre-school SENCo can also ask advice from the Early Years Inclusion Service. If your child is very young and you are worried about their development, a discussion with your allocated Health Visitor or Doctor would also be advisable.

Careers in Educational Psychology

From September 2006 the training route for those wishing to become an Educational Psychologist changed from a one year masters program to a three year doctoral training course, with a two year in-service placement.

Entrants to the new Educational Psychology PhD training course require a BPS accredited Psychology degree (usually a 1st or 2:1) and 1-2 years experience of working with children and young people.

For more information contact:

• The Association of Educational Psychologists 
• The British Psychological Society 

We are often contacted by and encourage people wishing to gain experience in this field to contact us. However, for practical reasons as well as those of confidentiality we are only able to offer a very small number of work experience placements each year.

Traded Services Brochure

Qualified Habilitation Specialist who works with children and young people (0-18 years) with a visual impairment. They can help your child develop a broad range of skills, including early years development, independent life skills and moving around (orientation & mobility). They assess all of your child’s needs and deliver a holistic program to cater to them. They will often work closely with other professionals, as well as you as the parents, to ensure your child receives the right support across the board. They offer support in the home, nursery, school, college and in the local community and they will often work closely with your child’s QTVI to support their key transitions into and through education.

Referrals for a Habilitation assessment for a child living in Torbay are made via a referral to Hub – Torbay Safeguarding Children Partnership for the Children with Disability (CWD) Team – Family Hub to make arrangements with Guide Dogs with whom Torbay has a contract for Habilitation assessments and support.

The Hearing Support Service provides specialist support and advice to families, schools and settings to meet the needs of children and young people with hearing impairment.

Pupils with a hearing impairment (HI) range from those with a mild hearing loss to those who are profoundly deaf and they cover the whole ability range. For educational purposes a child would be regarded as hearing impaired if they require hearing aids, adaptations to their environment and/or particular teaching strategies in order to access the concepts and language of the curriculum. Some pupils with a HI may also have an additional disability or learning difficulty. A hearing loss may be conductive or sensorineural and is measured on a decibel scale. Four categories are used to describe hearing loss: mild, moderate, severe or profound. Some pupils may communicate through signing instead of, or as well as, speech.

The following audiometric descriptors are used to describe the level of hearing loss. These are the British Society of Audiology Guidelines for Audiological descriptors:

Mild hearing loss	20-40 dBHL
Moderate hearing loss	41-70 dBHL
Severe hearing loss	71-95 dBHL
Profound hearing loss	96 dBHL and above

The Service is staffed by 3 part-time advisory teachers. These teachers are experienced teachers with an additional qualification in working with children and young people who have hearing difficulties.  They also have British Sign language skills to Level 3. They have specialist knowledge of the audiological equipment that is used to help with hearing loss and classroom acoustics, as well as an understanding of the affects a hearing loss may have on learning and development.

You may also wish to see our Hearing Impairment Resources

Who does our Service provide for?

The Hearing Support Team provides support for any child who lives in Torbay and has a confirmed diagnosis of a hearing loss that requires use of a hearing aid. The team works with these children regardless of whether or not they have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

If your family lives in Torbay but your child attends an independent school or a school outside of the Local Authority you cannot access regular support from the Torbay Hearing Support Service. However, if your child is in an independent school and has an EHCP for hearing loss, continued support may be given to your child for the specialist support that the school cannot offer.

How can the hearing support service be accessed?

Referrals to the Service come from the audiologists or ENT consultants at Torbay Hospital or occasionally from Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENDCo’s) within schools or pre-school settings.

We do not have a referral form.

What happens following referral?

At Pre-school level

An advisory teacher will phone or email and arrange a visit to the home or nursery/preschool setting.

At School level

Advisory teachers only work directly with children and young people with written permission from a parent/carer.  Once permission has been gained the advisory teacher will arrange a time to see the child or young person in school and meet with the child or young person’s teacher. Parents are welcome to attend this meeting if they would like to.

Following the visit a report will be written in which there will be advice for management of the hearing loss within the school setting and a recommendation for the next visit and the frequency of subsequent visits. Input from the Hearing Support Service will vary depending on the need of the child at the time.  The frequency with which individual pupils are visited is determined by a nationally accepted eligibility criteria.

How advisory teachers work with children.

The advisory teachers work closely with audiologists and ENT consultants at Torbay Hospital, parents, teachers and staff in early years settings.

Advisory teachers offer advice and guidance on a range of issues appropriate to a child or young person’s age and needs.

This information may cover:

• Audiological issues
• Hearing aids
• Ideas for play
• Language development
• Information on pre-school and school provision
• Hearing strategies
• Communication and language development – The impact of language delay as a result of impaired hearing
• Cognition (how they experience the world and learn)
• Support and liaison with other professionals

Work at young children and babies

From the point of diagnosis of a hearing loss, parents/carers are offered a visit from the advisory teachers to the home.  The frequency of these visits will be determined through eligibility criteria and discussion with the parents.

Visits to the home will cover a wide variety of activities such as:

• Working together to promote language development
• Monitoring language development
• Helping parents make informed choices about communication options
• Helping parents develop basic signing skills where appropriate
• Signposting parents to events/ courses that may be of interest
• Helping with benefits claims such as disability living allowance (DLA)
• Linking families with other families with hearing impaired children
• Helping parents in their choice of pre-school/ school placements
• Supporting families through the process of statutory assessment where applicable

In addition to this advisory teachers may attend audiology appointments with families, provide training for pre-school settings and childminders, and support transition into pre-school/school.

Work at school age and Training

Advisory teachers work closely with SENDCOs in schools and provide training for staff on deaf awareness and use of equipment. They also give advice on ways to improve a hearing-impaired child’s access to the curriculum.  They may do some direct teaching with individual pupils. This could be for a focussed period of time or on a weekly basis, depending on need.

Audiological Equipment

The Hearing Support Team will loan out devices such as ALDs (assistive listening devices) and soundfield systems, if it is felt, through assessment, that a child would benefit from this equipment.

We provide support for schools/pre-school settings in the use and maintenance of personal hearing aids and Cochlear Implants.

Other educational provision for children and young people with a hearing loss within Torbay

Many of the children and young people with hearing loss within Torbay attend their local school where they are supported by an advisory teacher. The advisory teachers work within geographical areas and cover all Local Authority schools within Torbay.

For some children and young people with severe and profound hearing losses and occasionally children with moderate hearing losses, the levels of support schools are able to provide may not be considered adequate to support a child’s needs. If this is the case the child may be able to access an enhanced provision.