City of York Council

Specialist Teaching Team: Referral (Revised May 2018)

  1. Making a Referral to the Specialist Teaching Team

Referrals must be made on the attached form and be with the agreement of the child’s parents or carers who must sign the form. Referrals will not be accepted without parental consent and without a signed privacy notice. We regularly review this Privacy Notice. The last time this was reviewed was May 2018

Referrals from schools or other educational settings must be from the SENCo or the Head teacher / Head of setting. Referrals from other staff will not be accepted. Referrals directly from parents can not be accepted.

Because of the nature of support provided for children with either Vision Support needs or those that are Deaf, referrals to these services will only be accepted from specialist practitioners:

Vision Support – referrals will only accepted from Health professionals – ophthalmologists, orthoptists, paediatricians. If parents or staff have concerns about a child or young person’s vision they should contact the child’s GP who will, if necessary, refer to the Ophthalmology Department at York Hospital who will then refer to the Vision Support team if the child meets the criteria for support.

Deaf and Hearing Support – referrals will only be accepted from the Audiology Department at York Hospital. If parents or staff have concerns about a child or young person’s hearing they should contact the child’s GP who will, if necessary, refer to the Audiology Department at York Hospital who will then refer to the Deaf and Hearing Support team if the child meets the criteria for support.

It is important that referrals to the Specialist Teaching Team include as much information as possible about other support that the child or young person is receiving.

For referrals to the Autism Team previous support shouldinclude recent attendance at Autism Awareness training and the use of autism friendly strategies in the CYPs classroom/setting in addition to copies of the CYP’s autism assessments where possible.

For referrals to the Home tuition team referrers must include a letter from medical consultants stating they are unable to attend school due to illness.

All referrals should include details of any existing support provided by other professionals, e.g. Portage Worker, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, CAMHS Worker. Contact details for others involved should be provided. Where specialist reports are available these should be provided with the referral.

1. Please cross the box(es) to indicate the team(s)that you are making a referral to:

Autism Support / Communication
Interaction / Deaf & Hearing Support / Physical &
Health Needs / Vision Support / Home
Tuition / Specific Learning Difficulty (Dyslexia) / Cognition
Learning

Please note that referrals for support from the Deaf and Hearing Support Team and the Vision Support Team can only be made by a health professional.

Who is the referral for

Child / Young Person’s Name
Date of Birth / Male / Female / M / F
Home Address
Post Code
Does the Child / Young Person have a / My Support Plan / Yes / No
Education, Health and Care Plan / Yes / No
Has a Family Early Help Assessment (FEHA) been completed? / Yes / No
Is the child pupil premium? / Yes / No / Is the child looked after? / Yes / No

The child’s family contact details

Parents / Carers Name(s)
Home Telephone Number
Mobile Number(s)
Email Address
Family Language
Family Communication Needs / e.g. text only

Where the child or young person is currently on role

Name of School or Setting

5. Who is making this referral

Name
Position / Role / SENCo/Headteacher Referrals from schools or other educational settings must be from the SENCo or the Head teacher / Head of setting. Referrals from other staff will not be accepted.
School / Setting Address
Telephone Number
Contact Email Address

6. What is the reason for this referral?

Please provide as much information as possible. Please include a description of the desired outcomes from the involvement of the Specialist Teaching Team.

7. Who is already working with the child / young person

Please provide information about all those working with the child or young person and whether any reports are available.

Professional / Agency / Name / Contact Details / Report
Audiologist
CAMHS
School Wellbeing Worker
Keyworker / Childminder
Occupational Therapist
Orthoptist
Paediatrician
Physiotherapist
Portage Worker
Pre-School Teacher
Educational Psychologist
Social Worker
Family Support Worker
Specialist Nurse e.g.
Diabetes, Epilepsy, Enuresis
Speech and Language Therapist
Dietician
Other
8. Describe the strategies that have already been used to support the child / young person before making this referral.
It is very helpful to know what has already been done, or is currently in place, to help the child / young person before making this referral. Please provide as much information as possible.
Please provide copies of reports from other professionalsparticularly with regard to diagnosis details e.g.visual assessment results

9. How to submit the referral

Please return thisreferral form withany supporting reports and signed parental consentto:

Lynne Johns

Head of the Specialist Teaching Team

SEN Services

City of York Council

West Offices

Station Rise

York YO1 6GA

or preferably by email to:

If returning by email please rename this file ‘STT Referral Child’s Name’

Please mark the subject line of the email ‘STT ReferralChild’s Name’

If emailing reports from Health professionals, please email the referral form and health reports to the secure email address: Please mark the subject line of the email ‘STT Referral Child’s Name’

Referrals will not be accepted without parental consent

SEN Team – Privacy Notice

Information is collected by the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Team on behalf of the City of York Council (CYC)

Why do we collect your personal information?

The information you provide to the Special Educational Needs (SEN) team helps us to support children, young people and families and meet our legal responsibilities in accordance with the SEND Code of Practice (2014).

The information you provide enables us to fulfil our duties including:

-statutory advice to the Local Authority as part of an education, health and care needs assessment

-monitoring of provision and outcomes to contribute to the annual review process for children and young people who have an Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)

The information you give us ensures that we can offer an appropriate assessment of need and provide recommendations regarding special educational provision.

We will ask for your written informed consent for our work with you and your child/young person

What information do we collect?

We will collect your CYP’s personal information e.g. your names, contact details, any special educational needs, why the referral has been made and medical information. It will also include the details of other professionals working with your CYP at the point of referral including the details of the SENCo in setting or their counterpart.

How is the information collected and stored?

Information about CYP is collected through:

  • completion of the Specialist Teaching Team (STT) Referral form either electronically or a paper copy. This form will also ask for your consent for the STT to work with your child.
  • meetings with you, and your child/young person
  • consultation with other professionals
  • professional/relevant service reports or CYC databases
  • post, email and telephone conversations as appropriate

When we ask you for personal information, we will:

  • ensure you know why we need it
  • only ask for what is necessary for the work we are undertaking
  • store it securely
  • ensure access is only given to authorised staff on a need to know basis
  • retain files up to the age of 25 years for non-statutory files and 35 years from closure for statutory (EHC Plan)
  • securely and confidentially delete/destroy this personal information when we no longer have a need to keep it.

We ask that you:

  • give us accurate information
  • inform us of any changes
  • tell us as soon as possible if you notice mistakes in the information we hold about you/your child.

How do we use your personal information?

We will use your information to:

  • Ensure that services and practitioners understand how they can best help you.
  • Help inform which services and interventions require commissioning across the City of York to support families and communities.
  • Create statistics that are anonymous and cannot be linked back to you or your family for the purposes of local and national surveys.
  • Support our work with your child in his/her school or setting, or in your home or another setting for those children who are unable to attend school because of ill health.
  • Take photographs and / or video recordings of your child for record keeping and assessment arrangements. Photographs will not be used for any other purpose without asking for your additional explicit and informed consent first
  • Provide the child or young people with appropriate services
  • ‘Sign post’ the family to support appropriate
  • Measure whether our services are improving life for children, young people and families
  • Help us develop and improve our services
  • Administer and protect public funds.

Who we share data with

We share information about you/your child with other relevant professionals who are already involved, or who become involved, during the time that they are working with the STT to provide co-ordinated support and to improve multi-agency working.

Below is a list of parties with whom we regularly share information:

  • Educational settings
  • CYC SEND Specialist Services
  • Professionals from Health, Social Care and Early Help teams

If requested we use the information to create statistics that are anonymous and cannot be linked back to you or your family or individuals. For example, we could use these statistics to see how the Council and its partners are supporting families and individuals, to help design better services and to contribute to national surveys and government returns eg to the Department for Education (DfE).

We may be required or permitted under the Data Protection Act 1998 or any successor legislation to disclose your personal information without your explicit consent e.g. if we have a legal obligation to do so, when we feel that you or others are at risk or in some circumstances crime prevention

You can find out more about how other services at the City of York Council uses your information at

Your rights

You can find out about your rights under data protection law, on the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) website.

You have the right to ask us if we hold personal information, what it is used for and to view the information we hold. You also have the right to know whether we disclose your personal information to other people and to ask us to correct anything that is wrong.

You have the right to see your personal information with some specific exceptions. For example, you will not be allowed to see personal information that contains details about someone else, even a member of your own family, until that person has given permission. There may be occasions when it would not be in your best interests to see it. If that is the case we will ensure that you are given a full explanation at the time so that you understand why this decision was made.

You can ask the council to stop processing your personal information in relation to any council service. This may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you. We will seek to comply with your request but may be required to hold or process information to comply with our legal duties.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, your rights or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for, please contact the council’s Data Protection Officer, by email to or phone 01904 554145 or write to

Data Protection Officer

City of York Council

West Offices

Station Rise

York

YO1 6GA.

I give my consent for my personal information as described in the privacy notice above.
Name / Signature / Date

Lead Practitioner has confirmed that signed consent has been given and will be stored safely and securely in accordance with Data Protection legislation and their organisations own information sharing protocol (please tick)

Lead Practitioner Name / Signature / Date

Information for Parents and Carers:

The Specialist Teacher will always try to let you or the school/setting know when they are going to visit your child, and will always inform you following the visit on what they did and the advice that they gave your child’s school / setting.

By signing this referral form you are giving your consent for the Specialist Teaching Team to:

  1. Work with your child in his/her school or setting, or in your home or another setting for those children who are unable to attend school because of ill health.
  1. Take photographs and / or audio and/or video recordings of your child for record keeping and assessment arrangements. Photographs will not be used for any other purpose without the additional consent of parents / carers (see below).

Please indicate whether you give your consent for your child’s photograph to be taken for the following purposes. No child or young person will be named in the use of these photographs.

Consent given
For record keeping and assessments / Yes / No
To illustrate the use of a specialist piece of equipment / Yes / No
To describe the work of the Specialist Teaching Team / Yes / No
To illustrate a special project or event organised by the Team / Yes / No
Name of Parent / Carer
Signature
Date

STT Referral Form (May 2018) Page 1STT Referral v.5