The Gateshead Early Years (0-4) Assessment and Intervention Team

The Gateshead Early Years (0-4) Assessment and Intervention Team

The Gateshead Early Years Assessment and Intervention Team works with children aged 0-4 years old who have beenidentified as having Special Educational Needs and Disabilities(SEND). The team works with pre-school children only.

The team consists of a Manager from within the Psychological Service, three Teachers, two PortageWorkers, sevenTeaching Assistants and an Administrative Officer. The Administrative Officeralso acts as administrator for the Pre School Education, Health and Care (EHC) Panel. The EYAI team is based within the Dryden Centre and has close working relationships with other education services, for example the Area SENCO’s.

Purpose and Aims

The purpose and aims of the Early Years Assessment and Intervention Team include:

•To offer assessment, interventions, strategies and support for children from 0 to 4 years who are experiencing significant barriers to their development and learning, and for whom specialist intervention is indicated, within a fully inclusive setting.

•To establish and develop a partnership with parents/carers in supporting children with SEND.

•To support staff in settings to develop their skills and confidence in working with children with SEND through consultation and modelling.

•To liaise with parents/carers and practitioners to develop appropriate action plans.

•To develop and support transition into the child’s receiving placement.

•To provide information and support for parents and carers to enable them to make informed choices regarding their child’s education.

•To facilitate access to other services.

•To contribute to the Single Plan process.

•To provide short term time limited interventions, assessment and advice (teaching) and coaching and modelling strategies.

•To maintain data and carry out evaluation for the local authority.

Referral Process

Referrals can be made by parents,Health Visitors, settings or any other involved professional.A referral is initially made to the Gateshead Pre School Education Health and Social Care Panel. This panel is a single point of referral into services for children and their families.

Services that may be accessed through this panel include the Early Years (0-4) Assessment and Intervention Team, Area SENCO’s,Child Development Team, Educational Psychology Service, requests for additional support and Social Care services.

The EHC panel discusses the needs of the child and identifiesthe appropriate interventions/agencies necessary for the child. The EHC panel meets fortnightly in term time and less frequently in school holidays.Through the EHC panel children may receive time-limited intervention from the EYAIT.

Documentation Needed for Referrals to the EHC Panel

To refer to the EHC Panel a CAF is needed as well as a referral form and a signed parental consent form. The referral form needed is titled ”Gateshead Pre School Education Health and Care (EHC) Referral Panel”. This form should not be confused with the Gateshead request for Single Plan Assessment Form. Any queries about the appropriate paperwork can be addressed to Early Years (0-4) Assessment and Intervention Team, Dryden Centre, Evistones Road, Gateshead, NE9 5UR.

Prior to making a referral to the EHC panel a referrer MUST

• discuss with the person who has parental responsibility for the child and obtain their consent to share information about the child to other agencies;
• complete the referral form and CAF and forward to the panel administrator and
• register any new CAFs with the Change for Children Team.

It may be that a child will be discussed by the panel on more than one occasion if it is appropriate to look again at their needs and the support required. Consent will not be sought on each occasion, but the panel will aim to keep parents informed of the involvement of any new services.

The outcomes of the EHC panel discussion may be to:

• Offer advice and recommendations to the referrer following assessment by one or more of the Education, Health and Care services who make up the panel.
• Confirm that services being offered/requested are appropriate and sufficient to meet the child’s needs.
• Agree additional education intervention/support for individual children with a setting.
• Allocate or turn down a request or resource within the panels brief.
• Support a referral/request for a specific resource or Single Plan.
• Identify other agencies who should be involved.
• Identify a way in which agencies may jointly progress work.

Following the EHC Panel meeting, a letter will be sent to inform the referrer of the outcome.

Early Years (0-4)Assessment and Intervention Team

Once a child has been identified as needing the intervention of the EYAIT team they will be allocated to the caseload of an appropriate team member.

If the child is under 3 years of age the likely allocation will be to a PortageWorker although, if the child is receiving 15 hours of 2 year funding, the allocation may be to a teacher to support in nursery. If the child is over three they will usually be allocated to a Teacher who is part of the team. The Portage staff and Teachers work very closely together and at transition times a child may be involved with both a Teacher and a Portage Worker.

A child who is referred to the EHCPanel may already be known to the Area SENCO who may already have given advice to the setting; the EYAIT works closely with the area SENCO’s to support the development of the child.

The Role of the Portage Home Visitors

Portage is primarily a home-visiting pre-school service for families with young children who have additional needs. It is well established in Gateshead and the two Gateshead Portage workers are very experienced in their work.Gateshead Portage Service is certified and registered with the National Portage Association. The Portage Service recognises that parents and primary carers are children’s first and most important educators. Theaim of the service is to work in partnership with parents and multi-agency services, to support and encourage the development of young children’s play, communication, independence and social skills.

Portageprovide four possible interventions.

• Core Portage. Following an initial assessment period(six visits) a Portage worker will visit the home on a fortnightly basis. Together parents, carers and home visitors will plan activities to encourage and promote their child’s development, with an emphasis on child-led play, specialist “small steps” teachingand a family focus. An Individual Action Plan will be developed which will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis. A Developmental Journal will be used for initial and continuing assessment so progression can be monitored. Babies and children seen within the CorePortage offer often have other specialist services involved, particularly the Visual/ Hearing Impairment Team, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and the Speech and Language Team. Portage Workers will work closely with other services and carry out joint home visits where possible.

• Portage Plus. This intervention will usually be appropriate if a child is referred prior to accessing pre-school provision, when there has been no intervention at Core Portage. PortageWorkers will carry out an intensive, short-term, block of home visits to identify areas of concern. A Learning Profile will be devised, incorporating strategies to help parents support their child’s learning and development.

• Portage GroupsThe Gateshead Portage Service works closely with multi-agency partners to deliver group work for babies, children and their families whichcan be accessed following discussions with Portage staff. Groups include “Let’s Start Learning”, “Let’s Start Moving”, “Sensory Group” and“Splish Splash Communication Group”.

• Additional PortageIn addition to the above, the PortageService provide specialist family intervention for all their families by providing Educational Advice as part of the Single Plan Assessment Process.They also offer advice and guidance around individual children to both PVI and Educational settings prior to and during the transition process, and they are involved with Team Around the Family Meetings.

The Role of the Specialist Teachers

There are threeteachers within the EYAIT who have a wide range of experience in working with children with a variety of SEND including Autism, general learning difficulties, hearing impairment and behavioural difficulties. Although the teachers have their own areas of specialism and expertise, they work across the borough with any child who is allocated to their caseload.

Once a child has been referred to the EYAIT, and it is felt appropriate for teacher involvement, they will be allocated to a teacher’s caseload. The teacher will make contact with the child’s setting and arrange an initial meeting to discuss the child’s strengths, areas of difficulties andstrategies used to date.It is important that this meeting is held at a time that setting staff have non-contact time.For a child to be referred to the EYAIT they will have already been identified bythe setting as having SEN, their progress will be under review in the setting, and an appropriate plan will be in place to support the child(as outlined in the SEND Code of Practice 2014).

Following the initial meeting, the Teachermay then carry out observations and further assessment and, in consultation with setting staff, may be able to identify effective strategies, equipment, programmes or other interventions to enable children to make progress towards the desired learning and developmental outcomes .The exact nature of the Teachers involvement will depend on the needs of the child.

The child’s progress will continue to be reviewed and if it is felt the child is not making expected progress further consultation with the Teacher may be required or it may be appropriate to refer back to the EHC panel to request time–limited one-to-one intervention for the child. A new referral form is not needed, at this stage but notes from a review meeting will be necessary to give information about the child’s progress and outcomes that are being worked towards. Ifthe child is given one-to-one support,from one of the EYAIT TeachingAssistants,this will be time-limited and will focus on particular learning and developmental outcomes. An EYAIT Teacherwill provide support and guidance to the Teaching Assistant.

Once a period of one-to-one intervention has ceasedthere will be some time to allow consolidation of learning; it is envisaged that the EYAIT Teacher will stay involved with the child and the child’s progress will continue to be reviewed. It may be that the child is discussed again by the EHC panel and a subsequent period of one-to-one intervention is sought,or that the child goes back to the EHC panel for further discussion regarding requiring a Single Plan. On some occasions it may be appropriate to consider requesting an EHC assessment and plan without one-to-one intervention from an EYAIT Teaching Assistant.

The Specialist Teacherwill usually maintain involvement at some level until a child moves onto school, although the role may be a monitoring one.The Teacher will usually be involved in information sharing meetings to support a child’s transition into school.

In addition to the work outlined above, the Specialist Teachers will also liaise with other agencies, attend TAF meetings, provide Statutory Advice and contribute towards Statutory Assessments. They may also be involved in running parents groups and delivering training to parents e.g. Early Bird training.

Intervention from the EYAIT Teaching Assistants

There are seven Teaching Assistants attached to the EYAIT whohave a wide variety of experience in working with children with SEND and who are constantly updating their skills.

Should a child be allocated a block of intervention from a Teaching Assistant the TA will

• liaise with the EYAIT Teacher involved with the child
• be given any appropriate background information about the child;
• arrange to visit the setting, usually with an EYAIT Teacherto meet the child and discuss outcomes for the child;
• where possible meet parents,and
• work closely with the setting to share strategies and information.

The intervention from the EYAIT, in most cases, will be for a part of their nursery time e.g. 5 hours a week, and will be time limited. The EYAIT will work as closely as possible with the settings when timetabling the intervention with a child, but the EYAIT staff work across the borough and it may not always be possible to timetable staff to fully meet the wishesof the setting.

Following a block of intervention evaluations of the work of the EYAIT will be requested from settings and parents.

Contact Details

Early Years (0-4) Assessment and Intervention Team

Dryden Centre

Evistones Road

Gateshead

Tyne and Wear

NE9 5UR