Early Years - Information for Professionals

Early Years Inclusive Learning Service; Information for Professionals

Support for Private and Voluntary Early Years settings and Childminders'

All practitioners from the service work in settings to provide enhanced support for children with additional needs. Our service offers support visits to support settings in following the Code of Practice. We will observe children, monitor their progress and to offer advice and support regarding appropriate strategies and targeted support to promote their learning and development. We also act as key workers to provide links with other appropriate services.

The service also offers training and holds regular updates in order to support the professional development of the Stoke-on-Trent children’s workforce.

When school places are allocated transition support meetings are arranged with schools and appropriate levels of support planned to enable children to make the best possible start to their school lives.

Other Professionals

The service receives the statutory notification from any professional who has concerns that a child may have SEND and coordinates multi-agency assessments and interventions. The majority of referrals are from health professionals such as Health Visitors and Paediatricians. We also have referrals from therapists, early years’ settings and Children’s Social Care professionals.

We work with multi-agency professionals in providing intervention and in assessing children’s needs. Joint visits to homes, therapy appointments and at Hazel Trees can be arranged to best support the children’s needs.

Referrals

Referral forms and related paperwork can be found on the Early Years Forum page.

Advice

Some advice "tip sheets" on a variety of SEN topics are available to download on this page. These will be updated regularly. Please contact us if you think that you would like further support or advice these or on any other issues.

We also highly recommend that you access the Stoke Speaks Out website for more ideas.