How the Sensory Support Service supports children and young people with sensory impairment, their families, and their educational settings.
What we do
We provide advice and support to children and young people with sensory impairment (hearing, vision or multi-sensory impairment) from birth to 25 years of age, their families and educational settings.
We work with children and young people from birth to 25:
- at home
- in Early Years' settings
- in educational settings (mainstream and special)
- in Further Education (FE) colleges
We do provide support for children and young people within independent schools if the child or young person has an education, health and care plan (EHCP).
Our work covers:
- assessment and identification of needs of children and young people with sensory impairment, including statutory assessments of Education, Health and Care Needs
- advice and support to families enabling them to promote their child's development
- advice, support and training to ensure educational settings meet the needs of children and young people with sensory impairment in their settings
- developing programmes of work and provide direct teaching of specialist skills for children and young people.
- information and guidance about useful strategies, resources or other organisations
- awareness raising and professional development for staff working in settings
The level of support we offer depends on the level of need and can change over time. It is based on the eligibility framework from the National Sensory Impairment Partnership (NATSIP) and pdf our own matrix (117 KB) .
Read our pdf partnership agreement with educational settings (178 KB) .
What we offer
We offer:
- the use of Success from the Start for babies and young children with a hearing loss
- monitoring the management of effective use of hearing aids or cochlear implants to maximise access to speech
- recommendations on appropriate assistive technology and resources, for example radio aids and soundfield systems
- family sign language curriculum delivered by Sign Language Communication advisors
- direct teaching of specialist skills, for example:
- specific language skills
- advocacy skills
- understanding of hearing needs
- the use of developmental journal for babies and young children with visual impairment
- assessment of need or of specific areas, for example Functional Vision Assessments, IT, Braille literacy
- recommendations on appropriate assistive technology and resources, for example:
- tactile rulers
- screen readers
- magnification software and hardware
- Braille equipment
- direct teaching of specialist skills for children and young people
- collaborative work with Habilitation
- alternative means of communication: learning through touch, large print, Braille, on-body signing, objects of reference
- self- advocacy
- IT skills and effective use of specialist technology
Training and support
We provide bespoke training opportunities to educational settings attended by children and young people with sensory impairment depending on their needs.
We also provide the following training:
- online training courses for teaching assistants
- supporting children and young people with brain related visual difficulties
- training contributions to SENDCO conferences
- training to governors