SENI Services - a guide to our services

The SEN and Inclusion (SENI) Services consists of:

• Early Years SEND Specialist and Portage Service
• Specialist Teaching Services: Autism and ADHD Advisory Teaching Service (AATS) and Sensory and Physical Support Service (SAPS) (for pupils who are deaf, have a vision impairment, have multi-sensory impairment or a physical disability).
• Local Area SENI Support Service (LASS) (supporting SENCOs in all areas of need)
• Behaviour and Inclusion Service
• Educational Psychology Service (EPS)
• Statutory Assessment and Monitoring Service (SAMS)
• System Improvement (SEND)

You can view the structure chart here

What does the service do?

The service has three main strands:

1: To deliver Portage

Portage is a specialist Home Visiting Service that has been established for over 40 years. The service supports pre-school children with disabilities and additional support needs, and their families.

The Portage ‘Model’ of support considers:

• ‘Structured teaching’, recognising a child’s strengths and building on them through play and teaching activities modelled for the family, on a home visit
• ‘Child led play’, recognising the whole child and their interest and responding appropriately
• ‘Family focus’ understanding the families’ pressures (e.g. appointments and emotional needs) on their journey with their child

We work through a holistic assessment of the child, encompassing observations and discussing with the family/carer what they know about their child, setting a developmental profile / programme.

The service also works alongside colleagues from the Early Years Inclusion team, sensory support service and health services including psychology services, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and SALT. Joint visits with other professionals are used to plan holistic support for families. We work on a ‘small steps’ development approach to achieving a long term goal.

2. Groups

We offer a Portage Group called ‘Sensory Learners’ supported by Barnardo’s for our pre-school children with SEND and their families.

This is a support group that encourages the children to explore their environment through their senses and enjoy their individual play and learning. The group also provides the opportunity for parents/carers to support each other and for the practitioners to advise and signpost.

We also regularly support a parent led group called ‘Our SEND Adventure’.

3.Training

The service offers annual training:

• A three-day NPA Portage workshop for Early Years practitioners, schools and services supporting children with SEND.
• The EarlyBird programme (NAS licenced programme) for parents of pre-school children with autism is offered twice a year.
• Also, some other offers include ‘Small Steps’ training (a one day course).

You can view the structure chart here

What does the service do?

The Autism Advisory Teacher Service (AATS) works with children and young people who have a diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We work with school age children and young people, some of whom will have (Education and Health Care Plan) EHCP’s but the majority will not. Whilst the service is primarily for those with a diagnosis of Autism or ADHD, we offer informal discussions and advice for settings and families around those with social communication difficulties who do not have a formal diagnosis.

The service works directly with settings and families through:

• Offering a referral route for involvement (RFI) with settings to support them in enabling children and young people to access the curriculum and to make progress in their learning and development.
• Undertaking short, targeted pieces of work with individual pupils or extended work with small groups alongside school staff to model and review strategies and specific interventions (e.g. Attention Autism)
• Producing assessments/reports which are shared with settings and families, including advice for EHC assessments and annual reviews.
• Offering planned and targeted support to pupils at key transition points.
• Attending annual review meetings, professionals’ meetings and support team around the school meetings
• Providing monthly parent/carer consultation service (2nd Tuesday of each month)
• Developing and delivering bespoke training to settings, forums (including parent/carer forums)
• Liaison with Peterborough Neurodevelopmental team at Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
• Open telephone access to settings needing informal/urgent support
• Providing link support to SEN Hubs who specialise in support for children and young people with autism

If you are a setting and want to make a referral for involvement from the services, please use the Request for involvement form

Every school has a link advisory teacher for informal advice and information. Please remember that staff spend most of their time working directly with settings and families so may not be able to respond immediately.

If you are a parent and want to make an appointment for a parent/teacher consultation, please email sen.inclusion@peterborough.gov.uk or phone 01733 863689.

You can view the structure chart here

What does the service do?

The Sensory and Physical Support Service are a team of specialist teachers and support staff. The team work with settings, school and families to support the needs of children and young people who have vision impairment, hearing loss or physical disability. The outcome of all support provided is intended to ensure that children and young people feel confident and are able to explain and understand their needs and that those who work with them understand and feel confident in supporting these needs.

The team provides:

• informal advice to schools and education settings on the needs of children/ young people who have a clinical diagnosis of hearing loss, vision or multi-sensory impairment, or a physical disability.
• A referral system for education settings to access formal assessment and four broad levels of support

- Level 1 - Advice - Advice is given on general support strategies and sources of support such as national charities – the family or setting can contact us again if they feel they need further support.

- Level 2 - Monitoring - We will continue to contact the setting/family to monitor how the child or young person is progressing, particularly when they are moving to a new setting.

- Level 3 - Support - We will be involved in giving direct advice and in supporting target setting or offering advice on interventions.

- Level 4 - Support Plus - We will be directly involved in teaching the child or young person during targeted specialist interventions alongside day-to-day teaching staff who can then continue these programs. These may address areas such as Braille, communication development, using access technology. (This level of support is not available for learners with physical disability.)

• Advice leaflets and telephone contact support to education settings / schools.
• Face to face and virtual meetings with education setting / school staff to discuss their concerns.
• Training to enable families and settings to support children and young people with sensory impairment and/or physical disabilities.
• A parent/carer consultation services within Family Voice Peterborough.

Most of our referrals come from professionals in education and health services including schools, nurseries, FE colleges, audiology, ophthalmology, physiotherapy or occupational therapy with whom we work closely.

Families, children and young people can also request support by telephone or email. Wherever possible, referrals should be accompanied by a recent letter confirming the clinical diagnosis for the child or young person.

For general enquires: Phone: 01733 454460 / Email: sen.inclusion@peterborough.gov.uk

If you are a setting and want to make a referral for involvement from the services, please use the Request for involvement form

If you want to know more about our service, please find information on SEND Information Hub (Local Offer) page.

You can view the structure chart here

What does the service do?

The Local Area SENI Support Service (LASS) supports the individual and strategic development of SEND across Peterborough. This is separated into three approaches with increasing input from us:

General advice and guidance

• PCC Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) for general advice and guidance.

• Learn Together pages for professionals Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

• Co-ordination of projects across the local area

• Delivering SEND training and bespoke training sessions to settings and wider stakeholders

• LASS and SEND Hub training.

Targeted advice and guidance

•  Leading the Peterborough SEND Hub Network.
• Leading the half termly SENCO Network meetings (primary and secondary).
• Leading the half termly Specialist Network meetings for all working in specialist schools.
• Leading the annual SENI Event.
• Leading the annual SENI Conference.
• Leading the half termly multi agency SEND Forum to ensure settings receive the latest information from a wide range of stakeholders, including updates from Health and Social Care.
• Leading the Success with SEND support sessions for teachers and TAs.
• Offering targeted advice and guidance to Headteachers, SENCOs and other practitioners in education settings in order to improve support for children, young people with SEND and their families through strategic development and generalised support.
• Support with setting up of and offering advice for bespoke internal provision.
• Offering support to schools when a SENCO is absent for an extended period of time.
• ECT SEND training for those new to teaching.
• SENCO mentoring for those new to being a SENCO.
• Gathering children and young people’s voices from the local area to empower them in making change.

Supporting individual children

• Leading the fortnightly SENI advisory panel to support schools with next steps for cases.
• Offering a referral route for involvement (RFI) with settings to support them in enabling all children and young people to access the curriculum and to make progress in their learning and development. If you are a school and want to make a referral for involvement from the services, please use the Request for involvement form. The RFI route has 3 levels of support:

o Level 1 – Advice – An observation of the child/ young person followed by a detailed written report, including feedback and specific recommendations.

o Level 2 – An observation of the child/ young person and a short cycle of targeted support, tailored to the needs of the child/ young person and/or school. Ongoing advice will be given and a summary report will be written at the end of the support.

o Level 3 – An ongoing cycle of support (6+ sessions), delivered either in person or virtually, depending on need. Ongoing advice will be given and a summary report will be written at the end of the support.

To discuss any of our offer, please contact gemma.mead@peterborough.gov.uk For all other enquiries please email sen.inclusion@peterborough.gov.uk

Peterborough SEND Hub Network

Peterborough SEND Hubs have been commissioned to support and enhance the work of SENI Services to meet the needs children and young people with SEND accessing a mainstream education. Every Hub has a designated area of specialism and works closely with the service to support a whole school approach to SEND. The vast majority of our Hubs offer specialist SEND placements to children/ young people accessing a mainstream education. These can be requested as part of the annual review process and will be discussed at the SEND Panel.

Each Hub has a specific SEND focus area:

• Autism
•  Deafness
• Physical Disability
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health
• Speech, Language and Social Communication

All PCC SEND Hubs offer:

• Specialist resources and training in their area of expertise
• Modelling of high quality SEN support in mainstream classrooms
• Specific training in their area of expertise
• A telephone helpline for general support

Details of the hubs can be found on the Peterborough SEND Information Hub (Local Offer) SEND Hub page.

If you have any queries regarding the SEND Hubs please contact Helen.Magan@peterborough.gov.uk

For all other enquiries please email sen.inclusion@peterborough.gov.uk

You can view the structure chart here

Request for involvement form (AATS, SAPS, Portage and LASS)

We want to refer a child at our setting but are not sure we have the right referral form.

The Request for Involvement (RFI) form is sent to school SENCOs at the start of every academic year. The RFI is also available on the SEND Information Hub (Local Offer).

We want to refer a child aged 3, will the SAPS team accept a referral for a child of this age?

An RFI can be submitted for the autism, ADHD and physical disabilities teams who will support the transition from early years settings/nurseries into school.

The Early Years Team work with pre-school children with SEND, this includes those with autism.

An RFI can be submitted for the Sensory Team who work with babies who have vision, hearing or multi-sensory losses.

The child we want to refer has more than one special educational need. How do we ask for support in more than one area?

Please tick the relevant boxes for the areas you are seeking support, this will be discussed at panel and the most appropriate team will be in touch.

The child/young person we want to refer has no formal diagnosis, can we refer?

Yes, the LASS Service accept referrals from those without a diagnosis. On occasion the other services will support a chid/ young person without a diagnosis but these cases will be discussed at RFI panel.

We do not see the child/young person’s parent and therefore getting a parental signature is difficult and may delay the referral. Is a parental signature essential?

Yes, a parental signature is a necessary part of the referral process in order to comply with GDPR.

The SENCO assistant completed the referral form; Can they sign the referral form on behalf of the SENCO/Senior Leadership member?

No, in order to ensure senior leaders and relevant staff are aware of the referral a member of senior leadership must sign the form. Unsigned referrals are not accepted and are returned for signatures which will cause a delay in the child or young person’s referral being considered.

The young person we are referring is aged 14. Must they sign the form?

It is good practice that young people over the age of 16, (where possible) give consent to the referral. However, we are aware there may be circumstances where getting a young person’s signature is problematic. Please explain if there are particular circumstances around obtaining consent from a young person or if this young person is not able. A parental signature must still be obtained in these circumstances.

How do we know our referral has been received?

You will receive an automatic email response when using the correct referral email on the RFI form.

How long will it take for the referral to be considered?

RFI requests are discussed at fortnightly panel meetings, a letter with the outcome will be sent to the referrer, usually within 5 days of this meeting.

How soon, following the response letter will I hear form the service about an appointment date?

Like all services, the specialist teaching team can only respond within the limitations of their staffing capacity. In our response letter we will endeavour to give you some indication of our response time.

Cases may be escalated where it is clear need for immediate action, such as a sudden and marked change in behaviour or need.

Referral for transition support is usually allocated at the start of the summer term.

Will a specialist teacher come to our setting to see the child/young person and how long may it take for this to happen?

The outcome of the referral will be communicated in the response letter.

The outcome may be one of the following:

- Agreed and an appointment being made with the setting

- Other advice given

- More information being sought

- Incomplete paperwork

- Sign posting to other relevant services

- Discussion with school

The child/young person is not having difficulties in school/in our setting, the challenges are mostly derived from behaviours or issues happening in the home setting. Can we refer?

Please consider this carefully. The specialist teaching team are funded to provide access to education and cannot in most circumstances become involved in support to parents to manage their child/young person at home. Initiating an Early Help Assessment or exploring other support may be necessary if the issues for the child/young person are mostly related to home.

Can we ask for support from the SEND Specialist Hub network without completing a request for involvement?

Peterborough SEND Hub network provides general advice and support in a number of SEND areas, you can make direct contact with the Hub you require. For direct specialist support of a child/ young person, you will need to complete an RFI and send it to LASS.

What does the service do?

The Behaviour and Inclusion Team offers the following support:

• Hold twice weekly Behaviour and Inclusion Panels to discuss individual pupils and support schools with strategies to help improve and support challenging behaviour. This includes those children/ young people on the SEND register.
• Develop strategies with individual schools to avoid permanent exclusions and suspensions.
• Monitor and track all permanent exclusions, suspensions, reduced timetables, medical needs provision and managed moves.
• Collaborative working with schools to develop blended packages using alternative provision where required.
• Develop good practice guidance and quality assurance for on-site and off-site alternative provision.
• Review practice guidance on the use of managed moves and support schools to ensure that they are successful.
• Monitor use of reduced timetables and share good practice.
• Monitor the use of Medical Needs provision and share good practice.
• Deliver exclusion, suspension, and independent review panel training to school governing bodies.

You can view the structure chart here

What does the service do?

The Educational Psychology Service (EPS) works with vulnerable children, young people and their families. The EPS delivers services through a core offer that is available to all settings and a traded offer to schools subscribing to our Service. The Educational Psychology Service also delivers statutory duties required by the Local Authority under the EHCP processes.

Our Core Offer

• Subscribing schools are offered an annual planning meeting with an Educational Psychologist
• Provide critical incident support for schools and settings
• Provide initial assessments to children/ young people newly arrived in the country with severe and profound needs
• Monthly joint consultation sessions for parents and young people over the age of 16 and attending college, and their education setting in term time - To make an appointment for parent/carer consultation please email EPS@peterborough.gov.uk
• Family Voice - regular consultations for parents and carers
• Providing information and contributions to SEN forums alongside other members of SENI services

Our traded offer

Subscription Model offers:

• Consultation with school staff and parents about identifying and address the needs of vulnerable children and young people in the school / setting
• Consultation with school staff about whole school / whole class approaches to addressing needs and raising the achievement of vulnerable children
• Structured assessment / observation of individual children in order to inform interventions to address needs in school as part of the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment process, following a consultation with staff and parents
• Staff workshops and training could be offered as part of the consultation process

Training

ELSA Training:

• Training to become an Accredited Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) in an educational setting
• The ELSA program is an evidence-informed, nationally recognised approach to supporting children and young people (from primary through to secondary) with a range of social and emotional needs. It is designed to build the capacity of schools to support the emotional needs of their pupils from within their own resources
• Delegates attend five training days arranged between October and January (9.30am-4.00pm) and four supervision sessions from February to July (1.00pm-3.00pm).
• Price: £800 (includes materials)

Supervision (Accredited ELSAs only):

• Group sessions to discuss issues arising from casework and share good practice. Supervision provides an opportunity for the lead EPs to check in with ELSAs regarding their role and to offer support when needed
• We provide a safe and confidential space for ELSAs to reflect on and discuss their caseload, and their personal and professional responses to the role. The focus is on supporting staff in their personal and professional development and in reflecting on their practice. It is a requirement that all practicing ELSAs attend supervision
• Delegates attend 6, 2-hour sessions arranged between October and June
• Price: £400. Please note that spaces are now very limited for supervision sessions

Statutory Duties

• Provide assessment and advice for the EHCNA process
• Contribute to SEND decision making panels
• Provide educational psychology advice for annual reviews where there is a significant change in need and where a change of provision is considered
• Attend annual reviews where capacity allows
• Provide expert witness testimony to SEND tribunals
• Contribute to monitoring of out of city placements

Every school has a link Educational Psychologist (Please see ‘useful information’ for Educational Psychologist)

For general enquires: Phone: 01733 863689 / Email: eps@peterborough.gov.uk

You can view the structure chart here

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can Educational Psychologists attend annual review/professional meetings?

For capacity reasons EPs are unable to attend the majority of annual review/professional meetings. During the annual planning meetings, staff and the link EP will discuss potential EP involvement/attendance at these meetings. If needs changed school to contact the link EP who can help you by signposting or making appropriate contact in difficult circumstances.

Will the Educational Psychologist provide updated advice for every annual review?

For capacity reasons EPs are unable to contribute to the majority of annual reviews. During the annual planning meetings, staff and the link EP will discuss and agree EP involvement with regards to updated advice.

Where there is a significant change in need, or a child is in danger of exclusion, EPs and school will prioritise EP involvement. However, as diaries are always full you will need to give adequate notice to arrange a mutually convenient time for assessment so that the report can be ready for the annual review.

Will the EP do a cognitive assessment for every child/ young person they see?

For service delivery the EPS mainly follows the consultation model with parents and staff. EPs also offer structured assessment / observation of individual children, in order to inform interventions to address special educational needs. EPs use a range of assessment tools which include cognitive or dynamic assessment; the presenting concerns will direct the type of assessment conducted by the EP.

Does the Educational Psychologists test for dyslexia?

Most schools have qualified members of staff that can complete such assessments and or are using online dyslexia screening tests. The service works with children / young people to consider strengths and areas of difficulty with regard to literacy development, to inform targeted interventions, as part of a graduated approach.

Can an EP give a medical diagnosis such as ADHD and ASD?

No these are medical diagnoses and fall outside the EP remit. Such a diagnosis needs to be assessed by the relevant medical professionals such as a paediatrician via the Early Help Pathway processes

What does the service do?

This team undertakes the statutory work associated with the Local Authority's responsibilities in relation to Education, Health & Care Plans. This includes:

• Coordination of the EHC needs assessment and EHCP review process.
• Statutory decision making around EHC needs assessments and reviews.
• Arranging and/or representing the LA at mediations and tribunals when decisions are challenged.
• Ensuring that families (parents, carers, children and young people) are fully involved and informed around all aspects of the statutory process.
• Working with all statutory partners (schools, settings, health and social care) to ensure that statutory responsibilities around EHCPs are understood.
• Providing training and advice around statutory processes.

To support children and young people with an EHCP at transition points e.g. primary into secondary school

• Transition officers will aim to attend at least one transition review meeting per setting.
• Transition officers model and advise on best practice around annual reviews including liaising with wider services.
• Transition officers co-ordinate and deliver multi-agency training around statutory EHC processes.
• Where identified transition officers can co-ordinate a bespoke package of support for settings including, senior leadership teams and trusts.
• Every school has a link transition officer. You can find details at the end of this brochure. If you are a setting or parent/carer and have a query about a transition review, please contact the relevant link officer.

Useful documents/links

• Guidance for undertaking EHCNA
• Guidance for SEN panel – This document explains how the multi-agency SEND decision making panel works. The panel is held on a fortnightly basis and makes recommendations around statutory decisions. Families are represented at this panel through Peterborough’s parent/carer forum (Family Voice) and representatives from settings/schools are encouraged to participate (rota in place).
• Guidance for placement in Peterborough Special Schools – This document, produced with families and our specialist provisions sets out the nature and severity of need catered for by our Peterborough special schools and specialist hubs)
• Guide to EHCPs for young people (a video produced by young people with SEN at City College explaining EHCPs)

How to contact the service:

Each educational setting has a link SAMS Officer.

All families are allocated a link officer to guide them through the statutory assessment process.

General enquiries:

Phone: 01733 863996 / 01733 863733 Email: senteam@peterborough.gov.uk

N.B – All documents related to statutory processes should be sent to this inbox.

You can view the structure chart here

Frequently Asked Questions

I’m thinking about requesting an EHCNA, who do I talk to?

Look at the SEND Information Hub (Local Offer) first. If you are a parent/young person and still have questions, talk to the professionals involved with you or your child. You can also talk to SENDIASS. If you are school/setting, talk to the family and other professionals involved with the child about the need for an EHCNA and the evidence required. If you are unsure about an aspect of the EHCNA process, contact your SAMS link officer for help.

Will an EHCP always be produced if an assessment is agreed?

No, the EHC needs assessment is carried out to determine whether an EHCP is needed. Most assessments do show that a plan is needed but if an EHCP is not agreed, ‘feedback’ is issued. Feedback brings together the information that has been collected through the assessment so that all can see what the needs are and what is required to meet them.

Can SAMS Officers attend the annual review meeting?

The Local Authority is responsible for completing the annual review process but the meeting that is held as part of the review process is the responsibility of the setting/school. When a child/young person is not in a setting, the LA must arrange the meeting. Unless the review is at a key transition point or there are circumstances where there is a significant change in need, or child/young person is in danger of exclusion, the SAMS officer will not usually attend the review meeting. The service does not have the capacity to attend all reviews. However, in most circumstances arrangements will have been made to talk to settings about priority reviews so that the SAMS officer can make arrangements to attend reviews when needed. Where this is not possible, officers are always happy to talk to families or schools/settings in advance of the review meeting to provide guidance and support.

I’ve heard that EHCNA’s take a long time to complete, can they be ‘fast tracked’?

There are statutory timescales around EHC needs assessments. The assessment should be complete and an EHCP or ‘feedback’ issued within 20 weeks. The EHCNA is not intended to be a quick process, and 20 weeks is given because so much information and advice has to be gathered from multiple agencies. For this reason, it is not usually possible to make the process quicker. You can find more information about statutory timescales in the SEND Code of Practice (Chapter 9).

Who makes decisions about specialist placements?

Specialist placements are only considered if parents/carers/young people express a preference as there is a right for all children and young people to mainstream education with support. When a specialist placement is requested, it’s considered by a multi-agency panel. The panel advise the Head of SAMS who is the responsible decision maker.

Why do we need Transition Officers?

When the child or young person is going to transfer between phases of education, then there are statutory deadlines by which the review processes (including amending the EHC plan as necessary) must be concluded.

Reg 18(1) states: “[…] where a child or young person is within 12 months of a transfer between phases of education, the local authority must review and amend, where necessary, the child or young person’s EHC plan before—

(a) 31 March in the calendar year of the child or young person’s transfer from secondary school to a post-16 institution; and

(b) 15 February in the calendar year of the child’s transfer in any other case, and where necessary amend the EHC plan so that it names the school, post-16 or other institution, or type of school or institution, which the child or young person will attend following that transfer.”

Each settings has a link officer from the service, you can find this below..

PCC SENI Services Link Officers list