{"id":367,"date":"2020-11-03T15:05:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T15:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.devon.gov.uk\/educationandfamilies\/?page_id=367"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:07:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:07:05","slug":"specialist-support","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/send-local-offer\/early-years\/specialist-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Early years &#8211; specialist support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block is-style-dcc-two-col\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2>Contents<\/h2><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#early-child-development-pathway\">Early Child Development Pathway<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#speech-and-language-therapy\">Speech and language therapy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#physiotherapy\">Physiotherapy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#early-years-complex-needs-eycn-service\">Early Years\u00a0Inclusion and Learning\u00a0\u2013 specialist support\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If your child has significant or complex delays to their development, they may need more specialist services and support.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your child is in an early&nbsp;years&nbsp;setting,&nbsp;your&nbsp;setting SENDCo can give your more information about services and support.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your GP or health visitor should be able to give more information about these health services and how to access them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"early-child-development-pathway\"><strong>Early Child Development Pathway<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Children and Family Health Devon&nbsp;provides\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/childrenandfamilyhealthdevon.nhs.uk\/specialist-childrens-assessment-centres-scac\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Specialist Children\u2019s Assessment Centres<\/a>\u202ffor children aged 0 to 5 years with significant developmental difficulties. The centres offer assessments in the most&nbsp;appropriate venue&nbsp;for you and your child.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"speech-and-language-therapy\">Speech and language therapy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Speech and language therapists (SLTs) play a key role in the diagnosis of children with different speech,&nbsp;language&nbsp;and communication needs. More information about SLTs and other support available can be found in&nbsp;our\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/send-local-offer\/understanding-send\/communication-and-interaction\/guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">speech, language and communication needs guide<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"physiotherapy\">Physiotherapy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vranchhouse.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vranch House<\/a>\u202fprovides\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vranchhouse.org\/physiotherapy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">physiotherapy\u202ffor\u202fchildren\u202faged\u202f0 to 5<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-to-access-this-support\">How to access this support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If your child needs a service from&nbsp;Vranch&nbsp;House, anyone working with your child can make a referral.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are in east or west Devon, this will be sent straight to&nbsp;Vranch&nbsp;House; in North&nbsp;Devon&nbsp;the referral goes to the Physiotherapy team in Barnstaple Health Centre.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To access&nbsp;South&nbsp;Devon&nbsp;based&nbsp;services&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.torbayandsouthdevon.nhs.uk\/services\/john-parkes-unit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Torbay Hospital John Parkes Unit<\/a>\u202f(except for emergency and inpatient care),&nbsp;use the link&nbsp;to&nbsp;find out more information.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"early-years-complex-needs-eycn-service\"><strong>Early Years&nbsp;Inclusion and Learning&nbsp;\u2013 specialist support&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our team of Inclusion Practitioners&nbsp;support children&nbsp;who have a significant or profound Special Educational Need and\/or Disabilities (SEND).&nbsp;They support children to&nbsp;achieve success using a&nbsp;small-steps, play based, child centred approach.&nbsp;All of&nbsp;the Inclusion Practitioners have completed their&nbsp;National Portage&nbsp;Association (NPA)&nbsp;training&nbsp;and the service&nbsp;is&nbsp;registered&nbsp;with the National Portage Association,&nbsp;which is recognised&nbsp;by the Department&nbsp;for Education&nbsp;as an early intervention service for children with significant and complex needs aged 0 to 5 and their families.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the key principles of&nbsp;support from an Inclusion Practitioner is to work&nbsp;together with parents,&nbsp;carers&nbsp;and early years professionals&nbsp;to&nbsp;agree shared&nbsp;goals&nbsp;and targets,&nbsp;which&nbsp;are broken down into small, manageable steps giving opportunities for&nbsp;children to&nbsp;learn new skills&nbsp;and progress in their development.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;Inclusion Practitioners&nbsp;work in the home,&nbsp;community&nbsp;and in early years&nbsp;settings with parents and partner agencies,&nbsp;to promote inclusive practice and to build confidence and resilience.an early years setting report for all children currently attending a setting (including childminders).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>evidence of a significant and complex delay in two developmental areas which must include detailed evidence of significant cognitive delay (see criteria above)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>evidence of how professionals have tried to target areas of delay in the community, for example,&nbsp;demonstrated&nbsp;through a TAF&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>evidence of the graduated response if a referral is from an early&nbsp;years&nbsp;setting \u2013 settings should have discussed the child with their early years consultant prior to the referral being made&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>evidence that the child has had an Early Help Assessment (Right for Children) if appropriate&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>copies of ASQs,&nbsp;Two Year Old&nbsp;and&nbsp;Let\u2019s&nbsp;Talk More assessments where&nbsp;appropriate, including a summary of the child\u2019s needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/send-local-offer\/early-years\/specialist-support\/early-years-complex-needs-eycn-service\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"6363\">Find our more about the support the Early Years&nbsp;Inclusion Team can offer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your child has significant or complex delays to their development, they may need more specialist services and support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1880,"featured_media":0,"parent":56,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-367","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 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