Our team
The team comprises highly qualified advisory teachers in the fields of:
- physical difficulties
- vision impairment
- Deaf or hard of hearing (or both)
- multi-sensory impairment
They are supported by an educational audiologist, senior sensory advisor and specialist support assistants.
All members of the team have regular ongoing professional development within their specialist area to ensure that they are kept up to date with key issues that are taking place within sensory impairment.
We offer teaching, support, advice, training, early help and interventions for children and young people from 0-25, where a physical difficulty, vision, hearing or multi-sensory impairment is having an impact on their ability to access education.
Who we support
We support children and young people (CYP) aged 0-25, in their homes (0-4), pre-schools, nurseries and all educational settings including special schools.
Sensory Needs & Physical Difficulties threshold for support
Sensory
Children & Young People need to have a confirmed medical diagnosis of:
Visual impairment (VI) and have 1 or more of the following:
- visual acuities of 6/18 or less in both eyes,
- a degenerative/progressive visual impairment,
- a fluctuating visual impairment such as Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)
Deaf hard of hearing (DH/H) and have:
- An average hearing loss of 21dB or more (taken over the mid-frequencies for both ears, according to British Association of Teacher of the Deaf guidelines)
or
- A moderate, severe or profound high frequency hearing loss
Multi-sensory impairment (MSI)
- A combined loss in both hearing & vision, with at least a permanent mild loss in each.
Physical
- a primary need of physical difficulty which creates a significant barrier to a child or young person (CYP) accessing a setting and/or learning
Requesting access to SEND support
All requests for support are made online using our Request for Support form using the link below.
Requests can be made by:
- an educational setting,
- medical professional e.g. Audiologist, Orthoptists, Paediatrician,
- other professionals working with a child or young person e.g. social worker, speech & language therapist, ROVIC, OT
As a service we use the NatSIP eligibility criteria to guide decision-making on the level of support allocated to children and young people.
What happens next?
Once a request for access is accepted, letters will be sent to both settings and parents informing them of the decision made. All children and young people will be allocated an advisory teacher who will make contact with the school within 3 working weeks (term time only) to arrange an initial visit.
Initial visit
The initial visit may consist of specialist assessments to identity need. If the CYP is in an educational setting, a discussion with the class teacher, support staff and SENCO will be needed to look at appropriate outcomes and provision.
A written report will be provided within 10 working days of the initial visit. This report will describe the diagnosis, assessment results, outline appropriate outcomes and provision in a way that can be clearly understood by parents and professionals involved.
Next steps
Appropriate outcomes and provision, using specialist sensory curriculums, that run alongside school based curriculums, will be provided for schools to use to ensure CYP can access the curriculum and be successfully included alongside their peers.
Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP)
Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) describes the inclusive provision and practice that all Devon schools, early years, and post 16 settings should be able to provide for all children and young people, including those with SEND, from within their own resources. This will support all children and young people to attend, engage and thrive in their educational setting.
It describes approaches, provision and practice that is ‘helpful to all, harmful to none and crucial for some’.
Useful links
- NatSIP, the National Sensory Impairment Partnership – a partnership of organisations working together to improve outcomes for children and young people with sensory impairment.
- Early Help – the initial response offered by all services in contact with children, young people and families when they need extra support to thrive.