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0-2 years: Who can help me as a practitioner? - More help

Answer:

Midwives support woman through pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood.

The midwife will:

  • check the health of mother and baby
  • help with advice on feeding
  • provide care to mother’s, babies and families up to the first 28 days after birth
  • provide information and answer any questions

More information

More information can be accessed to help with advice on the early days after birth

Answer:

Health Visitors work with parents and carers, offering support from the ante-natal period until the child starts school at five years.

The Service includes a team of Health Visitors, School Nurses, Staff Nurses, Nursery Nurses and Parent Support workers.  It provides advice and support on the health and well-being of children and families from 28 weeks gestation through until 19 years of age.

Health Visitors and School Nurses are registered Nurses or Midwives who have chosen to undertake additional training and become Specialist Community Public Health Nurses. They lead the Healthy Child Programme (Pregnancy and the first 5 years of life), providing a universal prevention and early intervention programme, helping parents to support their child in achieving the best start in life and improve outcomes for children and reduce inequalities.

The Service provides a universal preventative service with targeted and specialist elements. As part of the universal element of the Healthy Child Programme, every child and family is offered 5 mandated child development reviews which includes assessment of the child and family’s needs,  health promotion advice and support and referral onto other agencies if targeted support/prevention is required.

All Children and families are offered:

  • New Birth Visit between 10 – 14 days after delivery
  • 3 – 4 month review
  • 9 – 12 month growth and development review.

These contacts include an assessment of the child’s growth and development to identify any additional need in order that further support or early intervention/advice/referral to specialist agencies can be made and the service offered can be tailored to the family’s need.

The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is a tool used with parents to aid assessment of a child’s development.

The ASQ covers five main areas:

  • Communication
  • Gross motor skills
  • Fine motor skills
  • Problem-solving
  • Social-emotional development.

Assessment of speech, language and communication and the promotion of a language rich home learning environment is integral to every mandated contact.

In addition to the mandated contacts families can be signposted to the Service for advice and support.

The Service works in partnership with parents helping them to support their child’s cognitive development, language acquisition and social and emotional development. Supporting the whole family in the transition to parenthood and particularly to support parents mental health.  Good maternal and paternal mental health helps to develop a secure attachment between parent and child which will help shape a child’s later emotional, behavioural and intellectual development.

Further information can be found on the MPFT website. 

What Can I do? 

  • Remind/support parents to attend health checks
  • Discuss any concerns with Health Visitors

 Staffordshire residents

In Staffordshire the Service is called the Families, Health and Wellbeing 0-19  service. The team are available, either via the telephone HUB, one to one appointments, Chat Health or at child health clinic.

Contact Details 

  • West Hub - 0300 303 3923 (covering Moorlands, Newcastle, Stafford, Stone, Seisdon)

  • East Hub - 0300 303 3924 (covering East Staffs, Cannock, Lichfield, Rugeley, Tamworth)

  • Chat Health - Text 07520 615722 (answered in office hours only) 

Stoke on Trent residents

The team are available, either via the telephone HUB, one to one appointments or at child health clinic. More information can be gained on the Health Visiting Team covering Stoke on Trent

Contact Details

  • Stoke-on-Trent Health Visiting and School Nursing HUB – 0300 404 2993
Answer:

Early Years settings will assess and monitor children’s communication development following age and stages as part of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

Settings will talk to parents about a childs development, their progress and their needs and put in place activities to support this development. They can share ideas about what parents can do in the home to support language development.

Where a child is not reaching typical development, the practitioners should observe and make notes of the areas in which the child is having difficulty.

The Practitioner should share their concerns with the Early Years Setting SENCo and speak to parents about the needs of the child. When the practitioner speaks to the parent, they should discuss any medical history (e.g. prematurity, Ear, Nose and throat difficulties such as Glue ear), check if the child has had a hearing test and find out if there is any family history of SLCN.

Settings use screening tools to assess a childs needs, put in place a plan with targets using the  Staged Pathway, sharing targets with parents and monitor this plan making a note of progress or ongoing difficulties.

Activities will be planned to support the area of difficulty and this will be reviewed after a period to see how the child is progressing and if they need any other support. Parents should be encouraged to carry out activities at home.

Each Early Years setting will have an Early Years SENCo–special educational needs coordinator for the setting. They can provide advice on meeting the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They will plan and monitor the support to be put in place for individual children. SENCos support staff in the setting to put this support in place, liaise with parents and other agencies if required.

Answer:

Entrust Early Years Area SENCo provide advice and guidance to early years providers to support children with special educational needs and disabilities and  signposting to other agencies.

Answer:

The early years forum is a multi-agency meeting that monitors whether the right services are involved to support pre-school child showing special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Early Years settings may be able to apply to the  SEND Inclusion Fundto help early years providers meet the needs of individual children with SEN to support children’s learning and development.

Contact the Staffordshire Early Years Forum for further support if required.

Providers in Stoke-on-Trent should contact EYIS@stoke.gov.uk for any advice on the Early Years Forum, SEN advice or to find out more about the SEN Inclusion Fund.

Answer:

Parents may be able to receive help with childcare costs. To find out more signpost parents to:

Funded education for 2 year olds 

Staffordshire Think 2 and Stoke on Trent

Find out more about help with childcare costs

Answer:

Hearing difficulties can impact on many areas of development, including language and communication.

Every child has a hearing assessment soon after birth. 

If you have concerns about a child’s hearing speak to their parents to see if they have identified any issues. Suggest parents speak to their health visitor or GP who can make a referral to audiology.

Signs to look out for

  • Change in attention levels
  • Change in behaviour
  • Increased “daydreaming”
  • Varying ability from week to week / month to month

Often temporary hearing loss in children is caused by Glue ear (fluid in the middle part of the ear). The level of hearing loss can fluctuate, meaning children may display some of the signs above on some days but not others. Further information is available on Glue ear.

There are things you can do to help!

Improving the listening environment: 

  • Reduce background noise where possible
  • Consider where in the room is quietist or if another room will be quieter
  • Rooms with soft furnishings reduce echo
  • Sit where the light falls on the speaker’s face, rather than where they have their back to the light
  • Sit where any distractions from behind the speaker will be reduced 

Further information

Answer:

Speech and Language Therapists work with children who may have ongoing difficulties with things like: understanding language, interacting and communicating, speech sounds; stammering. 

How can they help?

They are qualified to assess and treat SLCN, give advice the setting the child attends on how to meet a child’s needs. They may support parents in getting a diagnosis or refer you to other relevant services for support. Following a referral the service the family will be contacted to explain the support they can provide locally.

More information can be gained by emailing:

Speech and language assessments

Information on speech and language assessments can be found on the ICan website. 

Encourage parents to attend appointments with specialist services and share any advice they receive. Practising the things they suggest regularly with a child can really help them to progress.

Early years settings should maintain contact with a child’s speech and language therapist and put in place the interventions they suggest as part of day to day learning. It helps if practitioners can attend appointments to gain the information and skills they need to implement the support.

Answer:

Parent/carer Support Groups

There are a number of parent and carer support groups in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent

SENDIASS

SENDIASS are an Information, Advice and Support Service for parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disability. SENDIASS - Staffordshire and SENDIASS - Stoke on Trent provide an impartial and confidential service on matters relating to a child or young person’s special educational needs or disability from birth to 25 years.
Answer:

Staffordshire Families First service ensures that the needs of children, young people and families across Staffordshire are identified and the right help is put in place and problems are stopped from getting worse.

In Stoke-on-Trent, if you are concerned about a child then details of how to contact the Children’s Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) are available on the Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Partnership website.

Early help

When a child, young person or family is in need of extra support it is important the best way forward is identified at the earliest opportunity. Early Help Teams provide this support.

Early help Teams in Staffordshire work with families to help build upon a family’s strengths. Helping families to find the right solutions to improve their situation.

Early Help Teams in Stoke on Trent assess the needs of a family to put the right support in place. 

More information can be accessed on the Early Help Strategy and referrals forms for Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent.

Answer:

Staffordshire SEND Local Offer and Stoke SEND Local Offer – provide information on local services and support available for children with a range of different needs.

Answer:
Babies born very prematurely sometimes need additional support to develop some of their early skills. This may involve a range of professionals including speech and language therapists. Information and advice is available on supporting premature babies.
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