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2-3 years: Who can help me as a practitioner? - More help

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.

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.

Ages 2 – 3 years is crucial in terms of child development. Problems with behaviour, social skills or communication and language difficulties often begin to become more visible.

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

The Service work in partnership with parents helping them provide a language rich home learning environment to support their child’s cognitive development, language acquisition and social and emotional development. Supporting the whole family particularly 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.

The Service provides a universal preventative service with targeted and specialist elements.

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.

In addition to the mandated contacts families can be signposted to the Service for advice and support via the Hub telephone and ‘Chat Health’ text service.

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, to meet a childs needs 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:

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 Fund to 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:

The two year integrated review provides a progress check covering a childs health and development before their third birthday.

This review assesses a childs progress and development identifying children who may need a little extra support and help get it early.

What does the integrated Review involve?

Progress check –early years settings will complete a Progress check when a child is aged between two and three. Parents and carers will receive a copy of this check. Early years practitioners should encourage parents to take their childs Progress check to the Growth and Development review with the Health Visitor service/Families Health and Wellbeing Service.

The Health Visiting Team covering Stoke on Trent / Staffordshire Families and Wellbeing 0-19  service will send an appointment for a Growth and Development review to all Children aged between 27 and 30 months. This is a parent/carer questionnaire, to assess the development of a child. The review will be completed by a Health Visitor, Specialist Public Health Practitioner or a Nursery Nurse.

The first ASQ covers 5 areas of development:

  • Communication,
  • Gross motor development
  • Fine motor development
  • Personal and social development
  • Problem solving.

The second questionnaire (ASQ-SE) is specific to a child’s social and emotional development.

The review provides parents with the opportunity to be fully involved with their child’s assessment.

If the child is already in an Early Years Setting the review will be integrated with the Early Years Progress Check.

The review will 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 tailored to the family’s need.

On occasions, and only with informed consent, a nursery teacher or child minder maybe asked to complete the ASQ – SE to further inform the child’s development review.

When a developmental concern or additional needs are identified, early intervention may begin with:

  • advice and review in a set period of time
  • Signposting to local children’s centres and libraries
  • Referral onto other agencies when appropriate (with informed consent)
  • A care plan may be written in partnership with the family.

Signs of speech, language and communication delay are often first identified between 2 – 3 years. The FHWS practitioner will use the ASQ alongside the Stoke Speaks out tool to aid their assessment, and consider what support is needed or if a referral is required.

Answer:

Find out if you could receive help with childcare costs

Funded education for 2 year olds – Staffordshire Think 2 and Stoke on Trent Best start

30 hour childcare - Working parents in Staffordshire could receive 30 hours a week of funded childcare for their 3 and 4 year old children.  Staffordshire 30 hour childcare and Stoke on Trent 30 hours childcare.

Funded Education for 3 and 4 year olds

Find out more about help with childcare costs.

30 hour childcare (remove Staffs hyperlink) - Working parents in Staffordshire could receive 30 hours a week of funded childcare for their 3 and 4 year old children.  Staffordshire 30 hour childcare and Stoke on Trent 30 hours childcare.

Funded Education for 3 and 4 year olds

Find out more about help with childcare costs - hyperlink childcare costs to this link.
Childcare Choices | 30 Hours Free Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More | Help with Costs | GOV.UK

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
  • Deterioration in work
  • Change in behaviour
  • Increased “day dreaming”
  • 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 that 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 to parents and early years settings on how to meet a child’s needs.. They may support parents in getting a diagnosis or refer on to other relevant services for support. Following a referral the service will contact the family to explain the support they can provide locally.

More information can be gained by emailing: 

Information on 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.

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.

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