The Children's Sensory and Physical Needs Service is part of the Specialist Teaching and Support Services (STASS)
Our vision as the STaSS team is to:
“To offer high quality support for all children through a collaborative approach to provide transformational learning experiences so that children can flourish and make excellent holistic progress and successfully transition to responsible citizens"
The Children's Sensory and Physical Needs Service is made up of the Deaf and MSI Children and Young People Service and the Vision and Physical Needs Service which includes, The Support Team for Deaf Children, The Vision Impairment Outreach Team and the Local Authority Led Resourced Provisions for Children and Young People who are Deaf and Children and Young People with a Vision Impairment.
These teams work collectively to provide information, advice, support, direct teaching and training to ensure that children and young people (CYP), 0 - 25 who are deaf or with a vision impairment, multi-sensory impairment, and physical / medical needs have their needs met.
The Children's Sensory and Physical Needs Service works in 2 distinct ways;
The specialist outreach staff work from the centre to provide a service to children and young people, 0-25, who are at home, or who attend their local early years setting, school, or post 16 provision.
The specialist resourced provision staff work in one of four Local Authority Led Resourced Provisions, (LARP) hosted by mainstream primary and secondary schools, and specifically provide a high level of teaching and support for children and young people who have severe to profound deafness and / or vision impairment.
The focus of the service is to support young people to develop positive wellbeing, independence and preparation for adulthood from the early years. In addition to supporting full curriculum access, appropriately qualified and skilled staff deliver specialist curricula and teach specialist skills, such as braille, ICT, British Sign Language (BSL) Personal Understanding of Deafness (PUD), mobility, habilitation skills, self advocacy, disability awareness and independence.
Who is it for?
All CYP 0-25 are entitled to an assessment of need if they present with sensory or physical needs. CYP who have a medical diagnosis of a sensory impairment or physical or medical disability will be assessed, and support will be allocated according to the Bradford Matrix of Need and The National Sensory Impairment Partnership (NATSiP) eligibility criteria.
The team will work with parents / carers and families, in homes, early years settings, mainstream and special schools, and post 16 provisions.
In order to ensure needs are appropriately met, we employ a range of specialist staff – specialist teachers, educational audiologist, early years specialist practitioners, technology officers, habilitation officers, audiology officer, deaf instructors, specialist support workers, support officers and leaders – to ensure that children and young people 0-25, and their families, and settings receive the specialist support they need to be successful and achieve.
