Pre-school home visiting teaching and support service.
A home visiting teaching and support service is available for babies and young children aged 0 to 3 years with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The service is run by the Inclusion Advisory Team (IAT). This team is part of the Leeds Learning Inclusion Service.
SEND home visiting officers work with families in their homes. They use a method called Portage. This helps parents and carers learn how to support their child’s learning during everyday activities.
Parents and carers are supported to become their child’s first teacher. Together, they agree small and clear goals to help the child learn and grow. These goals may support:
moving and physical skills
talking and understanding
social skills
play
learning
The service uses a small steps approach. This means learning is broken into short, easy steps for the child.
After an assessment, families may be offered:
home visits
phone calls
information about other helpful services
The support offered is based on what the child and family need. If home visits would help, the family is given a SEND home visiting officer who visits regularly.
Home visit support depends on how the child is developing and their level of need. Each visit usually includes:
planned learning activities
play led by the child
time to focus on family needs
SEND home visiting officers help parents and carers:
understand what their child can already do
agree next learning goals
plan activities to support the next steps in development
Leeds City Council is registered with the National Portage Association.
SEND home visiting officers also work closely with other professionals involved with the child. This may include:
ICAN (Integrated Children’s Additional Needs) teams
Educational Psychologists
Health Visitors
They also support children and families when moving into early years settings. This includes help with transitions and individual learning plans.
How are requests made to the Portage service?
How are requests made to the Early Years SEND Home Visiting Service?
There are three ways to make a request, dependent upon who is making the request:
parents and carers can make a request by completing Early years SEND Home Visiting Request Form. Also, any practitioner working with the family can make a request if they have the agreement of the child’s parents or carers
all health professionals should complete a Health to Education Notification (HEN), ensuring they have the agreement of the child’s parents or carers
if the child is attending an early years’ setting and the family agree home-based support should be requested, the SENCo (SEN Coordinator) in the setting should complete a One SEND Services Request for Support. The form should be completed on the understanding that the offer will be home-based.
Criteria for accessing the service
Requests to the Ealy Years SEND Home Visiting service can be made in the following circumstances:
the child is aged between 0 and two and a half years of age
the child presents with 50% delay in two or more areas of development: cognition and learning; social communication and interaction; speech and language; social, emotional and mental health; physical; nursing or medical; hearing; vision; and sensory.
the family are living in the Leeds local authority area.
A member of the team will contact parents and carers to inform them of the outcome of the request and the offer for them and their child.
Contact details
Contact details for the Early Years SEND Home Visiting Service:
