0-5 SEND Support Service including Portage and Sheffield Early Years Language Centre

This is a specialist education service delivered by Sheffield City Council. The service is made up of 3 teams:

Portage Home Visiting
Early Years Inclusion Teachers and Assistants
Sheffield Early Years Language Centre (SEYLC)

A council-run service providing SEND support for children aged 0-3 years old.

The service supports children with significant and complex needs (usually Levels 4 and 5 in more than two areas of need on the Early Years Sheffield Support Grid).

Children whose primary need appears to be social communication differences will usually be allocated to an Early Years Inclusion Teacher.

Portage is a home-visiting educational service for pre-school children with SEND and their families. The service is registered with the National Portage Association.

Portage aims to:

Work with families to help them develop a quality of life and experience, for themselves and their young children, in which they can learn together, play together, participate and be included in their community in their own right.
Play a part in minimising the disabling barriers that confront young children and their families.

The Portage Home Visiting Team provide support to parents/carers who are asking for support to encourage their child’s learning and development and to help find an appropriate educational setting for the future.

Every child (if they meet the criteria for support) is offered an initial block of Play and Learn Assessment visits. This is a thorough assessment of development based on what a child can do. Some children progress on to regular home visits. Other children may receive a transition support package into an appropriate early years’ setting.

In some cases, children allocated to the Portage Home Visiting Team may already attend an Early Years setting. The Portage Home Visitor will share developmental information with the Early Years setting to ensure holistic support for the child.

Please note, children cannot be open to a Portage Home Visitor and an Early Years Inclusion Teacher at the same time.

If you have any questions about the Portage Home Visiting Team, please contact the Senior Portage Home Visitor.

Our details are on the National Portage Association website.

Feedback

“I can't rate my portage home visitor highly enough, and I will forever remember and value her support. She listened so attentively throughout our time with her and offered comfort and great advice/signposting”

“I would recommend Portage to anyone”

“My Portage home visitor has been so much to us from professional help and training and support to a friend”

“I know so much more about my daughter and what I can do and where I can go through the help I've been given. I tell everyone I know that needs help to go to portage as the support is vital for me and my daughter”

A council-run service providing SEND support for children aged 0-5 years old.

The service supports children whose needs are at levels 3 and above on the Early Years Sheffield Support Grid (If at level 3, this should be in more than one area).

The service provides advice, support and training to educational settings and families.

For one-off contacts and advice, a consultation can be requested.

For a fuller assessment of children with a more complex profile, a full referral form may be submitted with supporting evidence of the graduated response.

Early Years Inclusion Teacher involvement may include:

conducting observations and assessments to better understand the child’s needs
offering tailored advice and support
attending meetings and reviews

The level and length of involvement will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

In some cases, an Early Years Inclusion Assistant may provide a short block of targeted support. This can involve:

introducing and modelling specific strategies within the setting
gaining a deeper understanding of the child’s needs through focused interaction
helping to upskill practitioners by sharing practical approaches and insights to further the child’s development.

Again, the level and length of involvement will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Sheffield Early Years Language Centre (SEYLC / Ucan) is funded jointly by the NHS and Sheffield Local Authority.

Supports: Pre-school children and children up to reception age

Referral reason: Referrals are made for pre-school children with identified developmental language disorder (DLD).

People involved: speech and language therapists from the NHS and a teacher and assistant from the 0-5 SEND team.

Offer: A place to support the child and provide training for parents and Early Years practitioners in meeting children's needs.

The centre is based at Primrose Family Centre, Creswick Street, Sheffield.

How to refer to the Sheffield Early Years Language Centre

Children are referred to the centre by Speech and Language Therapists.

Children are assessed by a speech and language therapist. Evidence is provided by the therapist and teacher (who will have sought parents’/carers’ views) about the child’s needs and their impact on the child’s well-being and development. All the evidence is then taken to the centre admissions panel where the severity of the child’s needs and the appropriateness of a place at the centre is discussed. A decision will then be made. The therapist will already have talked with parents about the provision at the centre.

See how they use the Zones of Regulation toolkit in the setting.

For more information, contact the 0-5 SEND Team:

Telephone: 0114 273 6411
E-mail 0-5SEND.SupportService@sheffield.gov.uk

How to refer to the 0-5 SEND Support Service

See how referrals are made to the Sheffield Early Years Language Centre in their section above.

Referrals come in centrally to the 0-5 SEND Service. They are triaged monthly by the 0-5 SEND Support Service Manager, the Senior Portage Home Visitor and an Early Years Inclusion Teacher. If the criteria for the team is met, children are allocated to the most appropriate part of the team. They will be allocated to a Portage Home Visitor or an Early Years Inclusion Teacher.

Click here to open the flowchart for the referral process.

Referrals are made by health professionals, educational settings, partner Council services and parent/carers. Open the referral form. Please note the team cannot accept a referral form without a parent/carer signature.

Referrals can be made for children at levels 3-5 on the Early Years Sheffield Support Grid (If at level 3, this should be in more than one area).

Children referred should have a learning difficulty or developmental delay as part of their profile of needs.

Children whose primary need appears to be social communication differences will usually be allocated to an Early Years Inclusion Teacher.

Where it is unclear whether a child should be allocated to a Portage Home Visitor or an Early Years Inclusion Teacher, an initial home visit will be undertaken by the Senior Portage Home Visitor and an Early Years Inclusion Teacher. This is to find out what the primary developmental need of the child is.

Where agencies are unsure about a referral, these can be discussed with your Locality Early Years Inclusion Teacher, the 0-5 SEND Support Service Manager or Senior Portage Home Visitor.

Contact the team on:

Telephone: 0114 273 6411 (Monday to Friday)
E-mail 0-5SEND.SupportService@sheffield.gov.uk

For Early Years Setting only

For one-off contacts and advice, a consultation can be requested.

Early Years settings need to complete the Sheffield EYFS Transition Record for each child in their setting who is moving into Foundation Stage 2/Reception and share this with their new school.

This gives information about the child. This includes any support that is currently in place, with parental consent. This is to help make transition to school more successful. It will be completed for all Early Years children.

The Sheffield EYFS Transition Record should also be completed if children move to a new Early Years setting, at any time of the year.

If a child is currently supported by the 0-5 SEND service, we will provide a transition offer. This will be supported by the Early Years Inclusion Teacher and Assistant. This is both before, and after transition.

You can access the Sheffield EYFS Transition Record by clicking here.

The section 23 referral is to be used for the sole purpose of the NHS fulfilling its statutory obligation to notify the Local Authority of a child 0-to-5 years-old who has, or is likely to have, special educational needs or a disability (SEND). This duty is set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 (legislation.gov.uk).

This notification will result in the child’s details being added to the Council’s children's services database. Parents and carers will also be contacted to give them information about funding and support pathways.

A range of pathways exist for 0-19 health services and health services to refer into local authority SEND services. There are also existing processes in place for pre-school children to access support early on. For this reason, in Sheffield the Section 23 notification form is only required when:

the local health professional (i.e. GP, Clinic Nurse, Health Visitor, Community Midwife), has not already notified the Local Authority.
the family are not accessing a Local Authority service, such as the 0-5 Special Educational Needs and/or Disability service (includes Portage).

However, if there is any doubt about whether to make a referral, send a notification form to 0-5SEND.SupportService@sheffield.gov.uk

Click here to download the referral form.

A copy of the privacy notice can be found here: Privacy notice | Sheffield City Council

Applying for a school place

Find out how to apply for a school place.

Applying for Early Years Inclusion Funding

For Early Years providers, find out how to apply for Early Years Inclusion Funding.

0-5 SEND Support Service

How to refer to the 0-5 SEND Support Service

Applying for a school place

Applying for Early Years Inclusion Funding

In this section

Links and documents