Support service for children with physical impairments

The service offers educational guidance and support to children and young people (0−19 years of age) who have a physical impairment and/or a significant medical need, their school or other educational setting and their families.

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Staff work collaboratively with settings and in partnership with parents:

We have developed standards linked to our care standards 'Putting People First' which support our work with all our partners.

Size and organisation

The service comprises of:

• Head of service
• Senior teacher
• 4.7 full time equivalent teachers
• Moving and handling adviser
• Typing tutor
• ICT technician
• Resources technician
• Administrative support 

Criteria for involvement

The acceptance of a referral to the Support Service for Physical Impairment is based on the following criteria:

• Children/young people with a physical impairment such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease).
• Children/young people with a medical condition (eg epilepsy or severe asthma) where this condition affects their ability to access the curriculum or environment.
• All referrals must be in the age range 0-16 years of age or up to 19 if the young person attends a school post 16 provision (please note: referrals for children 0-five must be made via the Local Authority's Early Years Special Educational Needs Panel).

Referrals

A referral may be made by any person involved with the child/young person providing they have obtained parental permission.

Referrals are discussed by the full teaching team at monthly referral moderation meetings. Any child who is accepted onto the Support Service for Physical Impairment 's caseload will receive an assessment within four working weeks from that meeting.

The work of the service

After assessment the need for ongoing support is determined by the child's ability in the following areas:

• access to the curriculum
• management of the physical impairment or medical need
• safe mobility
• social relationships.  

The time allocated to the support of individual children is governed by their personal situation and varies according to need.

Monitoring and review procedures

The service uses a range of methods to monitor and review its performance.

Annual evaluations are undertaken with service users and the results are used to inform service development. At operational level two key documents are the service level agreement (SLA) negotiated with schools and individual education plans (IEP) which track service intervention contributing to pupil progress.

Working with other professionals

The service regards itself as part of the team surrounding each child/young person it supports and values the involvement and expertise of other professionals.

Joint assessments, visits and planning meetings are held with appropriate professionals from health, education and social services.

Collaborative working occurs with a wide range of professionals:

• partner LA support services for special educational needs
• officers and administrative personnel within the SEN section at County Hall
• development officers (school adaptations)
• county Architects department
• community paediatric health professionals − notably occupational therapists and physiotherapists.       

A joint working protocol has been established with the Derbyshire Early Years and Childcare Service.

We hope that you will be pleased with the service the Support Service for Physical Impairment provides.

If you do have any concerns, these should be addressed to Mrs Trisha Bowen, Head of Service:

Mrs Trisha Bowen
Head of Service
Support Service for Physical Impairment
County Support Services Centre
Brookside Road
Breadsall
Derby
DE21 5LF

Tel: 01332 834782
email: physical.impairment@derbyshire.gov.uk

Related documents

The following documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download the PDF software for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)

The following documents are in Word format. You can download the Word software for free from the Word viewer page (opens in a new window) of the Microsoft website.

• Support service for physical impairment referral form (for schools) (19KB)
• Support service for physical impairment referral form (other than schools) (18KB)
• Support Service for Physical Impairment service level agreement (34KB)
• Support service for physical impairment care standards (63KB)
• Support service for physical impairment annual report (410KB)
• Support service for physical impairment evaluation summary (125KB)