Support in pre school

[HiawathaDidntBotherTooMuch]

DS starts ore school two weeks before his 3rd birthday. He will just do two mornings a week. That is, if it goes well. It is a mainstream pre school, and DS has a very severe speech and language delay, and, I think, possible social communication disorder or ASD. I am pressing for an assessment and diagnosis, but am not getting very far very fast.

Portage, in the only input they have had so far which was an initial visit, tells me that he cannot have any support jn pre school until he term after his 3rd birthday. His birthday is the end of April, so would that mean that he wouldn't have support until September?

DSIL works at a pre school and she knows of other children in our borough which have pre school one to one support by a portage person, and the child is not yet 3.

In my LA I know it happens because I do the one to one for a 2 yr old with developmental delay!

You need to contact your education department and ask to speak to an Early Yrs Advisor! And also ask to speak to the senco at your chosen setting.

Your chosen setting should have no trouble accessing funding to help support your son!

Good luck

Thank you so much. I shall make contact with an Early Years Advisor. I am so cross that the portage worker has said this, and that i blindly believed her. I have been having such a battle accessing any help at all for DS, and have continually hit brick walls. I am so cross.

It sounds like Portage have advised what they could provide you with: and that is support from the term following her 3rd birthday. But I think they've overlooked the fact that other departments may exist that could also provide the support you're looking for.

My DD has CP. I had applied to the LEA for an Assessment of Educational Need just before her 2nd birthday and she got a Statement of Educational Need at age 2Y 6Mths. On the basis of her Statement, our Birth to Five Service paid for 1:1 support for 15hours per week in a private mainstream nursery (I still paid normal nursery fees - 'Birth to Five' paid for an extra member of staff to help DD). Our 1:1 here was not a Portage person, it was a nursery teacher in the nursery setting.

At age 3Y 3mths, the following September, she transferred to a nursery setting in a mainstream primary school. As this is under LEA control, Birth to Five no longer pay for her 1:1. The LEA now pay for the full-time 1:1. And this 1:1 is not a Portage person, she is a qualified Teaching Assistant (TA).

So while we did have Portage support in the home setting, we have not had it in nursery or primary school.

I don't know who your equivalent 'Birth to Five Service' is - I think this might be specific to our county, but it is a government funded/run organisation. Our community paediatrician gave us a packup of leaflets of support organisations on our initial consultation, and Birth to Five was included in that, but our private nursery setting (owned and run by a qualified teacher and SENCO) also had direct contacts with Birth to Five and did all our liaison with them on our behalf. Nursery were very knowledgeable, accommodating and proactive.

Have you written to your LEA to formally request an Assessment of Educational Need? This is the first step to getting a Statement - I think it might be the same for the new EHCP. If you get the statement/EHCP, this seems to unlock the funds (IME) and enables the support. Good luck OP.

This is our Birth to Five Service, if you've never heard of them before:

www.birthtofive.org.uk

You need to access the 2 year funding, and early years adviser or senco at the preschool should be able to help.

Ds had a 1-1 all the time he was at preschool, he wouldn't have been able to attend without one.