0 – 5

0 - 5 refers to children from birth to the end of the Foundation Stage (0-5 years).

Further information

Referrals

Children can be referred at any age, from birth up to the end of the Foundation Stage using the SEND Services referral which can be found at: schools.leicester.gov.uk/psychology-service

Referrals are commonly received from early years support teachers, health visitors, speech and language therapists and social workers. Community paediatricians make a statutory notification to the local authority when they consider that a child may have a special educational need.

Early years settings/schools can also refer to the service. The setting/school should first seek advice from the early years support teacher in deciding whether the referral is appropriate and discuss a possible referral with the child’s parents/carers.

Parents/carers can also contact the Psychology Service directly, either by telephone, letter, or email if they wish to seek advice about their child.

EP work

After receiving a referral, EPs will gather more information about the child by talking with the child’s parents/carers and professionals within an agreed time scale. They may observe the child at home and at their setting/school and carry out an initial assessment. Following this, the EP will advise on appropriate interventions and services for the child and their family and then monitor their progress in consultation with the child’s parents /carers and other professionals.

The EP would normally provide a record of their work with any immediate recommendations and future action. More detailed reports will be provided on completion of an extended piece of work within a timeline agreed with the relevant parties. This would be copied to parents/carers and relevant professionals involved with the child.

EPs work in neighbourhood areas covering local communities, early year’s settings, children’s centres, and schools.  The SEND Code of Practice provides detailed advice on the graduated approach to meeting children’s special educational needs in the Early Years. This would normally be the framework within which the EP works with the setting or school. The Service is responsible for providing psychological advice as part of a statutory Education, Health, and Care assessment under the 2014 Children and Families Act where this has been agreed by the local authority.

Training

The Service offers a broad range of training to local authority and charity managed children’s centres, nurseries, early years settings, local community organisations, parent support groups, local authority services and partner agencies and others. All training is provided on a traded basis and details of courses provided by the service in partnership with other services can be accessed in the SEND training brochure which is available from: SEND Courses » Leicester City Council - SEND (bookinglive.com)