Services which support children and young people with additional needs

SEND Inclusion Service

Specialist teachers and teaching assistants work with children and young people with a range of complex SEND from birth to 19 years in homes, early years settings and schools. They provide specialist assessments and interventions, including services for children and young people who are deaf, visually impaired, autistic and have cognitive learning difficulties.

For more information please contact the senior practitioners for the teams:

  • Communication and interaction team, and cognition and learning team: 0115 854 6464.
  • Early years team and hearing and vision specialist support team: 0115 804 1232.

Integrated children's disability service (ICDS) 

Created in response to the SEND reforms from the Children and Families Act 2014. ICDS brings together colleagues from education and social care to support children and young people with disabilities aged 0 to 25 years. 

The service consists of 6 teams:

  • Education, health and care assessment team (Pre 16)
  • Education, health and care assessment team (Post 16)  
  • Specialist support service
  • Short breaks assessment and review team
  • Children's occupational therapy team
  • Physical disability support service

ICDS education, health, care assessment pre and post 16 teams

The teams manage requests for EHC needs assessments and the multi-agency decision making process which determines whether the threshold for assessment has been met.

Where the threshold is met and it is agreed that a plan is required, the team will work with the family and young person to produce an EHC plan (EHCP), detailing the specialist education needs of the child or young person. The teams are then responsible for maintaining the plan until it ceases.

Before deciding whether to make a request for an EHCP assessment and for more information please read this advice on the Notts Help Yourself website.

Requests for EHCP assessments should be made via the EHCP digital hub.

Duty contact details for the assessment team:

Specialist support team

Offers bespoke, individualised packages of support for children and young people aged 0-18 years, either within their own homes or local communities, delivered by trained and experienced support workers. The team is registered and inspected by Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The team offers

Personal care and family support

  • Assistance with personal and intimate care in the home
  • Occupational therapy interventions / observations
  • Sleep support and advice
  • Establishing positive routines

Specialised short breaks & interventions

  • Group provision (Saturday hubs/holiday groups)
  • Overnight short breaks, home or community
  • Specialist short breaks at home
  • Individualised support packages.

Short breaks assessment and review team

The team is responsible for delivering the council's short breaks offer to children and young people with disabilities who do not meet the threshold for social care intervention.

The offer, which was co-produced with children, young people and families in 2018, aims to enable children and young people with disabilities to participate in positive activities, promoting independence as well as giving their parents and carers a break from caring. Requests to the service can be made using the online self-assessment. 

More information regarding short breaks including access to the online assessment and eligibility criteria can be found here Send Local Offer - Short Breaks

Children’s occupational therapy team

The team provides specialist assessment for disabled children and young people up to the age of 18, who reside in Nottinghamshire and have a permanent and substantial disability adversely affecting their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities within the home environment.

Occupational therapy aims to provide support and intervention to help children and young people with disabilities develop to their full potential, considering the stage of development the child/young person has reached. It can assist with overcoming practical problems and maximising a child/young person's independence in their own home, as well as supporting parents/carers to care for their disabled child/young person safely.

Following the assessment, a range of interventions may be offered. More information about these can be found here: Integrated Children’s Disability Service Occupational Therapy Team (ICDS OT)

Duty contact details for the occupational therapy team, telephone: 0115 8041273, email: childrenot.duty@nottscc.gov.uk

Physical disability specialist services (PDSS)

PDSS is responsible for providing specialist advisory support and guidance to schools, pre-schools and post-16 educational settings to support the inclusion of pupils with significant physical disabilities and complex medical/health needs to access their educational setting.

Education psychology services

Enable improvements in the attainment, emotional health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable children using psychology, education and child development.

What we offer:

  • support and advice for schools in understanding and supporting children with complex needs (core offer)
  • leading group problem-solving meetings to help people to navigate complex or ‘stuck’ situations e.g. Solution Circles, PATH (core and sold services)
  • training and development work in schools and organisations 
  • independent evaluation research (sold services).

For general enquires, call: 01159 772924 or email: eps.admin@nottscc.gov.uk

For training enquiries, please contact: epstraining@nottscc.gov.uk

Social, emotional mental health team (SEMH)

The team is made up of specialist teachers and teaching assistants who provide advice and support to parents, schools and to partnerships of primary schools. The service aims to reduce fixed term suspensions, permanent exclusions and secure and strengthen the school places of the primary aged children aged three to 11 years with the most severe and complex social, emotional and mental health needs.

Team contacts

North team

Bassetlaw

Newark Town

Mansfield and Sherwood district

North Ashfield

South team

Gedling

Rushcliffe

South Broxtowe

SHENK (Broxtowe and Ashfield)

Team manager 

For general enquiries please contact SEMH@nottscc.gov.uk

Partnership team

The team works across the county to provide advice and support to parents and carers, schools, partnerships of secondary schools working collaboratively with other agencies to reduce fixed term suspensions and permanent exclusions.

Contact

Health related education service

Supports children who are unable to attend school for health related reasons, including:

  • pregnant school age learners and school age mothers
  • learners in hospital receiving treatment
  • children who are too ill to attend school

Main office and general enquiries

  • Health related education service: telephone: 0115 977 3481

North

For the north of the county, contact Joanne Lee: telephone: 0115 804 3780, email: joanne.lee@nottscc.gov.uk

South

For the south of the county contact Mel Loyeau, telephone: 0115 977 4353, email: melina.loyeau@nottscc.gov.uk