Section 23 Early health notifications

Under Section 23 of the Children and Families Act 2014, health services have a duty to notify the appropriate local authority where they anticipate that a child under school age has or is likely to have a special educational need of disability (SEND) when they start school.

The appropriate local authority for an early health notification for for pre-school children living in the:

county is Nottinghamshire County Council
city is Nottingham City Council

How health services can make a notification

Before making a notification, health services should have a discussion with the child's parent or carer to make them aware first.

Health services can make an Early Health Notification for pre-school children living in Nottinghamshire county using this form.

What is the notification used for?

Once health services submit an early health notification form to the local authority, the information will be used in the following ways.

Early Childhood Services

It will be used by Early Childhood Services to inform parents of services, funding and provision that the family may wish to access.
It will be used by the Early Years Area SENCOs to target their support.

School admissions

Nearer the child's admission to statutory schooling, it will be used to prompt discussions about additional support the child may need to smooth their transition.

Specialist team support

For pre-school children living in the county with complex SEND, health colleagues may wish to request the involvement of teams within the county council's SEND Inclusion Service.

Making a referral

Referrals can me made to the following teams within the SEND inclusion service:

Home and pre-school team
Hearing and Vision Specialist Support team (for pre-school children who are d/Deaf* and/or visually impaired).

Please note this requires confirmation that the appropriate parent or carer consent has been obtained to make the referral.

*The term d/Deaf brings together everyone who has a hearing loss and how they may identify themselves. It distinguishes between deaf with a lower case d, which refers to people who have some degree of hearing loss and primarily use spoken language, and Deaf with a capital D, which refers to people who have a profound hearing loss and identify with Deaf culture and sign language.