School & Community Teams

The SCTs are focused on providing support to children who have been identified by a professional as having emerging needs. These needs may not currently necessitate an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), but without support, they could potentially escalate to the point of requiring one. The SCTs can provide support for needs relating to social, emotional and mental health, cognition and learning, physical and sensory, and communication and interaction.

The SCTs offer support to education settings and families with a focus on inclusion, early help, and prevention. The teams provide interventions, including group-based and individual support packages for children and their parent/carers, alongside early years settings and schools.  Early years providers and schools can complete an online request for support through Family Hub and learn more about the Family Hub approach.

School & Community teams deliver their service in three ways:

Interventions

Once needs have been identified, the Teams provide direct evidence-informed interventions to support the needs of children, families and settings.  These interventions form part of the child's plan that will be in place.  Interventions are provided in groups to support cohorts of children with SEND support and for individual children where it is needed.  Some examples of interventions that can be provided:

• Emotional regulation groups
• Lego based therapy
• PEEP early home learning groups
• Transition support
• Mindfulness and Yoga for self-regulation
• Blanks Questioning
• SEND community cafe (facilitation)
• Triple P Family transitions groups for parents experiencing parental conflict.
• Solihull groups for parent/carers to support attachment needs of children.

Advice and guidance

To help children and families as soon as possible, we offer advice and support to education settings and families to address any issues being faced as early as possible and to prevent escalation of need within SEND support arrangements.  We take part in termly core-consultations with the Educational Psychology & Specialist Support Service.  All schools engaged in Core Consultations receive regular professional meetings, advising on systemic and whole-school matters, discussing individual pupils, and signposting to relevant services and provision.

Community and Place

Teams can support with services that are tailored to groups where there is a local need, for example transition or parenting support groups.

As we work closely with schools and settings some interventions including groups will be delivered within education provider's premises.  This can include bringing children and families together who attend different schools or settings as part of our community response to SEND.  Meeting children and their families at home is also used to support positive early engagement, where this is helpful.