School & Community Teams
How do they help?
The School and Community Teams (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.
School and Community teams deliver their service in three ways, as outlined in the following sections.
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
The School and Community Teams engage with schools and settings through the Team around the School meetings alongside other specialist teams held each term. Schools and settings can also request advice, guidance and support by contacting the Norfolk SEND and Inclusion Support line on 0333 313 7165 at any point in the year.
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, including supporting with transition. Meeting children and their families at home is also used to support positive early engagement, where this is helpful.
