Early Years SEND
Early Years SEND Team
Who we are
We are part of the Buckinghamshire Council’s Early Years Service. We are qualified teachers with specific experience of working with preschool children who have special educational needs (SEN) or a disability.
What we do
The Early Years Service has a role to provide information, advice, support, and training to Buckinghamshire settings, helping them to meet the needs of all children, including those with SEND. This support might include bespoke training, support for the Special Education Need Co-Ordinator (SENCO), modelling interactions with children and liaising with parents and professionals.
We work with Early Years settings to give general advice on how to include all children in the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. We will sometimes visit a specific child. In these circumstances, we will request a parental agreement before a visit. The SEND Advisors role does not involve formal assessments or observations of children, they work alongside setting practitioners to support them to include all children and to help children with SEN to make progress.
SEND Advice and Consultations
We are pleased to offer Early Years Settings SEND Consultations. These give practitioners the opportunity to seek advice from an EY SEND Advisor on SEND related queries. This may be a general conversation about SEND or a ‘no names’ conversation about specific children.
It will be important to have as much relevant information available as possible to get the best out of the consultation and therefore you may find the Telephone Consultation Information Sheet useful to gather information ready for your discussions and to record advice and actions given.
To request a telephone consultation please complete the form below. An Early Years SEND Advisor will then try to arrange a phone or Teams appointment at a mutually convenient time.
SEND queries whilst the consultations are closed these should be directed initially to your Key Contact, who will be able to advise or will liaise with SEND colleagues to support you.
SEND Information and Websites
Buckinghamshire - The SEND Integrated Service provides specialist Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support through locally-based teams across Buckinghamshire. Formerly the SEN Team.
Buckinghamshire Occupational Therapy Service
Buckinghamshire SEND Information, Advice & Support (SEND IAS) Service
Buckinghamshire Speech and Language Therapy Service
To find out what’s going on in your local area attend your local Early Years (EY) SENCO Liaison Group. Groups are free to attend and open to EY SENCOs in settings and schools with EYFS provision in Buckinghamshire.
The Local Offer sets out in one place, what help there is for children and young people with special educational needs or who have a disability in Bucks.