Introduction

Specialist Teacher Support - A tiered approach to supporting children and young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND)

The Integrated SEND Service is part of Buckinghamshire County Council’s local offer for children and young people with SEND. The service consists of a range of specialists including Specialist Teachers, Educational Psychologists, and Education, Health and Care who carry out statutory services for education, health and care needs assessments, planning, and monitoring.

The service is organised across the county in area hubs, which are located in Aylesbury, Wycombe and Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire. The Sensory, Physical, and Down syndrome teams are countywide teams that work across the hubs.

The Integrated SEND Service works in partnership with schools, settings, and post 16 providers to promote inclusion, achievement, and participation, towards securing better outcomes for children and young people with SEND across Buckinghamshire.

This is done through enabling the development of skills for staff in schools and settings, typically around an individual child or young person. There is a focus on promoting an understanding of learning, development, and emotional wellbeing for all.

The Integrated SEND Service works with individual schools (both maintained and non-maintained), clusters, alliances, and multi-academy trusts, within Buckinghamshire. Wherever appropriate, involvement is carried out in partnership with other agencies across health and social care.

The purpose of the service is to support and facilitate effective SEND provision, ensuring that children and young people are enabled to reach their full potential and secure positive outcomes for now and for their futures.

The Integrated SEND Service supports this vision with the aims of:
• Schools/settings being supported to more ably meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
• Schools/settings increasing in confidence so that children and young people with SEND are included and can achieve to their highest potential.
• Parents/carers gaining a better understanding of the needs of their child and will have confidence that their needs are being met within schools/settings. Schools/settings building their own expertise through wider workforce development leading to a highly-skilled system of support

Specialist Teachers within the Integrated SEND Service have specialisms in areas of need, including:
• Autism
• Language
• Cognition and Learning

The Sensory, Physical, and Down syndrome teams, are part of the Integrated SEND service but are organised on a countywide structure. The following specialists who are part of that include:
• Vision Impairment
• Hearing Support
• Physical Disability
• Multi-sensory Impairment
• Down syndrome