Somerset Hearing Support Team –Local Offer
Name of Service
Somerset Hearing Support Team
Team Leaders /contact
person
Jacqui Gardiner & Janice Bramhall
Contact details
Address
Tel:- 01823 334475
Holway Centre
Email:-
Byron Road
Jgardiner1@somerset.gov.uk
Taunton TA1 2JD
jbramhall@somerset.gov.uk
Where is the team located & what areas does it cover?
The Advisory team are located in 4 area bases across Somerset
Holway Centre
Chandos House
Morley House
Mendip
Byron Road
6 Castle Street
26, West Hendford
Taunton
Bridgwater
TA1 2JD
TA6 3DB
Yeovil
PO Box 5176
01823 334475
01278 446445
BA20 1XE
Shepton Mallett
01935 463888
BA4 9DD
Learning & Achievement
Somerset County Council
01749 822800
Who does your service provide for?
The Hearing Support Team provides support for any child who lives in Somerset and has a confirmed diagnosis of a hearing loss.
If your family live in Somerset but your child attends an independent school or a school outside of the County you cannot access regular
support from the hearing support team .The exceptions to this are :
If your child is in a Independent school and has a statement of SEN or an EHC plan for hearing loss continued support may be
made to your child for the specialist support that the school cannot offer.
How can I start using the service?
Parents/Carers can use this service once a confirmed diagnosis of hearing loss from a Health Service Audiology/ENT department has
been received by the Hearing Support Team.
Schools can refer to the Hearing Support Team using the Schools referral form located on Somerset County Council website
What does your service do?
The hearing support team provide support to children and young people with a diagnosed hearing loss, their parents/carers and families
from birth to 25.
We visit pupils in their homes, pre-school settings and schools.
We provide information to parents about hearing aid management and the effects of hearing loss on language development and access
to learning
We work closely with audiologists, ENT consultants, cochlear implant teams, educational psychologists and speech and language
therapists and voluntary agencies such as NDCS
Learning and access to the curriculum
We provide direct support/training for school/nursery staff in order to be sure the needs of your child are planned for in all settings.
We provide advice to teachers, teaching assistants and SENCOs about meeting the needs of hearing impaired children.
We provide direct teaching sessions for some pupils.
We plan together with school/nursery to meet your child’s needs through a Focused Intervention plans (FIPS) which set objectives
to monitor and evaluate your child’s progress on a regular basis.
Support your child with transition from primary school to secondary school & secondary school to Further Education establishments
Input from the Hearing Support Team will vary depending on the need of your child at the time.
Social networking days for children and parents e.g. music mornings for pre-school children and their families and networking days
such as ‘the Hearing Support Team Bake Off’ for teenagers.
Regular assessment to identify needs and monitor progress of communication and language development
Transition
The Hearing Support Team together with school staff can support your child during the ‘transition’ through the phases of education
eg from pre school into school, from Primary school to Secondary school and from Secondary school to 16+ education by
organising additional transition visits and /or meetings. We can also provide information about a child’s needs for staff in new
settings
Audiological Equipment
The Hearing Support Team will provide on a loan basis assistive devices such as FM systems (Radio Aids) and soundfield systems
if it is felt that through assessment your child would benefit from this equipment.
Children have regular access to an Educational Audiologist.
We provide support for schools/pre-school settings in the use and maintenance of personal hearing aids and Cochlear Implants.
Support for families
The newborn hearing screening programme (www.hearing.screening.nhs.uk) means that the Hearing Support Team are contacted
as soon as a hearing loss has been confirmed at the Audiology department of the local hospitals.
What is our approach to teaching children and young people with special educational needs?
Our focus is on developing language in a communication method chosen by parents/ carers .
This could be spoken language, British Sign Language or Total Communication
We will work with parents/staff in settings and any other agencies involved to produce or contribute to the drawing up of an Individual
learning and development plan (where appropriate) to help identify specific learning and development objectives related to their hearing
impairment.
How do we consult with parents and/or children and young people about their needs?
With pre-school children we work in partnership with parents in the home setting.
We liaise with other agencies who may be involved.
Pupils in school are asked their views of the support they receive and whether they feel it is meeting their needs through questionnaires
and face to face dialogue
Reports are written for all children and young people known to us.
Visit reports are circulated to school/settings and parents following each visit.
What additional support is available for children and young people?
If additional support is needed we work in partnership with parents/carers to make referrals to specialist speech and language therapy
services http://www.sompar.nhs.uk/our_services/childrenandyoungpeople/integrated_therapy_service
Child and mental health services www.swlstg-tr.nhs.uk/nds/child-and-family-service
Health services
Social care for provision of auxiliary aids http://www.somerset.gov.uk/organisation/departments/adult-social-care/
We signpost to local and national National Deaf Children’s Society Groups (NDCS) www.ndcs.org.uk,
DELTA Deaf Education through Listening and Talking and other voluntary agencies who can provide support to children, young people
and their families. .
How do we evaluate the effectiveness of our support
The Hearing Support team use a variety of ways to evaluate how effective our support is for your child.
-
These include:Parent/school questionnaires
Pupil questionnaires re learning environment, assistive devices & social/emotional development
Through evaluation of focused intervention plans
Evaluation against the Quality Standards for Outreach Services www.batod.org.uk/content/resources/guidelines
Language assessments – collation and analysis to provide targets & plan specific areas of work for your child
Annual reviews- collect views of parents/carers, families, children and young people and achievements
Evaluating transition plan
Evaluation of Local Newborn Screen
Training evaluations
RAISE online analysis
A member of the Hearing support team is available throughout the year to make contact where hearing loss has been identified.
How are decisions made about the support offered to you and your child?
The Hearing Support Team use the eligibility criteria developed by NATSIP www.natsip.org.uk(National Sensory Impairment Partnership)
to determine the level of support for you and your child. Depending on assessed need involvement of the team can range from weekly
contact to an annual visit to home or school. Following a review and full public consultation in 2013-15, specialist resourced provision in
Somerset was ceased and individualised provision is now taken to the child/young person in local schools in line with the
recommendations from the review. The review benefitted from the full involvement of parent carers and young people representatives in
the options development and decision making processes.
How do you communicate with service users and how are they involved in decision making planning?
Hearing Support team use a variety of ways to communicate with service users such as a termly newsletter for families and professionalsmost recent edition can be found on website with a link to the Local Offer.
Chidrens Hearing Services Working Groups(CHSWG) are multi agency groups which are based in Health Authority areas and ensure that
all services designed to support hearing impaired children and their families work in a co-coordinated way.There is parent representation
on each of the CHSWGS and parents were consulted on the Somerset Local Offer at CHSWG. .
Questionnaires – opinions of families/carers and children and young people are sought through the use of questionnaires on a regular
basis.
Working parties to review the work of the Hearing Support team have included multi professional membership as well as parents/carers.
Parents are actively involved in the recruitment of new staff appointed to the Hearing Support Team
What training are the staff supporting children and young people with SEND had or are having?
All teachers are qualified Teachers of the Deaf .
Two members of staff have completed PG Dip Ed. Studies (Educational Audiology) and qualified as Educational Audiologists
One member of team has completed PG Dip Ed.Studies (Early Years & Deafness)
One member of staff has achieved Level 3 BSL & one support team member working towards this qualification
All Hearing Support Service support staff achieved a Level 3 qualification under the APT training or are working towards.
All staff receive regular disability awareness training.
Continuing professional development needs for staff are identified through the annual performance management process..
The Hearing Support team led by the Educational Audiologist work closely with the three local Acute Health trusts which are based in
Bath, Yeovil & Taunton
The Hearing Support Team can provide whole school training to raise the awareness of the impact of a hearing loss in order to ensure
that all staff in the school have an understanding of the strategies appropriate for a learner with a hearing loss.
Hearing Support team can also provide targeted training for those staff directly involved with supporting your child
Hearing Support Team provide a more in depth Level 3 APT accredited course for Teaching Assistants who are supporting your child.
How do I make positive comments or complain ?
If you need to raise any concerns or wish to comment about anything related to the service you receive for your child from the Hearing
Support Team then please contact:-
Learning, Sensory, Physical Strategy Manager
Learning and Achievement
Somerset County Council
01823 355324
How can I get more information?
Contact us directly via phone or e mail
Via Somerset County Council website www.somerset.gov.uk