Availability

Referral Details

This is a service for families, schools and settings.

In the early years you can contact the team directly. Once your child has started school then we would advise you to contact the team via your child’s school.

When your child is diagnosed with a hearing impairment you should receive details of the hearing impairment team from the paediatric audiology department. At the same time the audiology department alerts the team to contact you and this should happen within 48 hours.

A representative from your child’s school or early years setting, usually the Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO), will request involvement from the hearing impairment team when they require additional support to meet your child’s needs.

Involvement from the hearing impairment team may be:

• part of a graduated response in school to your child’s needs
• an outcome from an annual review of your child’s provision

Other notes

The hearing impairment team is available to support families within Blackburn with Darwen.

It also supports schools, settings and the local authority meet the duties placed upon them by Government  legislation for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

The team currently works across the age range 0-25 years.

How we communicate with service users and how they are involved in decision making and planning

In the Early Years

The team will contact you, or you can contact us once your child has a diagnosis. We shall then arrange to meet you and provide regular visits to make sure your child is developing good communication skills. These visits will provide you with an opportunity to discuss concerns and plan learning opportunities for your child.  The Toddler Group will also give you the opportunity to meet with other families, helping you to share ideas and feed these back to the team.

TO ALL PARENTS/CARERS OF

HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN

BIRTH – 4 YEARS

YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND OUR

EARLY YEARS GROUP

 

SHADSWORTH CHILDREN’S CENTRE

EVERY MONTH ON A TUESDAY

10AM – 11.30AM

EARLY YEARS SIBLINGS WELCOME

SCHEDULE AVAILABLE ONLINE

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION TELEPHONE

NICOLA STEELE ON 01254 666912

E MAIL – nicola.steele@blackburn.gov.uk

 

At School

Primary School Provision for HI Young People

Lower Darwen Primary School has both infant and junior resourced provisions for pupils with a hearing impairment. Pupils receive daily teaching and oversight by qualified Teachers of the Deaf for English and maths. Pupils receive shared support in their mainstream classes for some other subjects. A NHS Speech and Language Therapist delivers Speech and Language sessions in school on a weekly basis, where required.

Secondary School Provision For HI Young People

St Wilfrid’s is an Academy that is specially resourced to support children with a hearing impairment. Ms Wong, a qualified and experienced Teacher of the Deaf, manages this area of support. Pupils are further supported by a specialist HI LSA. Both members of staff are available on a daily basis in school. Additionally, all school staff are trained to be ‘deaf-aware’ and are familiar with specialist equipment. 

Pupils are assessed on their level of need on entering the Academy and supported accordingly.

General information

Schools/settings are able to contact the service by telephone or email if they have a concern about meeting the needs of your child.

A member of the team will then make an appointment to visit the school/setting to discuss these concerns and arrange a plan of action to address them.

Schools/settings are given written strategies and a record of involvement for work undertaken.

Schools/settings are asked for verbal and written feedback on an ongoing basis and a formal evaluation of the service is requested annually. At this point schools/settings are asked to comment on their satisfaction with the service; how it has met their needs; how it has met the child/young person’s needs and if the service can be improved.

Funding

The team is funded as part of monies identified for children and young people with High Needs and is free to families, schools/settings within Blackburn with Darwen Borough for assessment, advice and training. However, schools will be asked to pay for direct teaching. Independent schools/settings will be charged for this service.