Local Offer- MSSS

Who we support:

All children and young people (CYP), and their families, who have a sensory impairment such that additional support and/or advice are required.  We support at home, in Nursery settings, maintained, academy and free school.

Age group:  Birth to leaving provision, i.e. 16 or 19 depending on provision.

What we offer:

* Advice and Information regarding learning and education

* Building capacity through training and support to families, settings and individuals and may include 1:1 with CYP depending on need

* Multi-agency working

* Independence development including habilitation skills and equipment use

* Hearing Technology support for effective use and maintenance of hearing equipment used by deaf of hearing impaired CYP

* Provision of, and traing, in the use of assistive technology for Visual Impaired CYP to access learning.

Our staff team:

Specialist Support Teachers of the Deaf and Visually impaired; Specialist Teaching Assistants; Family Support Workers; Qualified Mobility & Habilitation Officers; Hearing Technicians; IT Resource Officer; Data & Resource Officer; Service Support Manager; Speech and Language Therapist.

Partnerships:

We work in partnership with many other professionals including:

Schools and Nurseries; Audiology; Auditory Implant Team; Manchester Eye Hospital; Orthoptists; Community Paediatricians; Health Visitors; Educational Psychologists; Rodney House Outreach; Speech and Language Therapy; Vision Team; Childrens and Families Sensory Team; Universities of Manchester, Birmingham & Manchester Metropolitan University; Guide Dogs (Blind Children UK); Ear Foundation; Henshaws; National Deaf Children's Society; SENCE and more.

We do also seek advice from, or refer onto, specialist provision outside Manchester when required e.g. Thomasson Memorial School, Mary Hare, Seashell Trust, StVincent's.

Referrals to the Service: (All require parental permission)

* Referrals for hearing impaired and deaf children are received from Greater Manchester Audiology Clinics and through the New Born Hearing Screening programme only

* Referrals for sight impaired children come from Manchester Eye Hospital; Community Orthoptists; Schools; other professionals and families

Referral forms and pathways are in place to manage these processes and are available on request, see below.

Once a referral is received, the specialist staff assess the CYP in their setting to determine the level of support and what auxillary aids* may be required to access learning, using national based criteria and service policies. We recognise that needs change over time and at other points such as transition; the level of support will reflect this.

*These include radio systems, signed support, independance aids and assistive technology.

How to contact us:

Interim Head of Service: Tony Bowyer

Email: t.bowyer@lancasterian.manchester.sch.uk

Phone:  0161 445 1023  OR  07587968968

Admin Support: Richard Connolly

Email: r.connolly@lancasterian.manchester.sch.uk   

Phone:  0161 445 0123  OR  07739955639