Sensory Support Service
The Service provides support to children and young people (CYP) from birth to 25, with hearing loss and/or vision impairment, their families and educational setting. This includes deaf CYP, CYP who are blind or vision impaired and those with multi-sensory impairment (both vision and hearing loss). The service does not provide support to CYP with other sensory needs which are not related to vision or hearing loss. The service is based in Bristol but is provided across Bristol, South Gloucester, BaNES and North Somerset.
The Service has a range of specialist staff including Qualified Teachers of Vision Impairment (QTVIs), Teachers of the Deaf (ToD) and Teachers of Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI), Educational Audiologist, Specialist Teaching Assistants and Sign Language Communication Advisors.
What do we do? Service specialists will provide support at home (babies and young children) and in educational settings including early years’ settings, mainstream and special schools and further education colleges, whether CYP have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) or not, but an EHCP is required to provide support for young people over 18 or if they attend independent schools. If CYP attend an independent school and do not have an EHCP, we would have to be commissioned by the school to provide support.
Specialist support provided includes assessment (statutory and non-statutory), advice and support, training, teaching of specialist skills from braille, language and communication skills, self-advocacy, technology, etc. We also run Early Years’ group for babies and young children who are deaf or have vision impairment. Some of these are supported by other organisations that work in collaboration with us. Do contact us to find out more.
We work in line with the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (find out more here) and the Specialist Deaf Curriculum Framework (find out more here). Both these frameworks recognise the needs of children/young people with vision/hearing loss not only to access the national curriculum but also the specialist skills that they need to develop to be able to learn and be independent. Check our website for more details.
Referrals: Anyone can refer to the service as long as there is medical information stating a vision and/or hearing loss. The service uses the National Sensory Impairment Partnership (NatSIP) eligibility framework (find out more here) and our own matrix (find out more here) to allocate levels of support.
Visit sensory support service website. This link takes you to a Bristol Website but is it relevant to anyone in South Gloucester, North Somerset and BaNES. If you live in these areas, please check it out.
Helpline (whole year round): sensorysupportservice@bristol.gov.uk
Other Information:
Glue Ear - A small number of young children with glue ear may be referred to the service for initial advice and guidance. If you are concerned about your child’s glue ear, we run some courses (find out more here) which you can attend and please visit the following website: glue ear – Ewing Foundation.
Brain related vision difficulties - We recognise that children and young people may have vision difficulties that do not meet our criteria of involvement but may benefit from useful strategies. We run courses on this subject 3 times per year for anyone interested in developing their understanding and practice in supporting these children (including parents). Find out more here.