The Educational Psychology Service provides leadership and management to the Specialist Early Years Support Team (SEYST), 0 to 5 years, through the Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist (Early Years). The Specialist Early Years Support Team includes:
- Early Support Coordinator
- City of York Portage
- Specialist Early Years Teachers (SEN)
- Early Years Educational Psychology – Specialist Senior EP (EY)
The Specialist Early Years Support Team collaborates closely with other services and professionals such as medical practitioners and therapists at the Child Development Centre (CDC) York hospital, and in the community, educational psychologists, the specialist teaching team (vision support, deaf and hearing support, physical and medical support and support for children with Autism), practitioners from Early Years Settings, Children’s Centres, the Early Years advisory and administrative teams and voluntary organisations.
Members of the service are also involved in national and regional organisations within early years and SEN, and are accredited trainers for the National Portage Association (NPA) and for Early Support.
View the criteria for requesting involvement of the SEYST and Educational Psychology Service.
After checking the criteria, download and submit a preschool request for SEYST involvement form.
Our aim is to provide a seamless service to children and families referred to us from the point of identification of the children’s difficulties/vulnerabilities, until the child starts school - or earlier if they are no longer experiencing difficulties or no longer require early intervention - or their needs are now being met by another professional group, nursery or special school placement.
We aim to achieve this across the different services and professionals in the SEYST by providing:
- practical and emotional support to families from the point of diagnosis/referral and to signpost them to various support services/organisations as appropriate
- key working functions (Early Support, 2012) for all the children and families we work with and for some families to act as their Early Support key worker
- early intervention through direct work with children and families through home visiting, for example Portage, and/or group interventions such as the weekly Child Development Centre (CDC) language groups conducted by our Specialist Early Years Teachers (SEN) working with Specialist Speech and Language Therapists
- ongoing monitoring and assessment linked to the (EYFS) and/or Early Support Developmental Journals
- advice (both verbal and written) to pre-school practitioners and parents/carers where the children attend pre-school/early years settings
- contributions to multi-agency review and planning meetings and to facilitate the child and family to be at the centre of this process. The range of meetings includes Early Support Family Service Planning meetings, Child and Family Centred Meetings (including transition to pre-school and/or to school) and, since 2014, My Support Plans and Education Health and Care Plans
- contributions to Statutory Assessments of special educational needs (SEN) or reviews as appropriate by providing advice/reports on the child’s needs and, in some instances, supporting parents to complete their contributions