Tameside Early Years Educational Support
What’s available in Tameside
We can think about the support we provide for children in Tameside through steps/waves of intervention and support – this is known as the graduated approach.
This approach includes: Universal Support (what we do for all children), Getting Advice (advice and signposting for classroom adjustments), Getting Help (SEN support interventions), Getting More Help (personalised interventions) and Getting Risk Support (managing risk).
Universal Support (what we do for all children)
The universal support level is provision that is accessed by all children and is available within their settings. All children may experience challenges with their learning at some point and for most children, these difficulties overcome with support from early years practitioners and parents/carers. However, children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) maybe likely to need additional or different help to be able to learn this is when we may think about getting advice from outside of the setting.
Getting Advice (advice and signposting for classroom adjustments)
There are a variety of services, training and information that may provide support for Early Years Settings.
General support strategies to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are found in the Tameside Early Years SEND Children Thrive document, available at: www.tameside.gov.uk/TamesideMBC/media/policy/Early-Years-(Tameside).pdf
Below is a list of services you may find beneficial depending on the child and their family’s strengths and needs.
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Support for Parents/Carers |
Support for General SEND |
Support for Specific Needs |
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OKE - A local Charity run by volunteers, who are local parents of children who have special needs. They provide support, information and activities to families with special needs children. |
Early Years Quality Improvement Team - They offer daily weekday SENCO surgeries offering support and guidance. They also run introduction to SEND course for EYFS settings aimed at all early years practitioners, as well as other SEND specific courses. |
Autism Education Hub (Oakdale Primary School) - They provide autism training courses for early years practitioners, including: Come and See sessions to observe best practice, an introduction to visuals and an introduction to Autism. They also offer parent/carer support groups weekly. |
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Early Help Neighbourhood Teams - They provide support and workshops for EY practitioners around identifying and supporting the needs of vulnerable families.
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Specialist Outreach Support Service - They have a consultation phone line (Monday / Wednesday / Thursday afternoons) that any early years setting can phone up to receive support around how to support children with SEND. |
Health Visiting Service - They work to keep children and their families healthy by providing advice and support to parents/carers, from the later stages of pregnancy until their child reaches school age. They offer support including and for:
Website: Health Visiting :: Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care (tamesideandglossopicft.nhs.uk)
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Early Years Practitioners may feel that despite receiving this advice and signposting that they still need additional support.
Getting Help (SEN support interventions)
This level of support is around more focus goal-based input from outside agencies.
Below is a list of services you may find beneficial depending on the child and their family’s strengths and needs.
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Support for Parents/Carers |
Support for General SEND |
Support for Specific Needs |
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Parenting Team - They offer online and face to face parenting courses, including ‘The Solihull Approach: Understanding your Child’ course (birth-5 years), which includes learning how to tune into your child’s developmental needs and understand their behaviour. They also offer one to one clinic called ‘ParentSpace’ twice a week. EY practitioners can refer to their service. |
Early Years SEND Inclusion Fund (SENDIF) - Funding to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) at early years settings who are eligible for 2, 3 and 4 year old free entailment funding (FEF). Four levels of funding can be accessed based on the child’s strengths and needs. Early years settings must complete the SENDIF checklist and the corresponding paperwork in order to access this funding. |
Early Years SEND Inclusion Fund (SENDIF) - Funding to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) at early years settings who are eligible for 2, 3 and 4 year old free entailment funding (FEF). Four levels of funding can be accessed based on the child’s strengths and needs. Early years settings must complete the SENDIF checklist and the corresponding paperwork in order to access this funding. |
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SEND IASS - They encourage and develop partnership between children, young people, parents/carers, schools, the local authority and all other partners who are involved in working to identify, assess and meet the Special Educational Needs of children and young people. |
Specialist Outreach Support Service - Once settings have accessed the consultation phone line (explained in the ‘Getting Advice’ section above) and have put the advice in place, they can request additional support if needed. Settings need to complete an online referral form (with parental/carer signature) and this service will provide direct support within the setting. |
Children with Disabilities Team (CWD) (Social Care/Early Help) - They provide the provision of homecare support, community short breaks, direct work with families, parenting support or aids and adaptations etc. This team includes Social Workers, Children with Disabilities (CWD) Intervention Worker, a Management Team, a Transition Social Worker, Community Occupational Therapists and a Behaviour Support Therapist. |
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Early Attachment Service - They work with parents, babies and children, from pregnancy until the child’s fifth birthday, to promote healthy attachment and bonding in their relationship. To access this service, a midwife or health visitor (or other health care professionals) will need to make a referral for a family. |
Educational Psychology Service - They provide training and workshops for EY practitioners (advertised through the EY Quality Team). They co-ordinate the Emotionally Friendly Settings pilot in Tameside and run workshops for parents and carers. They also conducted casework around children with SEND in order provide support for children, their families and their settings. This can be accessed through the EY SENDIF application process |
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Early Years Practitioners may feel that despite receiving this advice and signposting that they still need additional support.
Practitioners may feel that despite receiving more targeted support from outside agencies they still feel that they need additional support.
Getting More Help (personalised interventions)
This level of support is around more extensive and specialised goals-based help.
Below is a list of services and support that you may find beneficial depending on the child and their family’s strengths and needs.
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Support for Parents/Carers |
Support for General SEND |
Support for Specific Needs |
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Children's Social Work - registered social workers who offer support to children and families who are in need of social work support. |
Education Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment - An EHC plan brings your child’s education, health and social care needs into a single, legal document. This funding is available to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who need a more intensive level of specialist help that cannot be met from the resources available to the early years settings. A child does not have to be in receipt of SENDIF in order for settings to apply for an EHC needs assessment. Both early years settings and parents/carers can request an EHC needs assessment. |
Specialist Health Services - For more information on specialist health services for children in Tameside please go to |
Tameside Early Years Educational Support
MORE INFORMATION: For more information on support services and information for children and young people aged 0-25, with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) please see the Local Offer page: www.tameside.gov.uk/Education/Tameside-Local-Offer
FEEDBACK: If you would like to give any feedback on this page or if you feel that a service or information is missing please contact us on EPFeedback@Tameside.gov.uk