School & Community Teams

The school and community teams offer support to education settings and families with a focus on inclusion, early help, and prevention.

The teams work across Norfolk in 15 zones (geographical locations) that cover the whole of the county.  Each zone has a manager and a team of Education and Family Workers. 

The teams were launched in September 2023 to support the ambition for all children and young people in Norfolk to Flourish. They have already engaged with schools in Norfolk through Core Consultations

In Norfolk, there are currently around 27,000 children and young people with SEND.  To make sure that knowledge and support is used as efficiently as possible, School and Community Teams have been formed to make best use of our resources and to help to share expertise across the county.  Each team works in one of fifteen zones, which have been designed as far as possible to create a balance of pupil numbers and education provision; each zone has an average of 11,500 children and young people, 26 schools and 40 Early Years settings and childminders.  School and Community teams have been formed to add capacity to the support offered to schools and families.

Teams work predominantly with children, young people and families that require early support, where a child or young person's inclusion needs are within level 3 of the Identification of Needs Descriptors in Educational Settings (INDES).  Teams will work flexibly with schools and early years providers and can support a number of complicating factors including: 

• Child's engagement in their learning.
• Familial factors impacting upon education & SEND (i.e. parenting, attendance etc)
• A trajectory for specialist provision or limited progress within SEN Support.

When considering the allocation of support teams will take into account other factors that may impact upon a child or young person's outcomes, such as risk of exclusion, escalation of need, and lack of confidence in a schools or settings capacity to meet need.

School & Community teams deliver their service in three ways:

Interventions

Once needs have been identified, the Teams provide direct evidence-informed interventions to support the needs of children, families and settings.  These interventions form part of the child's plan that will be in place.  Interventions are provided in groups to support cohorts of children with SEND support and for individual children where it is needed.  Some examples of interventions that can be provided:

• Emotional regulation groups
• Lego based therapy
• PEEP early home learning groups
• Transition support
• Mindfulness and Yoga for self-regulation
• Blanks Questioning
• SEND community cafe (facilitation)
• Triple P Family transitions groups for parents experiencing parental conflict.
• Solihull groups for parent/carers to support attachment needs of children.

Advice and guidance

To help children and families as soon as possible, we offer advice and support to education settings and families to address any issues being faced as early as possible and to prevent escalation of need within SEND support arrangements.  We take part in termly core-consultations with the Educational Psychology & Specialist Support Service.  All schools engaged in Core Consultations receive regular professional meetings, advising on systemic and whole-school matters, discussing individual pupils, and signposting to relevant services and provision.

Community and Place

Teams can support with services that are tailored to groups where there is a local need, for example transition or parenting support groups.

As we work closely with schools and settings some interventions including groups will be delivered within education provider's premises.  This can include bringing children and families together who attend different schools or settings as part of our community response to SEND.  Meeting children and their families at home is also used to support positive early engagement, where this is helpful.

You can find out which zone your school is in by using school finder and contact your local team at:  

School & Community Teams aim to identify where they can support schools through termly core consultations. Schools and early years providers can also complete an online request for support through the family hub..

The impact of school and community team support is gathered from feedback we get from children, parents/carers and their education providers on the difference that has been made. These are used to inform on-going service development. The difference made so far includes supporting children to successfully transition into and remain in school, enabling children to access their learning including improved attendance and attainment. We share examples of good practice with families and education providers where this is helpful. Examples of responses received by school and community teams so far  

"The new team that has been brought in has really helped us as a family and this is what families need especially SEN families" (Parent).

"Children talked about the session positively.  Positive comments from parents who have come away with practical resources. We've extended what we are doing in class and found some new skills to transfer into class" (Teacher)

  "Thank you to you and the team for working with 'T' and his mum over the summer holidays. 'T' had a wobbly first day but I spoke to mum this morning and she's delighted that 'T' has been coming into school over the past two days with a smile on his face, happy to see his teacher. He has settled into the environment very quickly."   (SENDCO)

"The family has been well supported and Jade has ensured consistency across home and school. The young person has a better understanding of their emotions and how to voice/manage them. Visual aids have been created and have been successful for the family & school as a whole" (SENDCO)

As the teams continue to engage and develop responses to SEND support, we are always keen to ensure we are hearing your voice as a school or early years provider and you can contribute through discussions with your local team or emailing us at: schoolandcommunity@norfolk.gov.uk