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Worcestershire approach
Worcestershire's Vision: To provide speech, language and communication need support for children and young people, as needed, at an appropriate level, as early as possible, to maximise ability to achieve thus improving life chances.
In 2010 Worcestershire adopted The Balanced System™ framework as it offers a practical solution to meeting the needs of children and young people with SLCN. The framework provides a suite of tools to support the development of a whole system approach. The Balanced System's specification for effective support runs through all aspects of this Pathway.
The Worcestershire County Council Policy on Education Inclusion aims to define the values and principles that will drive practice for children with a learning difficulty and/or disability. Having a clear vision and shared understanding of the outcomes for all children is vital to success and the Pathway supports the Inclusion Policy's vision where "everything possible is done to minimise barriers to children and young peoples' learning at the earliest opportunity." (Worcestershire County Council Policy on Education Inclusion, March 2010). The Pathway is based on good practice, schools and settings should be familiar with much of what is suggested.
For more information about the 2010/11 SLCN Reviews, please refer to the following documents:
Needs Assessment and Service Mapping Executive Summary [pdf] 495KB
SLCN Review Needs Assessment and Service Mapping Report October 2010 [pdf] 1MB
Service_Redesign paper [pdf] 469KB
Useful links:
Visit The Balanced System™ website for more information about the framework, tools available for commissioners, providers and schools and support available from Marie Gascoigne.
Worcestershire’s Local Offer provides information about local services and support for children and young people with SEND.
“In Worcestershire we want to ensure that every child has every opportunity to develop and achieve in a fun, safe and stimulating environment. The development of effective communication skills is one of the key priorities to help us succeed in this. Children who have good communication skills have improved life chances and choices which enable them to lead fulfilling life-styles throughout their childhood and into adulthood.”