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Support and Signposting for Families

What free services are provided to support families of children with SEND up to the age of five?

Portage home visiting service for families

BEY Portage and Inclusion Team

We offer a home visiting educational and support service called portage for children from birth to five years old with SEND.

We provide:

  • home visits for families either weekly, fortnightly or monthly, depending on the child’s needs
  • help for families to coordinate their child’s care and learning
  • a weekly drop in group called Rainbows for parent and carers with a child who has special educational needs and disabilities


Portage supports your child through play by:

  • helping you and your child learn and play together
  • providing targets that support your child to develop
  • providing ideas for play and teaching activities
  • supporting you in developing your knowledge about special educational needs
  • helping your child get ready for moving onto the next stage of their education, such as starting nursery


Portage accepts referrals for children:

  • Who live in Bristol
  • Have two areas of need
  • Are not accessing their free early years entitlement


How to refer to Portage

We accept referrals from:

  • parents
  • professionals


Fill in the Early Years Portage and Inclusion Team Referral Form (word doc) . To return the application to us you must follow our secure email guidance. Email completed applications to earlyyears.sensupport@bristol.gov.uk .

Contact

If you have any queries about the Early Years Portage and Inclusion Service you can email earlyyears.sensupport@bristol.gov.uk 

Rainbows stay and play group for families

BEY Portage and Inclusion Team

Rainbows is stay and play group that celebrates strengths, interests and differences.

The group is for pre-school children who have additional needs, who are neurodivergent and/or disabled, and their families.  

It provides: 

  • an opportunity for parents to meet
  • a space for children to socialise and explore a variety of resources
  • time to have fun, play and learn

 

The groups run most weeks at 3 locations across the city from 9.30am to 11.30am and are free to attend with no requirement to book:

  • Tuesdays
    Avonmouth Children’s Centre, BS11 9LG

  • Wednesdays
    Oldbury Court Children Centre, BS16 2QS

  • Thursdays
    Hartcliffe Children’s Centre, BS13 0JW

Murmuration Community Therapy

Murmuration sets up nurture groups, which are small groups for 6 to 8 SEND parents nurturing connection and belonging, starting with an 8 week mental wellness course. Murmuration supports each group to continue as they wish, being there for each other as friends, connecting as families or continuing to meet as a group.

Your child could be at pre-diagnosis stage or you could be years into the journey. All are welcome, whatever the disability or neurodivergence. 

New groups start regularly throughout the year, sometimes with specific parent groups. Get in touch to learn more and join the waiting list for the next start dates:

Bristol Parent Carers

A participation group for families with children and young people with disabilities and special needs to help influence how services are run.

Who are Bristol Parent Carers?

We are a non-profit organisation based in Bristol, consisting of volunteer parent carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). As a pan-disability charity, we provide information and support to all families, regardless of their child’s type of need or diagnosis status.

We work with local SEND services to ensure that the support and services they offer suits the needs of families. By working together we can help ensure families, children and young people get the right support, at the right time, and in the right way. We aim to empower families by keeping them informed of the full range of local support options available to them, so they can access the resources they need.

As parent carers ourselves, we understand the importance of having a voice. That’s why we’re dedicated to listening to families and ensuring their thoughts and experiences are taken into consideration. By sharing your experiences with us, you have the opportunity to help shape services that truly meet the needs of families just like yours.

Find out more here: Bristol Parent Carers

National Autistic Society (NAS) EarlyBird Programme for 2 to 5 year olds

The NAS Early Bird Programme is a 3 month course for parents and carers of children between 2 and 5 years old who are:

  • autistic
  • waiting for an autism assessment
  • neurodivergent with social communication and interaction and sensory needs

The NAS EarlyBird programme works with parents and carers to help you:

  • understand your child’s autism, social communication and interaction and sensory needs
  • develop your child’s communication and interaction skills
  • use and apply practical strategies to manage your child’s behaviour

Parents and carers need to commit to:

  • a weekly 2.5 hour training session for 8 weeks
  • an individual session

There’s space for up to 8 families on each course. Two places for parents and carers are allocated to each family. We encourage both parents to attend where possible.

Each family will get an EarlyBird Programme book.

Early Support Practitioner (SEND)

We support parents who have a young child (0-5, not yet in school) who has any type of additional need or disability. We run groups for SEND children and parents to attend, and we offer short-term, one-to-one support to parents who are referred into our service and meet our criteria, by visiting the home.

Our main role is to empower parents by providing them with support and information to meet their individual needs.

We offer:

  • Emotional and practical support for parents and carers.
  • Coordination of services to families when many different agencies are involved to ensure a joined-up, holistic service.
  • Providing information for families and improved exchange of information between practitioners.
  • Support to the child and their parent/carer to access therapy and support groups.

You can make a referral into our team to request more support for a family via single point of entry form. Please ensure you have read our referral criteria, and make sure you include as much information as possible regarding the type of support that is being requested. If accepted, we will arrange a triage visit to determine the level of support we can offer depending on the outcome of our initial assessment.

Contacts

Deborah Amphlett – (General Enquiries)

deborah.amphlett@bristol.gov.uk

Dawn Butler – (General Enquiries)

dawn.butler@bristol.gov.uk

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