Sensory Provision Review

Published 6 June 2023

There is constantly work going on at Hertfordshire County Council, not just to deliver our services but to continuously improve on what we can offer. With this in mind, we reviewed if the services for D/deaf, vision impaired and multi-sensory impaired children and young people in Hertfordshire, are giving you everything you need.

This involved understanding how we can help the largest number of children and young people to reach their potential using the budget we have, and ensuring we can continue to do this in the future too, as more children need support.

What exactly did we review?

The review looked at the educational services and settings which provide to the children and young people with sensory impairment. We worked with a number of different services and professionals, including specialist teachers from the SEND SAS team, senior teachers from schools and specialist settings, and colleagues from the special school planning team. We also analysed statistical data such as referral numbers, caseloads, and children's attainment.

We also wanted to make sure we included feedback from the families whose children and young people use the SEND SAS service, so we:

• analysed the feedback from families who use our services through evaluation forms, the HPCI survey, and the annual SEND SAS parent/carer survey;
• spoke to families, with British Sign Language interpreters, at the Phoenix Family Day about their deaf childrens' educational journeys so far - from the point of identification and support from a SEND SAS Teacher of the Deaf, through pre-school to primary/secondary school and beyond;  
• spoke to families at a Goalball Event during the half term holiday, for parents of children with vision or multisensory impairment;
• ran an online accessible survey for deaf and/or visually impaired young people about the support they receive from the SEND Sensory Impairment advisory teams.

What did we learn?