The Ealing Sensory Impairment Service provides support for Children and Young People age 0 -18 years who live in Ealing and have a diagnosed hearing impairment, visual impairment or dual sensory loss. The Advisory Teachers hold specialist qualifications in teaching and supporting children and young people of all ages in the home, pre-school, school, or college setting.
The Sensory Service is part of ESCAN (Ealing Services for Children with Additional Needs) and has strong links with the Speech and Language specialists who also work with hearing impaired children and young people, audiologists, hearing and eye clinics in the local area, and the specialist hospitals such as Great Ormond Street.
There is support for children and young people who need training in independent mobility and daily living skills from a Mobility and Rehabilitation officer who is contracted by the service to provide long cane and other training, with particular emphasis on independent travel to and from education settings.
The Advisory Teachers provide support to individual children and young people based on an assessment of their needs. Referrals are made to the service from the medical professionals who diagnose hearing or visual impairments at the hospital clinics. Parents' permission is always sought before the referral is made. We participate in the new born hearing screening by taking referrals of babies who have failed the screening and making contact with families as soon as possible.
Advisory Teachers will support schools and settings to make the appropriate adaptations and reasonable adjustments to include the child or young person in the school and provide full access to the National Curriculum. They also provide expert advice to the Local Authority for the decision making process when a request for an assessment for an EHC plan is made, and provide advice to be included in the final plan.
There are two Additionally Resourced Centres for hearing impairment in Ealing, one for primary age at Gifford Primary School and one for High School at Dormer's Wells. There are no ARPs for Visual Impairment but we aim to provide support in local schools where possible, including for those who use braille as their primary means of accessing the curriculum.
A new scheme is being developed with local opticians to offer free screening to all pre-school children prior to starting school and parents will be receiving a letter from the Community Nursing service about this.
