0-5 Years

‘EARLY YEARS’ generally describes the period from when a child is born until they start attending full time education. In Sunderland there are a range of organisations and services specifically for children of this age and their families. Some of the services are for all young children, while some are specifically for children who are disabled.

Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership
Sunderland's Partnership was set up in 1998 to plan the development of early learning and new childcare services to meet the needs of children, parents and carers in and around the City of Sunderland. The Government has set national targets for early education and childcare, which are:

• To offer good quality, free early learning places for all four year olds whose parents want one
• To be able to offer all three year olds a place by 2004
• To achieve good quality, affordable childcare for children aged 0-14 in every neighbourhood .

The Partnership plans the development of services to meet these targets in a way that is best for Sunderland. Part of the work of the Partnership is to give families information about tax credits for working parents, to produce a newsletter for families and professionals, to provide training for early education providers, and to run a Parents Consultation Group.

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The Partnership also provides a Children’s Information Service which aims to make the process of finding childcare in Sunderland easier.

Children’s Information Service (CIS)
The Children’s Information Service is a service for parents, carers, children and employers in Sunderland, Washington, Houghton-le-Spring and Hetton-le-Hole. Their aim is to make the process of finding childcare easier, and to provide other information including opportunities for children to participate in education, leisure and sporting activities. They will search a database for information that meets a person’s needs and will provide details by phone or post. They have a database of nursery education providers in the city including nursery schools, nursery classes, private nurseries and playgroups. They also have a series of leaflets about choosing childcare, what to look for and questions to ask. They can also help those who are looking to set up their own childcare facility, or looking for a training course in childcare. This is a free service to all.

To learn more about the CIS click HERE. (83k PDF), To view a guide to childcare in Sunderland click HERE.(154k PDF)

CIS can be contacted by telephone Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, on 0191 553 5678, or by e-mail at ciss@sunderland.gov.uk, or you can visit the website (www.childcarelink.gov.uk/sunderland) and search for childcare yourself.

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Sure Start is a Government funded Project which works with parents-to-be, parents and carers, and young children to ensure that all children get a good start in life. Some of the services that can be delivered through Sure Start Programmes include:

FAMILY SUPPORT, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING, PLAY, LEARNING & CHILDCARE such as:

• Library Services
• Talk-Talk, Toddler & Listening Bags
• Toddler Support
• Soft Play
• Neighbourhood Nurseries
• Health Support
• Support for vulnerable children
• Support to access specialised services for children with disabilities and special needs

Families can access Sure Start services directly, by contacting their local Sure Start or dropping in to their local Sure Start centre. Professionals can also make referrals by contacting the relevant Sure Start Team.

Contact Details of 6 Sure Start Programmes:

Sure Start Sunderland – Thorney Close
Thorney Close Action and Enterprise Centre
120 Thorndale Road, Sunderland, Tel: (0191) 553 4127 Fax: (0191) 553 4128
Programme Manager: Tracy Hassan tracy.hassan@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk
(Covering :- Thorney Close, Grindon, Springwell, Plains Farm and Farringdon)

Sure Start North Washington
34 Elliott Terrace, Concord, Washington
Tel: (0191) 219 3995 Fax: (0191) 219 3996
Programme Manager: Rachel Putz, (Covering: Albany, Concord, Sulgrave & Usworth) rachel.putz@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk

Sure Start Greater Southwick
Austin House Family Centre, 22 Shakespeare Street, Southwick, SR5 2UX.

Tel (0191) 566 2650  Fax (0191) 566 2651

Programme Manager: Gillian Patterson gillian.patterson@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk
(Covering: Carley Hill, Hylton Red House (part of), Marley Potts, Monkwearmouth (Part of), Southwick, Witherwack

Sure Start Monument
7 Westbourne Terrace, Shiney Row, Houghton-le-Spring, DH4 7QU
Tel: (0191) 385 1800 Fax: (0191) 385 1801,

Programme Manager: Nikki Crowley nikki.crowley@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk
(Covering:- Fence Houses, Herrington Burn, Penshaw, Shiney Row)

Sure Start Ford
Old Felstead School, Fordfield Road, Ford Estate, Sunderland, SR4 ODA
0191) 565 8607 Fax: (0191) 565 8607
Programme Manager: Tracy Hassan tracy.hassan@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk
(Ford Estate - Upper Ford, Lower Ford, Pallion (part of))

Sure Start Hetton/Houghton
Hetton House, Park View, Hetton le Hole, DH5 9JH
Tel: (0191) 526 9200 Fax: (0191) 526 0073
Programme Manager: Nikki Crowley nikki.crowley@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk
(Covering: Easington Lane, All of Hetton and parts of Houghton South-East of A690)

Visit the national Sure Start website by clicking here www.surestart.gov.uk

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B2b+ Project
The B2b+ project (bump to baby+) is specifically for young mothers, young fathers and parents-to-be, and offers a range of support and advice services across the city. This includes a range of training and educational opportunities, health advice, support groups, one-to-one support, a toy library, safety equipment loan scheme, College courses and crèche facilities. All young parents under the age of 20 years can access the project. Professionals can also make a referral, and referral forms are available from the Project Manager at the address below.

                     

Young people at the B2b+ project have worked on a number of confidence and self-esteem building projects over the past 3 years with a wide range of artists. These have included DJs, writers, graphic designers, dancers and film makers. They have made 2 films, 2 CDs and produced a book of the poetry they have written. All of these are available on request from the Project.

B2b+ Project, The Place, Hendon Health Centre, Meaburn Terrace, Hendon, Sunderland, SR1 2LR.
Tel: 0191 553 2381, e-mail: alison.horrox@sunderland.gov.uk

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Toy Libraries
There are several toy libraries across the city, which families can join and borrow toys, books and other equipment for a small fee. Many also sell low cost arts and crafts materials and have events on for children through the week. For more information contact the toy library in your area:

Play and Learning Library, Sure Start Thorney Close, 120 Thorndale Road, Thorney Close, Sunderland, SR3 4JQ,

Tel: (0191) 553 4169, Fax: (0191) 553 4176

Toy Library, Sure Start North Washington, 34 Elliott Terrace, Concord, Washington
Tel: (0191) 219 3995
Fax: (0191) 219 3996

Toy Library, Sunderland City Under Fives Association (SCUFA), 45-46 Nile Street, Sunderland, SR1 1EY
Tel: (0191) 514 1471
Fax: (0191) 514 1471

Contact:

Play & Learning Library, Sure Start Thorney Close, 120 Thorndale Road, Thorney Close, Sunderland,

SR3 4JQ
Tel: 0191 553 4169, Fax: 0191 553 4176

Toy Library, Sunderland City Under Fives Association (SCUFA), 45-46 Nile Street, Sunderland, SR1 1EY
Tel: 0191 514 1471, Fax: 0191 514 1471
e-mail: underfives@msn.com

Office Hours: Monday to Thursday: 9am-4pm, Friday: 9am-3pm,

Toy Library opening hours: Monday to Friday: 10am-2pm.

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Portage
Portage is a home based service for pre-school children who have special educational needs, children with a sensory impairment, Down's Syndrome, profound multiple learning difficulties and complex developmental communication disorder. The service is jointly funded by Sunderland LEA and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership. Portage Workers assess the needs of children and work in partnership with their parents to build on their abilities and develop new skills. Portage Workers and parents discuss and agree on long term goals. The Portage Worker then outlines carefully structured tasks on a weekly activity sheet to enable parents to become effective teachers of their children.

Jennifer was Sunderland's first Portage child. Her Mam was asked to evaluate Portage and this is what she had to say:

“We are very pleased to be getting Portage. We are finding it very helpful and supportive. Jennifer is trying activities that we would not have thought to try with her. It is helpful to have a regular visitor to the house who knows Jennifer as well as the family. It’s good to be able to talk things over with someone who knows you and is interested in your well being and the family’s.”

Referrals are made by professionals through the Pre-School Panel. For more information contact: Teacher in Charge of Portage, Sunningdale School, Shaftoe Road, Sunderland, SR3 4HA. Tel: (0191) 553 5716, there is a national Portage website. Click here to visit their site

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Health Visiting
Health Visitors are experienced registered nurses who undergo advanced training in child and family health. Health Visitors work closely with your General Practitioner (GP) and other social and health care professionals. Their aim is to improve the health and well being of individuals and communities, by helping people to improve their own health. The service is available to everyone.To find out more about Health Visiting click here.

In Sunderland, in addition to health visitors who work closely with GPs, there are health visitors specialising in the following areas:

• Disabled children and those with special educational needs
• Asylum seekers and refugees
• Homeless people and women and children fleeing domestic violence.

Health Visitor for disabled children and those with special educational needs
Susan Mustoe is Health Visitor for disabled children and those with special educational needs, and she works with children from birth until they start school. This involves giving advice and information to members of the Primary Care Team (GP, family health visitor, nurse etc) to help them when working with the child and family. Also

• giving advice to families over the phone and sending information by post to them
• Offering advice to the family to promote the health and well being of the child, e.g. around play, toileting, sleep, etc
• Helping families understand the health, education and social care systems by providing information about access to nursery places, benefits, etc. Referrals are taken from members of the primary care team, and directly from families.

For more information contact:

Susan Mustoe, Pallion Health Centre, Hylton Road, Sunderland, SR4 7XF, Tel: 0191 565 6256 extn 45497 or 0191 556 2190

Health Visitor for asylum seekers and refugees
Mary Lax is Health Visitor for asylum seekers and refugees in Sunderland. This involves providing primary care services to refugee and asylum seeking families, liasing with other agencies and offering support. Her post is part of a larger team called Pegasi Practice: click here for more information dedicated to providing services and support to this group. Referrals can be made by professionals, and by individuals through patient registration with the practice. A multi lingual practice leaflet is available.

For more information contact:

Mary Lax, Pegasi Practice, Hendon Health Centre, Meaburn Terrace, Hendon, Sunderland, SR1 2LR
Tel: 0191 510 1865, Fax: 0191 514 1014.

Health Visitor for homeless people and women and children fleeing domestic violence
Elizabeth Weaver is Health Visitor for homeless people, and women and children fleeing domestic violence. She provides routine health visiting support specifically for this group, as well as running a drop-in for young homeless people, doing group work, health education and health promotion. Referrals can be made by professionals working with a family.

For more information contact:

Elizabeth Weaver, Pegasi Practice, Hendon Health Centre, Meaburn Terrace, Hendon, Sunderland, SR1 2LR, Tel: 0191 510 1865, Fax: 0191 514 1014.

Pre-school Special Needs Team (Pre-School Panel)
The Pre-School Special Needs Team meet every month at the Child Development Unit at the Children’s Centre on Durham Road in Sunderland. Families may be offered an appointment with the Team, to look at their pre-school child’s development and progress, to identify their needs and to plan for the future. The Team is made up of people from Health, Children's Services and Education who help in planning for a child’s future needs and it is lead by Dr. Saharia, Consultant Community Paediatrician. At the appointment parents will be able to discuss what they think their child’s needs are and everyone will talk about what needs to happen next. A referral can be made to the Team by a professional already working with your child, such as the family health visitor.

For more information contact:

Dr. Saharia’s secretary, Central Clinic, The Children’s Centre, Durham Road, Sunderland, SR3 4AF
Tel: 0191 5656256.

Child Development Unit (CDU)
The Child Development Unit is a centre where professionals from all agencies can work together around the assessment, diagnosis and management of pre-school children where there are concerns about the child’s development. There are a range of groups which children and/or their parents may attend:

• A group for children with communication difficulties
• The Cygnet group for children with complex disabilities and their parents
• The Motor group for children with physical and movement difficulties
• ‘More than Words’, ‘It Takes Two’ and the Earlybird Programme to support parents/carers in communicating with their children
• The Rainbow group for children with communication difficulties and their parents.

The Team at the CDU also:

• Link families with other agencies who can offer support
• Give advice to Education when children’s potential Special Educational Needs are assessed
• Carry out therapeutic assessment programmes.

The consultant based at the Child Development Unit is Dr Era Saharia Tel: (0191) 565 6256 (extension 45273) whose special interests include autistic spectrum disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders in the early years.

Referrals to the CDU come from Health Visitors, GPs, Paediatricians, Child & Family Mental Health Services and Therapists.

Information leaflets are available by contacting:

Marilyn Lay, Child Development Unit Coordinator, Child Development Unit, Children’s Centre, Durham Rd, Sunderland, SR3 4AF, Tel: (0191) 565 6256 (extension 45244)  

Children's Services Nursery Centres
Children's Services nursery centres provide day care for children aged 21 months to 4 years, and for younger children in exceptional circumstances. They also provide crèche care for children aged 0-4 to support parent activities, such as groups and courses in the nursery.

Nurseries also offer parent support activities and home visiting. Children's Services work closely with other agencies to meet the needs of children who need additional support or have particular needs or disabilities. They actively promote the inclusion of disabled children and children with additional needs in nursery.

Your health visitor or social worker can assess your child for a nursery place, and a referral can be made following this assessment. The referral is then submitted to an Allocation Panel and places are allocated based on greatest need.

For more information click here (234k pdf) or contact:

Elizabeth Clarke
Nurseries and Projects Manager
Tel: 0191 553 5635

Right From The Start
Since 1994 the Right From The Start working group has been working to improve the way parents are given the news that their child has additional needs. They have influenced the Government and the guidance given to professionals about the best ways of doing this. They have developed a range of resources to help professionals when they tell parents, and have introduced a training model to develop skills in this area. The group have also produced a Template which gives guidance on the best ways of telling families about their child’s additional needs, and a guide for parents about what they can expect to happen at this time.

To see the Template click here (1.3 meg pdf)
To see the parents' guide click here (412k pdf)
To visit the website click here www.rightfromthestart.org.uk

Early Support Programme (ESP)
The ESP is a government funded programme to support the development of effective, well co-ordinated multi-agency support services for disabled children under three and their families. The initiative is linked to two Government documents called ‘Together from the Start’ and ‘Developing Early Intervention/Support for Deaf Children and Their Families’. Part of the initiative has been to develop several ‘toolkits’. There is now a toolkit for professionals to use to help them in working well with families, and also a toolkit for families to use to help guide them through the maze of services they come into contact with. All this and more can be found on the ESP website. To visit it click here www.earlysupport.org.uk 

National Autism Plan
This is a plan for the identification, assessment, diagnosis and access to early interventions for pre-school and primary school aged children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. It is written by NIASA (National Initiative for Autism: Screening and Assessment.) To download the plan click here (2.5 mb pdf).

Sunderland for Autism “Autistic Spectrum Disorder – a Guide for Parents”

A booklet has been produced for parents of children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Parents will now be given this booklet at the point of diagnosis, with the aim of giving them a head start in understanding the diagnosis, and knowing what services are available to support them.
This booklet is available to download by clicking here

For more information contact Jan O’Neil (Educational Psychologist) on (0191) 553 5695.

Early Intervention

Mencap is leading a project to explore whether parents would welcome the setting up of a national centre for early intervention of children who are identified as having additional needs.  Visit their website by clicking here www.earlyintervention.org.uk to find out more and to give your views about the centre.

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