Upsy Daisy Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 Hi, I am struggling to find a quotable source of information about Pre-school forum for my assignment on working collaboratively. What it its role - diagnostic, funding? Who is on the panel? Has anybody got any ideas? Please help me. I'm getting desperate!
Sue R Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 Hi Alison, I have to admit, you've got me! I have never heard of 'Preschool Forum' - what is it? Sorry if I'm being dense Sue
Upsy Daisy Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 I have to admit, you've got me! I have never heard of 'Preschool Forum' - what is it? Hi Sue, I had never heard of it until I started this module. I got a brief run down at college which was that it is a panel of professionals who meet to discuss children who are still having problems after being in Early Years Action Plus for a while. I think they can refer children for statutory assessment. I found a link to it on the Worcestershire Early Years website but it is "under construction" so not much help for an assignment which has to be in on the 20th. I wish I had made more notes in that tutorial! Alison
Upsy Daisy Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 Could very well be! Do you know about that?
Guest Wolfie Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 We've got an Early Years Forum in our authority that sounds the same; it is a multi-disciplinary panel that meets on a regular basis to discuss the needs of individual children with additional needs who have been referred/assessed/diagnosed and produce an action plan of how to meet those needs. The panel includes speech and languae therapists, physiotherpists, educational psychologists, an early years advisory teacher, specilaist health visitor and nursery nurse, etc. One contentious issue with our panel is that parents are not invited to the meetings!
Upsy Daisy Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 Thanks folks! I'm off to search for pre-school panel and early years forum. There hope for me yet.......
hali Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 well i would call the FSF a pre school forum - but what do i know
Upsy Daisy Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 and I'm sure it's a lot more fun to find out about!
Sue R Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 Don't forget to let us know how you get on - I like to have identified gaps in my knowledge filled in ASAP!! Sue
Upsy Daisy Posted April 6, 2009 Author Posted April 6, 2009 Well here goes..... As far as I can work out The Pre-school Forum/Early Years Forum/ Pre-school assessment panel is a panel of experts who assess children who are not making progress in Early Years Action Plus. They meet to discuss eight to ten individual children per session. Experts can be paediatricians, area sencos, speech and language therapists, ed psychs, special school heads, etc. They seem to made up differently depending on where they are in the country. The panel can provide extra funding, expertise, referrals to other services, and, in some areas at least, make decisions about whether a child should have a statutory assessment. I think the idea is to sort as many cases as possible without statutory assessments. That's the gist of what's in my assignment. Let's hope I've got it right!
Guest Wolfie Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 Well here goes..... As far as I can work out The Pre-school Forum/Early Years Forum/ Pre-school assessment panel is a panel of experts who assess children who are not making progress in Early Years Action Plus. They meet to discuss eight to ten individual children per session. Experts can be paediatricians, area sencos, speech and language therapists, ed psychs, special school heads, etc. They seem to made up differently depending on where they are in the country. The panel can provide extra funding, expertise, referrals to other services, and, in some areas at least, make decisions about whether a child should have a statutory assessment. I think the idea is to sort as many cases as possible without statutory assessments. That's the gist of what's in my assignment. Let's hope I've got it right! Yes, that sounds like ours! What do you think about the fact that parents aren't invited to be involved in decisions about their child?
Upsy Daisy Posted April 9, 2009 Author Posted April 9, 2009 What do you think about the fact that parents aren't invited to be involved in decisions about their child? Considering that everyone in the Early Years seems to be focussing far more on collaboration with parents these days it seems a shame that they aren't included in such an important process. Parents do have a right to request a stautory assessment but the LEA can refuse to consider the request if they feel it is justified - I guess this is the panel that makes this decision in some areas at least. The parent partnership services are there to support the parent's through the process so maybe they help to make sure that parent's point of view is represented. Is that being too idealistic? Having never experienced the system as a parent I'm not really sure how much they are consulted in reality. I only know what is supposed to happen. What do others think? Does anyone feel able to comment from the parent's point of view?
Recommended Posts