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The next Level 3 early Years Senco Award will start in Autumn 2026. If you would like a place please book via this link https://www.servicestoschools.org.uk/Event/299929

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CACHE Level 3 Early Years Senco Award 2026/27

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Newcastle City Council will be running the firth cohort of the CACHE Level 3 Early Years Senco Award from October 2026. The course aims to inspire Early Years Sencos from across the early years

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For more information about the Funding available from the North East Combined Authority for Launchpad for Literacy please contact Beth Dunn at beth.dunn@newcastle.gov.uk

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The Launchpad for Literacy Package provides materials and information to implement and embed the approach. This includes the following.

The A1 chart of the Launchpad for Literacy Skills Framework underpins the approach. Skill strands are broken down into systematic, incremental skill steps through which children need to progress in order to be ready for all aspects of literacy.

The Skills Handbooks cover theoretical and developmental information about each skill area, giving practical ideas and guidance for each skill step in order to implement and embed the approach.

The Customer Number and Password allows access to the log-in area of the website to access the Class Tracker, supporting documents and assessment information.

The Launchpad for Literacy Class Tracker enables skill progression to be tracked, supplying summative data across the skill strands, comparing progression between vulnerable groups. The process of closing the gaps, literacy readiness and speech and language support becomes measurable, also aiding the early identification of specific developmental needs.

Cost of Package: £295 (including P&P)

Training to support implementation of the Launchpad for Literacy Approach is available on request.
Please email kirstie.page@launchpadforliteracy.co.uk for more information.

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The Launchpad for Literacy Package provides materials and information to implement and embed the approach. This includes the following. The A1 chart of the Launchpad for Literacy Skills Framework underpins the approach. Skill strands are broken down into systematic, incremental skill steps through which children need to progress in order to be ready for all aspects of literacy.

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If you are submitting this form as part of the SEN ASAP Termly Review for Early Years Inclusion Funding, please submit it to eysendos@newcastle.gov.uk

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RECORD OF REVIEW MEETING blank proforma 2024

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The next Early Years Senco Network will be held via Teams on Wednesday 24th June at 9:30

For more information please email lianne.dixon@newcastle.gov.uk

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Early Years Rainbow Support Plan Guidance

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Early Years Rainbow Support Plan Guidance

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Early Years Descriptors of Need | Children and Families Newcastle

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SEND local offer | Children and Families Newcastle

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Early Years SEND Outreach Service | Children and Families Newcastle

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Supporting Sensory Processing in Early Years

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Supporting Sensory Processing in Early Years

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Supporting Sensory Processing in Early Years

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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You can translate this webpage, and all other pages / leaflets by clicking accessibility tools at the top of this page.

If you click the icon then you can select a language that is listed.

How can speech and language therapy help?

Our commitment is to help children and young people communicate to the best of their ability.

We aim to minimise any negative impact of speech, language or communication difficulties for children and young people and their family, as well as on their education and social lives.

Our geographical boundary is Newcastle and we also treat children and young people through regional services.

We can provide specialist support for:

Our team of highly trained speech and language therapists and dedicated support staff will ensure that children and young people receive the best possible healthcare and treatment, tailored to their individual needs.

We aim to provide children and young people centred, integrated support. We assess children and young people's needs and work closely with children and young people, parents/carers, and other specialists to develop an individual care plan which links seamlessly to the child's everyday activities, enabling them to continue their normal lives as much as possible.

There is an open referral system which means that anyone, including parents, can refer.
You can find our referral guidelines here
Gavin Stockman-Brown, office manager on 0191 282 3085

Useful websites
Newcastle support directory BBC - tiny happy people Speech and language UK Talking point Newcastle Hospitals - 0-19 service NHS start for life: Learning to talk (2 to 3 years)
Training for practitioners
The Speech, Language and Communication Framework (SLCF)

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Speech and language therapy for children and young people - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Our children's speech and language therapy team provide support and guidance to help children communicate to the best of their ability

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Authenticated Service > Login or Register

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The service that you are trying to access requires an account within the system. Please use the below buttons to login (if you already have an account) or to register a new one.

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Key words you can use while doing this activity:

What to do:

1. Put the car track between you and your child but keep hold of the cars. Smile and wait.

2. If your child points, looks at you or makes a sound/says a word say; 'car?'

3. Put the car on the top of the ramp and hold it still, saying 'ready, steady...' then pause...

4. Keep looking at your child and again wait for them to communicate (by pointing, looking, making a sound) before saying 'go!' and letting the car go.

5. As the car goes down say 'down, down, down' and once it's at the bottom; 'stopped'.

6. Wait for your child to request more (this could be pointing, looking, picking the car up, making a sound or saying a word), saying 'more?' and playing the game again.

7. You can take it in turns to put the car down saying 'your turn' or 'mummy's turn'.

8. When you have repeated the game a number of times and are ready to stop, say 'finished' and put the car track away.

Using just these basic words gives your child a good model of how words can be used. It also helps them hear the most important words and lets them hear them over and over in the same way.

By waiting for your child to communicate, you are showing them how to take turns in conversations and encouraging them to have a go.

This activity is good for:

Developing attention skills - by encouraging your child to wait for 'ready, steady ......... go!' before letting the car go.

Developing eye contact - your child will learn to look at your face as you talk and do the actions.

Learning new words - by letting your child hear the same simple words over and over again and showing them how they can be used.

Developing conversation skills - by waiting and giving them a chance to communicate, either by looking, pointing, making a sound or saying a word.

Taking turns - by letting your child have a go at putting a car down the track. You can also say whose turn it is e.g. 'your turn', 'mummy's turn', 'daddy's turn' etc.

Download this language and play plan - car track (25.90kB ODT)

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Language and play plan: Car track - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Key words you can use while doing this activity: What to do: Using just these basic words gives your child a good model of how words can be used. It also helps them hear the most important words and lets them hear them over and over in the same way. By waiting for your child […]

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Language and play plan: Shape sorter - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Key words you can use while doing this activity: What to do Using these basic words gives your child a good model of how words can be used. It also helps them hear the most important words and lets them hear them over and over in the same way. By waiting for your child to […]

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Who can refer

We have an open referral system. This means anyone can refer to Newcastle Speech and Language Therapy for children and young people, as long as they have consent from a parent (or person or agency with parental responsibility such as Children's Social Care). The child or young person must have a Newcastle GP and/or attend a school or setting in Newcastle.

When to refer

Using the Newcastle Graduated Response to meeting special educational needs, schools and settings should first implement support strategies from the Newcastle SEND Mainstream Guidance and the Universally Available Guidance and evaluate the impact of this support. If the impact on individual progress/outcomes is limited, you may then wish to refer to our service, showing evidence of what support is already in place and the impact of this. Referrals which do not show this evidence may be returned.

How to refer

Please use this document to decide if you should refer to Newcastle Speech and Language Therapy for children and young people. We only accept referrals which meet these criteriaand are made on a referral form which has been fully completed. Any referrals made that do not follow the criteria or are not on a complete referral form will be returned and not accepted. For referring schools and settings, please use the referral form to tell us what you have already put in place from the Universally Available Guidance to support speech, language and communication.
Speech and language therapy referral form (44.06kB ODT) Speech and language therapy post 16-25 referral form (57.18kB ODT)
As lone workers, it is essential that we should know about any safety issues there may be for our staff when working with families as some sessions may be carried out in the home.

Minimum referral age:

We accept referrals from birth for children with difficulties in swallowing or feeding safely, or for children with significant and complex medical needs such as cerebral palsy or Down syndrome.

We accept referrals from 18 months of age for children where there are significant and clear concerns about autism, which have been discussed with the parent.

We accept referrals from 2 years where there are concerns around development of speaking or understanding.

We accept referrals from 3 years where there are concerns around speech production (pronunciation) as long as the child meets the criteria set out in this guide and a speech screen is included with the referral.

Across all ages, the key indicators for referral are:

If there are significant concerns about a child's use of spoken language.

If there are significant concerns about a child's understanding of spoken language.

If there are concerns about the child's ability to chew and swallow safely.

If the child is stammering and the child or their carers are concerned about this. Stammering in itself is not a reason for referral unless it is having a negative impact on the child's well-being and/or participation.

If the child has an unusual voice quality e.g. hoarseness or a nasal sounding voice, which is not linked to a current illness such as a cold or tonsillitis.

If you are concerned about a pre-school child who may be autistic. School-age autism assessments are carried out by CYPS.

If a pre-school child had started to use words then has 'lost' this skill.

If a school-aged child has a diagnosis of autism and you are concerned about their speech, language and communication.

You have used strategies and interventions from the Universally Available Guidance and the child has not made progress.

For any child with a significant communication problem a referral to audiology for a hearing assessment should be considered, this can be done by asking parents to discuss with their GP, health visitor, or school health advisor.

We do not accept referrals for:

Children who are selective talkers.

This means there are only concerns about the spoken language a child uses in one context, but not in another, such as a child who talks freely and age appropriately at home but not in nursery. This is known as selective mutism/selective talking.

If you are concerned about selective mutism then there are resources you can access at www.smira.org.uk or the book 'Supporting Shy and Quiet Children' - Maggie Johnson and Michael Jones.

Children who are of reception age or higher, who do not have a diagnosis of autism, where the main concern is around social communication and interaction skills or possible autism.

Please note: English as an additional language (EAL)

If a child has English as an additional language, we will only accept a referral if there are also concerns about their home language.

Consider a referral if your child is only using single words in their home language if they are older than 2 years.

You do not need to refer if your child is using their home language well but are only saying a few English words.

If you are concerned about other aspects of their speech, language or communication please follow the guidelines below as usual.
Here is some helpful information about children with English as an additional language.
Referral criteria and what to include in your referral

Use the criteria checklist that matches the child's age, and only refer if the child meets the criteria. You must attach the completed criteria checklist along with the referral form or your referral will not be accepted and will be returned.
Referral criteria checklist for children aged 2;0 to 2;5 years old (204.65kB ODT) Referral criteria checklist for children aged 2;6 to 2;11 years old (204.54kB ODT) Referral criteria checklist for checklist for children aged 3; 0 to 3;5 years old (204.25kB ODT) Referral criteria checklist for children aged 3;6 to 3;11 years old (206.51kB ODT) Referral criteria checklist for children aged 4;0 to 4;11 years old (203.20kB ODT) Referral criteria checklist for children aged 5;0 to 7 years old (203.47kB ODT)
Concerns for children over 7 years

Refer to speech and language therapy if...

The child finds it difficult to learn and understand words

The child finds long and complicated instructions hard to understand

The child is only using short, simple phrases with limited vocabulary

The child finds it difficult to tell stories, to tell what has happened and to give explanations

You will find some information on typical speech and language development over the next few pages. Please use the screening tools and age-related checklists to help identify any areas of difficulty.

Screening tools

Understanding

If you are making a referral for understanding, you can use the screening tool below to help identify what key word level the child is working at and to monitor their progress while you await assessment.

Key words carry meaning and are the essential words needed to understand a sentence or follow an instruction correctly. For a key word to be valid there must be a contrast item.

When giving a child an instruction there are often words which the child doesn't need to understand in order to correctly follow the instruction. For example at break time a teacher says to a child, 'put your coat on', and points to the child's coat whilst all the other children are getting ready to go outside. This sentence has 4 words but the child is not required to understand any of these words as he can follow what the other children are doing. It has 0 key words.

The child has to understand 1 word in a phrase to follow an instruction "pass me the cup" when there is a choice of cup, plate and spoon.

The child needs to understand 2 words to follow the instruction "where is and ?", when a selection of different animals are on the table.
Here is a tool you can use to check understanding
Speech sound development (pronunciation)

If your child is using lots of words and joining these together into sentences but you have noticed that their pronunciation or some speech sounds are not clear or not always used correctly then you may want to check this speech sound development chart to see if the errors that your child is making are typical for their age.
Speech development chart
If you are concerned about a child's speech sound development, you must download and complete the speech screen below and include this with your referral. This will give you an idea of how your child is pronouncing words and any mistakes they are making.
Click here to download the screening tool to check speech (over 3's only) (278.92kB ODT)
If you wish, you can also use the assessment of speech impact tool which helps describe how worried you are about the child's speech and the impact their difficulty is having on them.
Click here to download the assessment of speech impact tool (10.01kB ODT)
You can refer if:

The child is aged 3 years or older

If there are significant concerns about the clarity of a child's speech

It is indicated by the chart below

They have extra puffs of air or 'snort' sounds through the nose when talking

They are 5 or older and cannot make specific sounds. For example, they cannot say a clear 'k' or 'sh' sound. A child may have difficulties producing a sound for physical reasons, e.g. missing teeth, or because they have not learnt how to make the sound

Refer if this is having a significant impact on their communication or the child themselves is concerned and wants to learn how to make the sound

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Referral guidelines - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Please use the following guide to help you decide if you should refer to Speech and Language Therapy for children and young people.

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If you need to create a login or have a query about the passport, please email lianne.dixon@newcastle.gov.uk or beth.dunn@newcastle.gov.uk

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Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) | Children and Families Newcastle

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Funding Rates | Children and Families Newcastle

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Authenticated Service > Login or Register

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The service that you are trying to access requires an account within the system. Please use the below buttons to login (if you already have an account) or to register a new one.

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