(Created 28/07/2023)
Legal Framework:
National Minimum Standards (Fostering)2011 Standard 25.12
The service has the facilities to work with children with physical, sensory and learning impairments, communication difficulties or for whom English is not their first language. Oral and written communications are made available in a format which is appropriate to the physical, sensory and learning impairments, communication difficulties and language of the individual. The procedures include arrangements for reading, translating, Makaton, pictures, tape recording and explaining documents to those people who are unable to understand the document.
The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal Act (2018) – the ALNET ACT- says a child or young person aged 3 to 16 years has Additional Learning Needs if they:
- have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age or
- have disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities for education or training of a kind generally provided for others of the same age
Ableism is the unfair treatment, discrimination and social prejudice of persons with additional needs and/or disabilities. It is rooted in the assumption and belief that persons with disabilities are inferior to persons without disabilities.
The Positive Aspirations Group promotes disability inclusion and understands the relationships between how individuals’ function, how they participate in society and in activities in day-to-day life. Positive Aspirations aims to ensure that children with additional needs or disabilities enjoy full and effective participation with and within their families, communities, and societies on an equal basis as those without disabilities.
The Positive Aspirations Group has the skills and knowledge to work with children who have additional needs. We are committed to sourcing and promoting the same opportunities that are available to every other child.
In order to communicate effectively with children and young people who may need alternatives to the more common formats, we are able to translate documents into other languages, contract interpreters or change the written word into voice. Our supervising social workers have access to collective skills and knowledge, of how to communicate with children who may need things expressed in a different way, so that it becomes accessible and memorable, including using props and other media.
The Positive Aspirations Group works with the network around the child to adapt communications to the individual needs of the child.
The foster carers supervising social worker visits the child every 8 weeks and this opportunity is taken to make sure that the child’s needs are being met. Every 6 months a Progress Summary is completed for the child, the contents of which are summarised in a way that is accessible to the child so that the supervising social worker can help the child to understand what is contained on their file and give them the opportunity to add their own thoughts and comments.
In order to promote knowledge and skills in our foster carers and staff, the Positive Aspirations Group has a number of specific training courses for specific needs on our training website but will also source other courses if needed.
In order to ensure that children with additional needs or disabilities are able to access the same information and opportunities as other children, our managers keep a focussed oversight of recordings and adjust supervision of the supervising social worker in line with the intensity of the child’s needs.
The Positive Aspirations Group works together with the foster carers, to make sure that the foster carers are fully aware of what they can do to help children by knowing about and utilising resources that are available to them.
Safeguarding children with additional needs
Children who do not interact with the world around them in a way which makes their needs, wishes and feelings obvious to the adults around them, can sometimes be at an additional risk, therefore care needs to be taken, to ensure that they are safeguarded effectively. Please refer to the Positive Aspirations Group Safeguarding Policy for further information and guidance.
Please ask your supervising social worker for other external resources, for example NHS, NSPCC or the Government website, offer guidance and support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
