The Children's Sensory Team

In Essex Social Care there are a number of Children with Disability (CWD) teams. One of these is the Children's Sensory Team, which offers a service to Essex children with a permanent and substantial visual and/or hearing impairment.

Some parents or carers may worry about asking Social Care for support, but many of the children and families we have worked with in the Children's Sensory Team have found our involvement helpful.

Our overall aim is to encourage sensory-impaired children to reach their full potential and to function as independently as possible.

The Levels of Support offered by the Children's Sensory Team

The Children's Sensory Team supports children of all ages between birth and 18 years old whose home address is in Essex.

The Children's Sensory Team offers different levels of support depending on the nature of the child's hearing loss, age and the nature of help requested.

We offer advice and information to all families or agencies where a child has a hearing impairment of any kind.

If your child is of pre-school age and has a moderate hearing loss in his or her better ear then a duty social worker from the Children's Sensory Team will offer to visit your family and carry out an assessment. This will identify your child's needs and will be used as the basis of a 'care plan'; a plan of what can be done to support you and your child. Except in exceptional circumstances, the duty social worker will support you and your family for a short period only.

If your child has a severe or greater hearing loss in his or her better ear, again a duty social worker from the Children's Sensory Team will offer to visit your family and carry out an assessment to identify the needs of your child and to draw up a care plan. You will then be offered the services of a named social worker from the team who will be allocated to your child and will provide ongoing support to you and your family.

In respect of Visual Impairment, the child must be certified Blind or Partially Sighted by a Consultant Opthalmologist and have a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI) or be eligible for such registration.

In respect of a dual sensory impairment, the above criteria are relaxed as the cumulative effect of this impairment is greater than the sum of experiencing either a visual or hearing impairment. A referral can be made to the Children’s Sensory Team and a decision is made on an individual case basis. 

Examples of what the Children's Sensory Team can offer

We Can:

• Offer the opportunity for you to discuss your thoughts, feelings and any concerns.

• Offer the opportunity for your child, as s/he gets older, to explore his/her thoughts, feelings and any concerns.

• Put you in contact with support groups.

• Provide information about childminders, playgroups, nurseries, schools, youth groups, leisure and recreational activities, support groups, respite care, counselling services, language aide schemes (see below), welfare benefits and a range of other services.

• Provide general assistance and guidance and offer support to you, your child and your family.

• Provide advice on special environmental equipment and seek funding for it from voluntary organisations if necessary. Some items of special environmental equipment may be supplied on (free) loan from Social Care. The kind of equipment will depend on the assessment of your child's needs and this will include your child's age and degree of hearing impairment. The equipment items most commonly provided on loan by Social Care are room and neck loops which may help your child use his or her hearing aid to its full potential and, for older children, a special smoke alarm which flashes a visible alert.

• Offer specialist assessments under the Disabled Persons Act 1986 to young people at about the age when they leave full-time education, to help plan their transition into adult life.

• Work in liaison with people from agencies that you and your child are involved with, such as health visitors, teachers of the deaf, school teachers, doctors, housing associations/local councils and voluntary organisations.

• In certain situations, we can use the Social Care contracts with the Royal National Institutes for the Deaf and the Royal Association for the Deaf to provide interpreting services.

• Essex Social Care also has other teams who work with children with disabilities. The Children's Sensory Team may be able to refer your child to these teams to offer you a service.

How to contact the Children's Sensory Team

You can contact us directly or someone else may do so on your behalf. Young people may also contact us. Our contact details are:

Children's Sensory Team
Essex Social Care
P. O. Box 297
County Hall
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 1YS

Tel:  01245 436869
Textphone: 01245 435604
Fax:  01245 437580
E-mail: cst@essex.gov.uk