What is the Portage service?
Portage is a service for pre-school children with special needs and their families. it offers educational and developmental support, usually at home.
Portage aims to work with families to help them develop a quality of life and experience. It is for the families as well as the young children. It uses play and activities to support the child’s development, as well as teaching the family skills.
Portage workers are Early Years practitioners who have a good knowledge of child development. They also have experience with young children with special needs. They are part of the Disabled Children and Therapy Service. They provide support and guidance to enable parents to achieve the best outcomes for their child.
Read the Portage Service leafletChildren We Work With
- Children from birth until the age of 28 months (3 years and 4 months).
- Children who have, or are expected to have, a six-month delay in their development in two or more areas. This may require specialist provision in the longer term. These areas include
- personal, social, and emotional development
- communication skills
- physical abilities
- cognitive development
- Children where there are Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) scores of 15 or below in at least two developmental areas.
- Children who have a significant sensory loss (e.g., hearing, sight) in addition to a developmental delay. This may result in the need for specialist provision in the longer term.
What We Do
Portage works with the consent of the parent or carer and the child/young person.
Referral and initial contact with the team
New requests for Portage services are made through the Early Help Hub. The Early Help Hub will triage the request and, if appropriate, send it to the Team Manager, who will then pass it onto the Portage team.
The Portage Worker will contact the family within 5 working days of receiving the request for support.
The Portage Worker will arrange to meet the family within 10 working days. They will explain more about Portage Support and the Portage model. At this meeting, there will be an agreement between the Portage Worker and the family about whether support is needed. They will decide what this support will look like.
The Portage Worker will share information about the Portage groups.
Next steps
The Portage Worker, along with the family, will complete a baseline assessment. This will identify the child’s strengths and areas for development.
Portage helps families to recognise their child’s progress and celebrate the child's success.
The Worker will agree Portage targets which they will support the child and family to achieve through playful, fun activities. The first set of targets will be written in six visits within a two-month period of the initial meeting.
Every four months, the family and the Portage Worker will review the child's progress. They will set new targets together as appropriate.
They may agree that the child needs an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The process of ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ will support an EHCP assessment application if required.
Support from Portage ends when:
- Children have made significant progress in their development and no longer meet the 'who we work with' criteria for our services.
- Two-year-olds start to attend nursery, using their government-funded nursery placements.
- The child turns three. (The service ends at the end of the term in which the child's birthday falls.) This only applies if the child does not attend nursery.
How can my child be referred?
To make a referral to the Portage Service please complete the Early Help Hub referral form.