Services

Services For Families

Initial Assessment:

This appointment will take up to an hour and a half, and includes a full physical assessment, time for discussion and to answer your questions, initial advice and home activities.

Individualised therapy session:

This will last up to an hour and include hands on therapy.

Family members or school staff training:

This can be delivered in either the home or school setting.

Clinic appointments will take place at the Natural Health Centre, Radbrook, Shrewsbury. Home visits, nursery or school visits are available on request.

EHCP Report writing:

I am passionate about children having their physiotherapy needs met in school, and highly value the importance of this. I am extremely experienced in writing contributing reports and can attend tribunal meetings to request higher physiotherapy intervention. I will use measurable, number-based values and goals to show clinical need for Often physiotherapy services are reduced as clients get older and need more physiotherapy. EHCPs can also be planned around the NHS available resources and services, rather than putting the child’s needs at the centre. I am here to be a voice for the children and parents/carers who need me.

Services For Professionals

Around two in five children will be recorded to have some kind of Special Educational Need at some point between reception and Year 11 (Hutchinson, 2021). It is more than likely that there is a child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in every classroom, making SEND a part of every teacher and school leader’s role.

Despite the scale of need within the sector, SEND provision is often considered as separate or additional to mainstream education. This leads to pupils with SEND missing out on vital support, with implications for mental health, attendance, and attainment (Ambitious about Autism, 2024).

Children with SEND face a number of barriers in school including their needs not being identified early enough or not at all. The time it takes to receive support, the thresholds for that report, the need for diagnosis rather than receiving support on basis of need and the quality of support is variable. Other barriers include schools not being a place where children with additional needs can thrive – resulting in children falling behind academically, their needs not being met, not attending, or not being enrolled in school. Children with SEND make up 22% of the 2,900 children who are missing from education (childrenscommissioner.gov.uk Oct 2023)

As both an ex-teacher, with extensive experience of working in both mainstream and special school settings, and a health care professional, I am uniquely placed to be able to support staff and schools to meet the needs of the children with SEND who attend their establishment.

Assessment:

With parents/carers consent assessment can be requested directly by schools or other professionals.

Intervention:

In addition to school programmes provided via detailed assessment reports, direct intervention options are also available. This includes meeting provision as outlined in an Education, Health, and Care Plan. Schools can opt for weekly therapy input. This can be individual or group therapy sessions with the aim of developing abilities in the areas of self-regulation, attending to task, gross motor skills, sensory integration using proprioceptive exercises and sensory circuits.

Sensory circuits can help children with ADHD self-regulate and be ready to learn. Proprioceptive exercises provide a sense of body awareness, and the proprioceptive system plays a key role in sensory processing. Children with ASD or ADHD can benefit from proprioceptive exercises to help regulate their emotional and behavioural responses to sensory stimulation. Proprioceptive input can also be alerting for those children and young people who need increased sensory stimulation to facilitate attention and learning.

Training:

CPD can be provided on a range of topics including brain development, gross motor development, the impact of ASD, ADHD, attachment and trauma on learning and behaviour.

Options can range from twilight sessions to a full PD Day, and I am happy to discuss delivering specialist training and practical courses tailored to meet the needs of schools, academy chains or other settings.