Portage

Pre-school home visiting teaching and support service.

Portage is a pre-school home visiting teaching and support service for families of young children ( 0-3)  with special educational needs and disability. The service is delivered by the SEN and Inclusion Team ( SENIT) which is part of Leeds Learning Inclusion Service. 

Portage project workers work in partnership with parents to help them become teachers of their own child, working together to identify goals to help children learn in all areas of their development e.g. physical, communication, social, play and learning. A small steps teaching approach is used to achieve these goals.

Following an assessment, the family may be offered home visits, telephone consultations or signposting to other relevant services. The offer is based upon the child and family’s needs. If the assessment indicates that home visits would be beneficial, families are allocated a Portage Home Visitor, who makes regular home visits. 

 

How are requests made to the Portage service?

Accessing the portage service

There are three ways to make a request to the Portage service, dependent upon who is making the request:

  • parents and carers can make a request by completing a Leeds Portage Service Request Form. Also, any practitioner working with the family can make a request as long as they have the agreement of the child’s parents or carers
  • all health professionals should complete a Health to Education Notification (HEN), ensuring they have the agreement of the child’s parents or carers
  • if the child is attending an early years’ setting and the family agree home-based support should be requested, the SENCo (SEN Coordinator) in the setting should complete a One SEND Services Request for Support. The form should be completed on the understanding that the Portage offer will be home-based.

Requests to the Portage service can be made in the following circumstances:

  • the child is aged between 0 and two and a half years of age
  • the child presents with 50% delay in two or more areas of development: cognition and learning; social communication and interaction; speech and language; social, emotional and mental health; physical; nursing or medical; hearing; vision; and sensory.
  • the family are living in the Leeds local authority area.

A member of the Portage team will contact parents and carers to inform them of the outcome of the request and the Portage offer for them and their child.

Contact Details: