Local Authority led resourced provision (sensory impaired)

What is a Local Authority led Resourced Provision (LARP) for children and young people who have severe to profound deafness and / or vision impairment?

In Bradford we operate Local Authority led Resourced Provisions (LARP) hosted by mainstream primary and secondary schools, designed to provide specialist and targeted support for children and young people (CYP) with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) who have a vision impairment (VI) or severe to profound deadness (HI).

All LARPs are staffed and managed centrally by the local authority?

The Mainstream school is additionally resourced, with staff and specialist equipment by the Sensory and Physical Needs team, to meet the needs of pupils with vision impairment and/or severe to profound deafness. The Sensory and Physical Needs Team specialist staff provide advice, assessment, training and support with equipment to settings to enable CYP to access their education and school environment. CYP accessing this support, will be those with the most severe and profound degrees of Deafness/vision and/or hearing impairment/multi-sensory impairment. Each LARP has a core offer and then based upon individual needs there will be variations in additional specialist intervention and support.

All LARPs are intended to be integrated into the life of the school and for them to provide an inclusive offer for the children accessing them.

How are children allocated a place in a LARP?

Children with an EHCP are allocated a place by a Local Authority SEND panel and the Heads of the Sensory and Physical Needs Team and Teachers in charge discuss consultations with both SENCO and head teacher of the Host School and a response is sent from the School SENCO.

Children within the host school cannot be allocated a LARP placement without going through this process first. Each LARP, will have a specification which sets out the agreed terms and conditions of the provision and is reviewed annually.

Resourced provisions - known as LARPs are:

• Grove House Primary School (VI)
• Swain House Primary School and Girlington Primary School (Deaf and HI)
• Hanson School is the only secondary provision resourced for both Deaf / HI and VI.

Deaf and MSI Children's Service

Our Vision in the Deaf and MSI Children's Service is: “To offer high-quality support for all children through a collaborative approach to provide transformational learning experiences so that children can flourish and make excellent holistic progress and successfully transition to responsible citizens”

We work across a range of settings with babies, children and young people from ages 0 to 19 from the point of identification of deafness/multi-sensory impairment and provide support to families in their homes.

The service leads three local authority led resourced provisions (LARP) which are hosted in mainstream schools. These resourced provisions are for deaf and MSI children who require more specialist provision than that which can be provided in a local mainstream school.

The Deaf and MSI Service is made up of four teams:

• The Support Team for Deaf Children
• Girlington Primary School Local Authority led Resourced Provision for Deaf Children and Young People
• Swain House Primary School Local Authority led Resourced Provision for Deaf Children and Young People
• Hanson Delta Academy Local Authority led Resourced Provision for Deaf Children and Young People

For more information visit the Deaf and MSI Children's Service page on Bradford Schools Online.