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 are visually impaired (VI) or Deaf and hearing impaired (HI).

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

The Mainstream school is additionally resourced, with Low Incidence Team specialist staff and specialist equipment to meet the need of pupils with vision impairment and those who are Deaf and hearing impaired. The Low Incidence 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 RPs 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 Head of Low Incidence Team and Teachers in charge discuss consultations with both SENCO and head teacher of the Host School and response 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.