Help in your area
Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in Europe and so to support effective working across the city, the Birmingham SEND support service is split into smaller locality areas.
In this section
Use the following links to find out more about the locality areas in Birmingham.
What is a Locality?
A locality is a group of professionals that supports schools, settings and families in a certain area of Birmingham. The locality team is made up of an Educational Psychologist, a Speech and Language Therapist, an Occupational Therapist, and Specialist Advisory Teachers.
Key Principles of Locality Working
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Supporting schools, settings and families in the early identification of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and the implementation of interventions and tracking of pupils.
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Working in partnership with schools, settings and families to identify the professional development needs of staff and supporting clusters of schools or settings in implementing an appropriately tailored programme.
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Working in partnership with families to support their child’s needs within the home.
Consultations and Planning Meetings
The consultation and planning meeting is key to raising aspirations and educational achievement for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities.
Termly individual school or setting planning meetings provide the opportunity to identify areas where the school or setting are stuck and require additional support to ensure the needs of the children and young people are met.
Locality Forums
The Locality or District Team meet in each cluster of schools or settings on a termly basis.
The team of professionals:
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Provides a network for parents.
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Facilitates peer to peer support.
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Facilitates consultations from the local team of Educational Psychologists, Therapists and Advisory Teachers.
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Upskill parents through advice, support and coaching from specialists and professionals.
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Considers common themes arising from schools and families to support ongoing early help.
Local Forums for schools
Listed below are some of the activities that take place through the locality forums for schools and settings:
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Developing a network for support staff and SENCo’s that provides professional development as well as sharing good practice,
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Facilitate drop-in surgeries and consultations for a range of agencies to plan for the end of phase transition for children and young people at SEN Support stage,
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Create approaches for monitoring and evaluating outcomes for children and young people with additional learning needs and considering future steps,
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Consider common themes arising from schools, settings and families and provide bespoke support for professional development
Capacity BuildingsÂ
Instead of always working with individual children and young people either in the context of an assessment or in the delivery of individual programmes, staff also assist schools and families to develop their skills and encourage the use of a wide range of useful resources.
For most children and young people, it is recognised that their needs will be met in their local mainstream school or setting. It is therefore essential that schools, settings and families feel supported and able to provide the right environment to do this.
The teams are also there to identify those more complex youngsters whose needs require a more intense programme of support, through a package of specialist provision
Birmingham Family Hubs
Family Hubs is a one-stop shop for families, where range of organisations and professionals come together in one place to offer services, advice, guidance, and support on a wide range of family and parenting issues.
These include services for our babies and youngest children right through to young people up to age 19, or 25 if they have special educational needs and disabilities. Parents, carers, children and young people can find help online or in person at our hub sites.