Early Years Professional Resource Group (PRG)

Children with complex needs will often have many agencies involved with their care and their education journey. The Early Years Professional Resource Group (EY PRG) ensures that Early Years providers, children and their families, have access to a bespoke offer to meet their needs during the Early Years phase of their education by a range of professionals and services. Requests for support will primarily be made by Early Years Quality Advisers or Childminding Advisers and on occasion by other professionals.

Frequency and Attendance

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The groups meet once a term (6 times per year) in each of the 12 districts of Kent.  The meetings are attended by representatives from the following services:

A core membership of;

  • SENIF Finance Team
  • Portage Manager / Officer
  • STLS Teachers
  • Early Years Quality Adviser
  • SEND Support & Inclusion Practitioner
  • EY Outreach Manager
  • Health Visitor
  • Family Hub
  • Educational Psychologist
  • Speech & Language Therapist
  • SENIF Monitoring Officer

Other participants could also include;

  • SEND Support & Inclusion Manager (Early Years)
  • EYC Quality Manager
  • EY Childminding Adviser
  • EY SEND Support & Inclusion County Co-ordinator
  • Sensory & PD Specialist Teachers
  • Other professionals as appropriate

Aims

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The aim of the meetings are to:

  • be confident that Early Years Provisions have accessed training and implemented advice and strategies before requests are brought to the meeting.
  • plan educational support, for children attending Early Years Provisions from professionals, at different points, in a child’s education journey.
  • make decisions about the most appropriate interventions and support that can be offered and when; depending on capacity, interventions may not be able to start straight away but waiting time should be minimal, waiting no longer than six weeks (excluding half terms and holidays) for interventions to start, wherever possible.
  • make decisions around future interventions to support transition
  • ensure that all professional interventions will be time limited but not exceeding a maximum of two terms, wherever possible.
  • ensure that following interventions, Early Years Provisions have embedded the advice and strategies provided, before any further support is considered.

Requests and Outcomes

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Requests made by Early Years Quality Advisers or Childminding Advisers should be completed in conjunction with the Early Years Provision at the time of their contact. Requests can be made for an individual child/ren or a cohort of children who have a similar profile of need, attend at the same time and require a similar focus of intervention. The Early Years Quality Advisers or Childminding Advisers are present at the EY PRG and they should be able to share the outcomes of the meeting with Early Years Provisions within 3 working days of the meeting. This will be by email.

What happens if we have a child/ren in our Early Years Provision who we feel needs support just after the PRG has taken place?

Arrangements are in place for children to be considered outside of the routine district PRG meetings in certain instances via an extraordinary meeting which takes place weekly.

If you have any queries or questions about the EY PRG, please address them in the first instance to your Early Years Quality Adviser or Childminding Adviser.