Support Services
Professional Support Service - The Options Institute
The Options Institute’s Professional and Clinical Support Team includes an educational psychologist, a pediatric psychiatrist and an occupational therapist on a sessional basis. The Institute works in partnership with, and as a critical friend to, the New Options (Higford) School, to enable this school for children with complex sensory and communication needs to achieve the following specific goals:
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To enable the service to both function as and be recognised as an exemplar of Best Practice, by sourcing and supporting the highest quality specialist professionals to meet the New Options (Higford) School’s identified needs.
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To ensure that the practice within each service is evidence based and that approaches and methodology are validated by respected practitioners.
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To support the services to enable New Options (Higford) School to provide value for money to the purchasers.
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To work with the services to assist New Options (Higford) School to be recognised as effective and proficient by inspection and accreditation teams.
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The Support Division will ensure that the New Options (Higford) School has a named Support Coordinator who has both a specialist professional background and expertise in autism and/or complex sensory and communication needs and will be able to call upon a range of regional and national colleagues from the Support Division.
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The Options Institute’s Division of Personal and Professional Development will provide programmes of training and development to national standards from induction to advanced professional management development to meet the mutual needs of staff and New Options (Higford) School.
Speech And Language Therapy
The service is provided by a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist. The team works closely and collaboratively with staff working in the school and children’s home taking a holistic approach to the needs of the individual. The aim for each young person is the development of functional communication skills which can be used meaningfully throughout their life experiences. Appropriate strategies are identified through assessment and then introduced - building on individual strengths and motivations. Where on admission the young person has an effective and/or preferred means of communication this will be valued, supported and developed to its potential. The S.A.L.T. service has a key role in promoting an environment that is conducive to communicative success for all our young people.
Health Professionals Team
We currently have 4 nurses comprising of 1 senior nurse practitioner and 3 nurse practitioners. The nurses provide 24 hour care that complements educational and residential care in providing a holistic service that recognises the complex needs of children at New Options (Higford) School.
Staff Continuing Professional Training And Development
The Options Group seek to offer and deliver to all staff training and development opportunities of the highest quality, reflecting the latest thinking and practice in autism and/or complex sensory and communication needs, Education and Care. This is made available through a multi disciplinary team consisting of highly experienced and qualified trainers and consultants in the above areas.
Autism Specific training and consultation is provided by Geoff Evans, a recognised expert in the field with more than 23 years experience of working with children and adults with autism and their families. He has considerable experience of training and lecturing in autism in this country and abroad to a variety of professionals and parents.
The Staff Development Team
The team offers a variety of qualifications to staff and other professionals including NVQ at levels 3 and 4 in Health and Social Care, in-house management courses and externally accredited courses in Autistic Spectrum Disorders at all levels up to Masters.
The aim of the team is to ensure that all staff are fully equipped with the latest knowledge and skills needed to support children and young people with complex sensory and communication needs to achieve the maximum potential in all areas of their lives.