Southampton Early Years and Childcare service

The Family Information Service offers free, tailored and impartial advice for families. The service is available to anyone taking care of children or young people aged 0-19 years of age. For children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities it is available up to 25 years of age.

The Family Information Service gives advice and signposts to appropriate services. The core service offered by Southampton Family Information Service is free.

View more about the Family Information Service and their Brokerage Service for parents needing support in finding childcare or early education.

The Early Years and Childcare Development Team offer a wide range of support. This is available for all early years and childcare providers (including wrap around childcare). They also offer support for prospective providers.

Find out more about the support offered by Early Years Development Workers.

The Early Years Advisory Teachers (EYATs) and Area SENDCos are qualified teachers with extensive knowledge and experience of early years education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The team are able to offer support to settings to ensure their SEND provision is effective. The team have a wealth of experience and can offer ideas and strategies to set targets and differentiate the curriculum to meet the child’s needs. Through the referral system they are able to complete visits to the setting to observe children and liaise with staff, professionals and agencies involved.

Find out more about SEND support for early years settings as well as SEND funding. 

You can also view available training and events. 

The funding team are responsible for distributing Nursery Education funding to all Early Years providers in Southampton as well as carrying out audits of Nursery Education Funding, to ensure public funding is being used most effectively to support children.

Find out more about funding for early years providers.

Speech and Language Specialists support children and young people who:

• Are registered with a GP in Southampton
• Attend a school in Southampton

All children are different and develop at different speeds. Some children find learning certain skills more difficult than others. They may need specialist assessment and advice from one of our therapists.

Our Children’s Therapy Service team works together to support children and young people who need specialist help from one or more of our therapy services. Our vision is that all children and young people are provided with the skills they need to take part in everyday situations. We aim to support them to reach their full potential.

The Speech and Language Therapy Team supports children with speech, language and communication needs and those with feeding and swallowing difficulties. Speaking and eating uses the same muscles. Speech and language therapists are trained to help with difficulties with feeding and swallowing.

Some children we see may have a medical condition or diagnosis or learning difficulty, but many do not.

Visit the Solent NHS Children's Therapy Service website.

The Language Intervention Team (SALSA Outreach) consists of experienced and specifically trained Speech & Language Schools Assistants (SALSAs). The team offers screening/assessment, interventions and staff training to maximise the progress of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and to support schools in drawing out the full potential of their students’ abilities. We recognise the growing need to support core educational concerns including behaviour and literacy, and have developed our services to acknowledge the impact of SLCN within the classroom. Programmes and interventions specifically target language for learning, helping to bridge the gap between verbal and written skills.

Find out more about Speech & Language Schools Assistants (SALSAs).