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Who can be referred to the CALL Centre for Assessment and Support?
Children and young persons up to 18 years in Scotland, normally with Records of Needs or in the process of having a Record drawn up.
What kind of children is appropriate to refer to the CALL Centre?
Children with significant difficulty with some aspect(s) of communication - speech, reading or writing - causing learning difficulties.
Children with complex and continuing special educational needs, with difficulties accessing the curriculum, who may have one or more of the following difficulties in association with their communication difficulties: physical disability; visual or visual-perceptual impairments; hearing or auditory processing impairments; specific learning difficulties; handwriting difficulties.
What does a CALL Assessment / Support session offer?
Some or all of the following: a visit from CALL team members; a ‘fresh eye’ from outside the day-to-day situation; opportunities for consultation and discussion between CALL, parents, and local professionals; a comprehensive written report and sometimes an Action Plan and supplementary work packages; loans of equipment; post-assessment training sessions; input at discussion meetings; follow-up action as appropriate. The needs and priorities for each child will be different.
Who pays for CALL Assessment and Support?
CALL has various levels of assessment and support service: Core Service, which is free to users (although expenses such as post and packing of loan equipment may be charged), Expenses Paid Visits, and Service Level Agreements (SLA) or Consultancy Contracts which involve charges to local authorities or other purchasers.
 Which type of agreement is appropriate?
If you want a single assessment visit (plus written report) for one pupil, and if you refer early in the year, your pupil may be seen free of charge under SOEID Core Service arrangements. If visits involves air fares and/or overnight accommodation, a contribution towards these expenses may be claimed.)
If you want more than this - for example, advance ‘booking’ of particular blocks of time for a visit), assessment and support of more than one children from the same authority, more comprehensive reports, follow-up work, repeat visits, extended loans, assessment related staff development - adding up to 10-20 days or more of CALL work, then a Service Level Agreements might be more appropriate. Contact CALL for an information sheet outlining the scale and conditions of charges.
Consultancy contracts are for shorter or special episodes of work tailored exactly to the purchaser’s requirements. These are charged at a higher rate.
How many children can be assessed by CALL?
Unfortunately, the small CALL team cannot take large numbers of referrals. We will plan to see about 30 children from all over Scotland in the year from 1 April to 31 March. We can no longer ‘carry forward’ assessment and support clients from year to year - if you want someone to be seen again by CALL, they should be re-referred.
How is referral made to the CALL Centre?
Phone for discussion in the first place. Referrals to CALL will be through education authority channels, e.g. Educational Psychologist, Headteacher, or MET/SEN Service. If your authority has a Service Level Agreement with CALL (ask Principal Educational Psychologist or SEN Adviser for details) referrals should be coordinated through that channel.
CALL sends out a referral/basic information collection form. Once this is returned, CALL arranges a date for a visit and sends out a parent information leaflet. CALL may come back to you seeking further information about the child, such as copies of recent reports, of the child’s work or video material.
How can an assessment and trial with the CALL Smart Wheelchair be arranged?
Again, phone for discussion. Referral and arrangements for assessment are designed to fit individual and local circumstances. Unfortunately, there is a waiting list of many months for loans of the CALL Smart Wheelchair. You will be told what position your application is in on the waiting list.
How does CALL go about Assessment and Support?
- Information is collected from all the people involved with the child, through a CALL referral form, reports, telephone conversations, video, etc.
- Members of the CALL Centre team visit the child in school, usually for a day, observing, interacting with the child, looking at their work, talking to various members of staff and possibly (but not always) trying out different equipment. They will hope to meet with the child’s parents and with non-education staff who are involved, such as speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and OTs.
- The CALL team writes a report and sends it to the referrer who distributes copies to all the members of the local team.
- CALL proceeds with its part in the recommendations, which may include adapting and loaning equipment, writing up ideas for an ‘Action Plan’, delivering training to the local team, etc.
Who is responsible for carrying out the recommendations of CALL Assessment?
Local authorities have a statutory duty to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs, and this is not altered in any way by CALL doing an assessment. CALL supports authorities in fulfilling their obligations by supplying specialist advice and sometimes loans of equipment, complementing whatever provision is available within authorities.
When CALL accepts a referral, the referrer is expected to make a commitment to follow through with the recommendations made. CALL is keen to see clear lines of accountability and responsibility within the child’s local team, including support form school practitioners, managers and policy makers; inter-agency working between schools and therapists, and partnership with parents.
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