The Integrated Physical and Sensory Service (IPaSS) has been relaunched after a restructure that will create new capacity for teachers.
IPaSS is a Hull City Council service that supports children and young people in Hull who have physical difficulties, speech and language difficulties or visual or hearing impairments.
The restructure will create a more sustainable service with a greater capacity. It will also offer better value for money for the council, as well as the children, young people, and families that the service supports.
The new structure has more professional development opportunities, including many new roles on offer, such as a new Trainee BSL interpreter, Lead Specialist Practitioners- “super Teaching Assistants”, an additional Deaf Instructor, a Graphic Designer, a Speech and Language Therapist and Apprentice Teaching Assistants.
The restructure focuses on a “grow your own” approach to specialist staff, as there is a national shortage of qualified teachers for the deaf and visually impaired, specialist language teachers for children with developmentally delayed speech and language and experienced, specialist teaching assistants.
The service was reviewed in spring 2022, where a panel was formed and different structures were looked at. The preferred new structure was then put to staff, families that use the services, councillors, trade unions and other stakeholders.
After the consultation process, the new structure was rolled out this month to coincide with the new academic year.
The service has an updated website – www.ipass.org.uk – which offers information for families, schools, and other professional agencies and will include a voice for children and young people. There will also be BSL signed videos on the site and other formats for information will be developed.
Councillor Tock, portfolio holder for Children’s Services at Hull City Council said: “IPaSS provides such a vital service to Hull children with additional needs. This restructure will help ‘futureproof’ the service by nurturing the potential of our own, ‘homegrown’ staff, enabling them to provide an expanded offer to children and families.”
