"We're a little unusual," says Jennie Kitchen, manager of the Cleveland Unit assessment nursery.
The "outstanding"-rated nursery is part of the child development centre at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and it works with threeto four-year-olds who have complex needs and/or disabilities.
"Child development centres are a joint provision between health and education, but most are predominately health and then bring in some education staff," says Kitchen. "The Cleveland Unit has switched that on its head because, although we are based in the hospital, it is predominately an education provision and a council service."
While this means most staff are teachers or teaching assistants, strong links with health workers remain paramount. "We take children who professionals and parents feel are not going to be able to go straight into a mainstream setting and have success," says Kitchen. "So they stay with us for a period of assessment and then move onto a special school or, for about a third of them, to mainstream settings with varying levels of support."
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