2nd April 2020

• Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has commissioned the rollout of a sensory service across Sheffield. This service will provide training for school staff on how to adapt the school environment to make it more sensory friendly, and on carrying out sensory profiling to better understand the needs of individual children.

  Many children with a Neurodisability (such as autism or ADHD) also have sensory processing difficulties. For example, they may be oversensitive to certain noises, smells or lights, or they may be undersensitive and seek sensations through behaviours like chewing on things, staring at lights or spinning objects, or listening to the same sound or song on repeat.

  As part of the rollout, the number of workshops for parents on understanding their child’s sensory needs will be increased. Initially, these will only be offered to parents whose children have been seen by a clinician at the Ryegate Children’s Centre. The aim is to clear the waiting list, so that parents will then be able to book in straight away when their child has been seen in clinic. Once this has been achieved, the CCG will look at opening up those workshops to a wider group of parents.

  There will also be a new workshop for teenagers to help them understand and manage their own sensory needs.

  Initially, the plan was to have additional workshops in place by the school summer holidays, and for the training work in schools to start in September. We do not yet know how the coronavirus crisis will affect this timetable.