Hi -  in Essex we currently fund any seating, regardless of the age of the child/setting, as long as it is used for accessing educational activities (as opposed to meeting a purely 'health-related need').  Here, therapists request equipment via the central store, and members of my team approve the requests.  I think it would be very complicated if we started asking health or social care to pay for it as we would then need to transfer it to the school settings anyway, which would  create other issues over ownership etc.   All equipment is recycled, repaired and reallocated to minimise waste but new equipment is purchased via the store if there is nothing appropriate in stock.  I am not sure an LA could say that children in nurseries should not have equipment funded by the LA as we all want children in nursery/pre-school and the nursery/pre-school IS the Education setting for which we have a collective responsibility? (hope that makes sense!)

In Kent we provide specialist seating in nurseries for children over the age of 2 when they become eligible for free for two.  Under the age of 2 their equipment is all provided by Health, this might include standers and walkers.  It is a bit complicated but because we have a shared equipment store the little chairs quickly get recycled .  For children over 3 who may be in split placements with a special school nursery and a PVI setting, we will provide two chairs (but not more!)

hope that helps

Julie

Hi, In Worcestershire all pre-school seating is funded by the local authority early year's team following a health assessment -or an assessment from us as Outreach teachers.  We manage the ordering and it is all serviced (if necessary), stored by us and recycled as many of the chairs are extremely well made and used for short periods.  From school age, we have a furniture budget and issue equipment following liaison with our health colleagues or from our own experience of knowing what may aid independence and support the child to access the environment.

<p style="text-align: left;">We had a similar issue. Eventually the Local Authority funded the purchase of a number of chairs which we could loan out to nurseries. The number and type of chairs purchased was identified following an audit of the numbers and needs of pre schools.  A range of different types were purchased, many of which can be adapted and different parts added to personalise the chairs to individual pupil needs at a lower cost to the nursery i.e. they were only required to purchase any additional parts. Our mainstream outreach team provide the therapy assessment support role. Not sure if this will help but this was our solution! We decided to set up this bank of resources primarily because the needs of this younger group of pupils change so rapidly as they grow.</p>