ECIS Flexible Support Packages

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• The purpose of tonights session is to
• Clarify what a Flexible Support Package is and
  what it will fund
• Assist you to complete an application for a
  Flexible Support Package.

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What is a ECIS Flexible Support Package ?

• A ECIS Flexible Support Package offers
  time-limited assistance for families of children
  with complex support needs from birth to school
  entry, with disability or developmental delay.

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What does this mean?

• Time limited assistance means
• providing a short term solution within a period
  that does not exceed twelve months
• Complex support needs implies
• Children with delays across several areas of
  development requiring a high level of support
• A high level of support may involve
• a significant time commitment from others
• the need for constant supervision
• substantial one to one assistance or care across
  many activities
• Specialised intervention or strategies to promote
  skill acquisition

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Flexible Support Packages will fund support and
  services such as
• Therapy
• Respite i.e. care of the child when the parents /
  carers are engaged in other activities
• Equipment
• Assistance for the child to ensure their
  inclusion and participation in community
  activities
• However a Flexible Support Package will not fund
• Services and supports already available through
  your current ECIS
• Services and supports that can be funded through
  other government sources

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ECIS Flexible Support PackagesSupports and/or
service requests

• Family related
• Financial supports-medications, travel/taxi
  costs, childcare fees, kindergarten fees
• Health and wellbeing supports-gym
  classes,yoga,massage
• Sibling supports-leisure, counselling,parent-child
  program
• Counselling for parents
• Home modifications-security window
  latches,fencing
• Child related
• Safety items-cupboard locks, specialised car
  seats
• Behavioural supports-tandem tricycle,trampoline
• Sensory-fidget toys,vibration toys,oral
  stimulation toys
• Recreation supports-swimming,gym program
• Personal/self care items-nappies,bed
• Specialised Equipment-lycra body splints,double
  pusher
• Resources-computers,visual communication
  aids(boardmaker)

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Your Family Service and Support Plan outlines
  your needs, priorities, goals and agreed actions
  in relation to your child / family.
• The Flexible Support Package requires one of
  these needs, goals or priorities to be linked
  specifically to your request.

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• A Regional Assessment Panel will allocate
  packages based on the following priority factors
  
• Children with complex support needs as a
  consequence of their disability or developmental
  delay. There is a particular focus on children
  with social, behavioural and emotional needs.
• Safety issues in relation to the childs
  behaviour
• Children who are at a transition point in their
  lives, or at a critical stage of development
• Families who demonstrate significant levels of
  anxiety/stress and are at risk of breaking down
• Families who have limited support networks and
  /or who have some measure of complexity in their
  circumstances

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• The primary purpose of tonights session is to
  assist you
• to complete an application for a Flexible Support
  Package.
• This may involve
• Amending the FSSP so there is a clear link
  between the FSSP and your request
• Clarifying what information is required in each
  question
• Helping you describe your child and family
  circumstances in a way that is clearly understood
  by members of the panel
• Provide information that will assist you to
  locate services or service providers to meet your
  childs / familys needs.

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Step One

• Write down your request.
• Answer each of these questions
• Is the service or support currently available to
  you through a government funded means?
• Have you explored other options for meeting this
  request?
• If you are unsure or dont know please check the
  directory on this website. You may also wish to
  contact the ECIS Flexible Support Packages
  Program or your Family Service Coordinator to
  assist in ensuring that the request meets the
  guidelines

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Step Two

• You need to have a family service and support
  plan which supports your request/s.
• Think about your request(s) in relation to your
  Family Service and Support Plan.
• Is your request(s) clearly related to your stated
  needs or goals in the FSSP?
• If not your FSSP needs to be updated
• If you havent got a family service and support
  plan,please refer to the Family Service and
  Support information on this website

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Step 3 Learning How to Give Specific Details

• In answering questions or providing information
  about your child or family it is important to
  give specific detail which creates a clear
  picture in the minds eye of the reader.
• Consider which statement describes Emmas
  behaviour more clearly
• Emma is aggressive or Emma has aggressive
  outbursts in which she hits, bites and scratches
  her brother
• Using descriptors which identify frequency or
  intensity are also useful
• Consider which statement describes Joey's tantrum
  more effectively.
• Joey has tantrums all the time or Joey has a
  tantrum at least six times a day, lasting up to
  thirty minutes each time

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Step 4 Learning How to Answer Section 6

• Each request for information follows the same
  format .
• Please describe the childs complex . support
  needs
• Ignore the word complex
• Ignore the word support
• Instead complete the sentence my child has
  needs in this area because.. and list the
  problems or difficulties.
• Next you need to describe the support your child
  requires to address these difficulties.
• Complete the sentence my child needs this form
  of support. Describe The support required might
  be supervision, physical restraint, one to one
  assistance, visual aids etc

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 - Question 1
• Please describe the childs complex Social
  Support Needs.
• Social skills eg turn taking in play and
  chatting, sharing,
• Social interaction eg unable to approach or play
  with other children, overfriendly, withdrawn,
  lacks eye contact
• Social rules lack of awareness of personal
  boundaries, does not participate in group
  activities
• EXAMPLE RESPONSEComplete the sentence my child
  has complex support needs in this area
  because.
• Ruby cannot wait for her turn and will push other
  children to get to the activity
• Complete the sentence my child need help in
  this form. Describe..
• Ruby needs picture prompts to wait and adult
  supervision to prevent other children being hurt.

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 Question 2
• Please describe the childs Complex Physical
  and/or Sensory
• Support Needs
• Physical
• gross motor skills
• motor planning
• mobility
• fine motor skills,use of hands for play / self
  help activities
• need for physical support eg customised seating
• Sensory
• Impairment of sensory systems such as vision,
  hearing, touch, smell, taste
• Sensory disorders eg low registration of
  sensation / hypersensitivity /craving for certain
  sensory stimulation eg movement,
  mouthing,sucking, licking objects

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 Question 3
• Please describe the childs Complex Behavioural
  Support Needs.
• Behaviour
• Aggression towards others or self harm
• Difficulty with transitions moving from one
  activity to the next
• Obsessions, rituals, need for strict routines
• Anxiety including separation anxiety
• Fears
• No sense of danger
• Personality withdrawn, impulsive, unpredictable,
  clingy
• Play little no imaginative or pretend play
• Attentional problems
• Low Frustration tolerance

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 Question 4
• Please describe the childs Complex Learning
  Support Needs
• Learning
• Learning gaps or delays state age equivalent if
  known
• Difficulty in learning new skills give an
  example(s)
• Reduced problem solving- the ability to work out
  how to do things
• Limited understanding of consequences
• Difficulty in generalising new skills to other
  settings
• Supports
• Step by step teaching
• Learning through demonstration or use of visual
  aids
• Co active assistance or physical prompts
• Use of simplified language for instructions

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 Question 5
• Please describe the childs Complex Emotional
  Support Needs
• Emotional
• Difficulty with regulating emotions
• Difficulty interpreting emotions of self and
  others
• Emotional lability
• Low Self esteem and Confidence
• Attachment issues
• Circumstances affecting childs emotional well
  being
• Recent change in primary carer eg foster care
  placement
• Marital conflict, separation or divorce, custody
  issues
• Witness to Domestic Violence/ victim of child
  abuse/ neglect
• Parent(s) have mental health issues / substance
  abuse
• Death of parent / primary carer/ sibling

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 Question 6
• Please describe the childs Complex Medical
  Support Needs
• Medical
• List relevant medical conditions eg uncontrolled
  epilepsy
• Support
• List all activities that you are required to
  undertake as a consequence of the your child's
  medical issues
• Fed via a PEG or nasogastric tube
• Catheterisation
• Administration of varied medications
• Describe the time commitment / level of
  supervision required to achieve these activities.

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 6 - Question 7
• Please describe the childs Communication Support
  Needs
• Communication
• Expressive Language
• How your child communicates or talks
• Others interpret childs body language, actions
  or vocalisations
• Use of some form of aided communication eg
  picture symbols/ signing/ gesture
• Speech how many words/ intelligibility/
  parroting or echolalic
• Receptive language
• How well your child understand language.
  Describe.
• Social Communication
• Limited eye contact
• No turn taking in conversations

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Step 5 Completing Section 8

• Section 8 Question 1
• Is the child at a transition point or critical
  stage of development?
• Transition Points
• Entering kinder
• 3YO gt 4YO Kinder
• Transition to school
• Adapting to new environment home, school,
  childcare, ECIS
• New person(s) in home eg sibling
• New primary carer
• Critical Stage of development
• Baby to Toddler
• New significant skill recently acquired eg
  speech, walking

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 2
• If there are behavioural issues, what strategies
  are currently being used as indicated in the
  FSSP?
• Referral to Psychologist
• Signposts Program
• Use of Social Stories
• Use of Visual aids such as picture symbols to
  help instruct child
• Positive attending/Ignoring minor behaviours
  /Time out

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 3
• In relation to the childs behaviour, are there
  any safety issues ?
• Aggression to others pushing, hitting, biting,
  kicking
• Self injury head banging, biting hands
• No awareness of danger eg in relation to water,
  climbing, roads, strangers
• Absconds in public places
• Fascination with objects that can cause injury eg
  fire , knives
• Eating non edible objects eg stones, small toys

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 4
• Please describe how the childs behaviour
  impacts on the whole family ?
• Health and emotional well being negatively
  affected
• Difficulty in juggling competing needs of
  siblings
• Siblings resentful / fearful of child with
  additional needs
• Siblings embarrassed by childs behaviours
• Reduced whole family outings and social events
• Contracting social circle for whole family

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 5
• How does childs behaviour affect the capacity
  of the parents / family/ professionals to meet
  the childs needs?
• Examples
• If the parent is spending a substantial amount of
  time keeping the child safe they may not have the
  energy to stimulate the childs learning through
  play
• If the child is difficult to manage in public
  places, outings into the community may be
  curtailed thereby reducing learning opportunities
  in these settings. Eg visiting a childrens farm
• If the child has poor attention and moves rapidly
  from one activity to another, the parent may not
  be able to recruit the childs ongoing interest
  or co-operation in play activities. Therefore the
  childs learning through repetition can not be
  consolidated..

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 6
• Please describe the activities of everyday life
  the family finds challenging.
• Consider
• Mealtimes / Bath time / Toilet time
• Shopping
• Social events eg parties
• After / before school
• Describe
• what the child does e.g. Child refuses at table
  for meals
• what affect it has on other family members. e.g.
  Family does have shared mealtimes/ mother feeds
  child on the run

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 7
• Do any other family members living in the family
  home have complex support needs ?
• Remember
• complex support needs time / supervision /
  care
• / specialist intervention
• Consider
• Health including mental health issues eg parent
  with depression
• Medical support needs eg grandmother with
  diabetes
• Other family members with additional needs/
  disabilities eg sibling with autism

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 8
• Is the family experiencing any major life
  stressors?
• Employment starting a new job/ retrenchment
• Isolation- single parent, cultural, social,
  family,geographical
• Terminal illness/ death/ accident in the extended
  family
• Life milestones birth/ marriage / divorce
• Recent diagnosis of childs disability /
  developmental delay
• Recent relocation overseas/ interstate/moving
  house
• Financial pressures - low income, pension, single
  income, high financial burdens
• Family issues -marital conflict, domestic
  violence,protective services
• Legal issues /court case

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Section 8 Question 9
• Do any family members have other commitments
  outside the home?
• Employment highlight long work hours
• Care /support of an extended family member eg
  aging parent
• Volunteer work
• Study
• Childcare for others outside immediate family

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Step 6 Completing the Support and Expenditure
Plan

• Support and Expenditure Plan
• This part of the application is looked at closely
  after it has been agreed by the panel that the
  application meets the priority factors
• In this instance, reasonable requests , that meet
  the guidelines and demonstrate planned and
  coordinated use of funds are generally funded
• The goal from the FSSP and your request must be
  clearly linked
• Responses should demonstrate the importance of
  this request for your child / family and how you
  feel it will make a positive difference to your
  lives
• Answers need to be brief and show clear thinking.

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Support and Expenditure Plan
• Question 1
• Write the relevant goal from the FSSP e.g. for
  Emma to communicate more effectively with others
• Add in your request e.g. in order to achieve
  this we are requesting funding for interim speech
  pathology while awaiting services from SCS
• Question 2
• Make a statement e.g. speech pathology will
  help Emma to make friends with other children and
  make me feel less worried that Emma will be
  isolated at kinder

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Support and Expenditure Plan
• Question 3
• You may wish to specify style of the intervention
  e.g. home based speech pathology or experience
  of the service provider e.g speech pathologist
  with experience working with preschoolers who
  have autism
• You need to describe how your request will meet
  the family goal eg. I would like to attend a tai
  chi class.

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Support and Expenditure Plan
• Question 4
• How will having this support or service help your
  child /family ? Eg. I feel a tai chi class
  would help me find ways to deal with my stress in
  a more positive way. It will also allow me to get
  out of the house and meet other people
• Is it possible to incorporate this service or
  support into all your childs environments? If
  so, describe how can you make this happen? E.g.
  I will be able to teach others at the kinder,
  ways of promoting communication as taught by the
  speech pathologist

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Support and Expenditure Plan
• Questions 5
• However you could make a statement that begins
  with Emma will join in activities with other
  children at playgroup if she can communicate more
  easily
• Question 6
• You may not be able to predict outcomes, however
  you could say I am hoping that tai chi will have
  positive benefit to my health and sense of
  wellbeing
• Question 7
• Provide information regarding your current status
  with Specialist Childrens Services or other ECIS
• E.g Emma is on the waiting list for these ECIS
  services..

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Answer questions 8 to 17 as guided by the
  prompts.
• Question 11(a) Prior to having my baby, I tried
  tai chi and enjoyed it but finances and the
  demands of looking after Emma have restricted me
• Question 11(b) I tried doing tai chi using a
  instructional video but it did not motivate me
  and I feel that a group program may help

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• Support and Expenditure Plan
• You must provide a formal quote on letterhead
  for each request.
• Otherwise the processing of the application will
  be delayed until you have provided the quote.

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ECIS Flexible Support Packages

• This training presentation for families was
  developed by Eastern Specialist Services, Scope
  and EMR Specialist Childrens Services
• Wendy Roberts,Coordinator,ECIS Flexible Support
  Packages,Scope and Yvette Laurel, Team
  Leader/PASA, SCS EMR