Children at Dorset Scope
Today there are 3 distinct services: Langside School for just over 30 children; Smithers short term breaks and Shapes Domiciliary service. Smithers provides welcome short term breaks for children, young people and their families, whilst Shapes is a related service that meets the needs of children and young people in their own homes.
Langside School was awarded Specialist Schools Status in July 2007: we are now nationally recognised as specialists in the provision of sensory and physical special needs education. We provide good education for children who have learning and physical difficulties. There are nurses to meet medical needs and a full range of physio, occupational, and speech and language therapists. These nurses and therapists are a vital part of the school community, ensuring that children are as well as they can be and enabled to take full benefit from the excellent education offered.
Access to all of these services is via the statutory authorities in the first instance – Education, Health and Social Services – which is where the funding for placements is found.
We believe this to be an exciting time for children’s services; there is increasing demand for the invaluable services provided at Smithers and by Shapes, and Dorset Scope will be seeking to develop new premises for Smithers and to develop the extent of the service provided by the dedicated staff who go to people’s homes to help families to meet the needs of their children, brothers and sisters who have disabilities.
At the same time, Langside School premises need to develop further, which will be a very major capital project.