Early Years SEND Support Service

We put some questions to Tracy, an Early Years SEND Advisor for Southend-on-Sea City Council. Here's what she had to say

Please tell us your name, job title and a one sentence description of what your job is?

My name is Tracy Bakonyvari, I am an Early Years SEND Advisor at Southend City Council. I advise and support Early Years settings to support children with SEND. I also support families who have a child with SEND in their homes, advising them on strategies to assist their child's development, as well as helping them to find suitable education settings when needed.

How did you get into your current career?

I am a qualified teacher and worked in both mainstream and special needs schools and found my passion for supporting children with additional needs. I then moved to the local authority 6 years ago and completed my SENCo qualification whilst working as an SEN Case Officer on the school age team.

I applied for this role 2 years ago and it was such a great opportunity to work more closely with families and children, as well as training settings and providing support groups and courses for families in the area - not to mention being able to support children and families at such a crucial stage as the early years.

Please give us a brief summary of your average day

My days are very varied and a mixture of visits to schools, training and support sessions, team meetings, completing observations of children in their home or at nursery, competing Education, Health and Care Plan paperwork and supporting with this process for families on my caseload, monitoring and planning for school transitions and contacting families and settings to answer any queries they have. Every day really is different and a mixture of being in the office and out and about.

Has your job changed much over the years?

In the last two years my role has remained quite similar, obviously lots of changes happened during Covid-19 and we had to adapt the way we provided some of our services. I am really happy to be back in settings again and back in the office more regularly.

What is most challenging thing about your role?

I think anyone who works in the area of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) will say there aren't enough hours in the day. I would love to be able to have more time with each family, setting and child.

What do you love most about your job?

So many things! Training is something I really love to do, as well as planning support groups and sessions for families, as you can see the direct impact of this. I always feel very lucky that I work in such a supportive team and get to have fun with some amazing children as part of my work.

If you could change anything about your job or SEND services, what would it be?

I would like to have more time to plan and deliver training and support groups, as this is something I really enjoy. Like I said before, I think all people working in supportive roles would love to have more staff and more time to help people as much as they possibly could.

When you aren't at work, what are you doing?

I love to try new things and will always take an opportunity to go somewhere I haven't been. I love Zumba and boxing classes and try to go 3 times a week. I love to shop and go out for lunch, dinner or afternoon tea and generally enjoy all the experiences that life has to offer. I also really enjoy baking and will never say no to a chance to go dancing!