Every child with special educational needs should have SEN support. This means help that is additional to or different from the support generally given to most of the other children of the same age.
The purpose of early years SEN support is to help children achieve the outcomes or learning objectives set for them by the preschool or nursery in collaboration with the parents/carers.
Early years SEN support and the law
All preschools and nurseries funded by the local authority are required to be aware of the SEND Code of Practice and meet the needs of children with SEND. All preschools and nurseries whether funded by the local authority or not are required to comply with the Equality Act 2010. This means they must not discriminate against your child and they must make reasonable adjustments to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.
This guide aims to help you to make sure that your early years child with SEND is being treated fairly: Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010 for Early Years - CDC
Early years SEN Support must be available in all mainstream early years settings which get funding from Buckinghamshire Council. To find out about the SEN provision the preschool or nursery makes, you can check their website and speak to their Special Educational Needs Coordinator.
Early years SEN Support - help or provision
Early years SEN support can take many forms, including:
- a special learning programme for your child
- extra help from a teacher or a learning support assistant
- making or changing materials and equipment
- working with your child in a small group
- observing your child and keeping records
- helping your child to take part in activities
- making sure your child has understood things by encouraging them to ask questions and to try something they find difficult
- helping other children work with your child, or play with them
- supporting your child with physical or personal care, such as eating, getting around safely, toileting or dressing
- advice and/or extra help from specialists such as specialist teachers, educational psychologists and therapists
- When preschools or nurseries want to call in specialists they should discuss and agree this with parents
Help for early years SEN Support in Buckinghamshire is called Ordinarily Available Provision for Early Years. This guide sets out in detail what support preschools and nurseries are expected to make for all young children with SEN or disabilities to make sure they get the best possible SEN Support.
This includes advice clinics, helplines, webinars and drop ins.
In Buckinghamshire early years settings with children on SEN Support are supported by the Early Years SEND team.
The Buckinghamshire health visiting team helps with screening, home visits, health and development reviews, and advice on wellbeing and parenting for children aged 0 to 5.
The learning disability nurses work with children and young people aged 0 to 19 who have a learning disability.
These services are provided by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
Portage is a 'learning through play' programme supporting all aspects of a young child's development within the family home. It is for early years children with significant delay in understanding and at least one of the following skills:
- social
- emotional
- self-help
- motor
- language
- communication
Referrals can be made by parents/carers or professionals. Find out more about Portage.
For further information, phone 01494 475 579 or email [email protected]
Support for children aged 0 to 19 for difficulties with:
- physical movement
- communication and/or swallowing
- participating in everyday activities
Support including fact sheets, advice sessions for parents/carers and professionals, webinars led by speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists is available without a referral from.
Children and young people who have high, urgent health or equipment needs require a referral into the service.
These services are provided by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust on their Children and young peoples therapies page.
Further details are available here:
Family Support provides support to families who are facing more complex challenges, through group work or support from a Family Worker. One-to-one support is available in a setting that is comfortable, such as in the home, a local community setting, or somewhere else.
Families can refer themselves or can ask for help from a preschool/nursery, school, health, or other professionals who will make a referral on their behalf. Find out more here on the Family support services page.
All schools and preschools/nurseries in Buckinghamshire have an assigned Family Support Service (FSS) School Link Worker.
Their role includes:
- helping schools, preschools and nurseries build and develop positive relationships with families
- supporting the early identification of emerging needs of children and families
You can find this information on the School Link Workers page on Schools Web.
Where other interventions are not successful, education or health professionals can refer to the Community Paediatric Team which assess, diagnose and support children with developmental disorders such as:
- cerebral palsy
- developmental delay
- autism spectrum conditions
- muscular dystrophy
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
A graduated approach
When your child is identified as having SEN, the preschool or nursery should use a graduated approach. This is a cycle of four steps.
These steps are:
Teaching staff should work with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator to assess your child’s needs so that they give the right support. They should involve you in this and, where possible, seek your child’s views.
The SEND Code of Practice says:
It is important that all practitioners listen and understand when parents express concerns about their child’s development. (5.5)
Sometimes preschools and nurseries will seek advice from a specialist teacher or a health professional. They should talk to you about this first.
If the preschool or nursery decides that your child needs SEN support they should tell you. Staff should agree with you:
- what your child's special educational needs are
- the outcomes that will be set
- what help or special educational provision your child will have
- a date for progress to be reviewed
These should be written in to an early years SEN Support plan. You should be asked to contribute to this.
The SEND Code of Practice says:
The practitioner and the SENCo should agree, in consultation with the parent, the outcomes they are seeking, the interventions and support to be put in place, the expected impact on progress, development or behaviour, and a clear date for review. (5.40)
Your child’s keyworker is usually responsible for the work that is done with your child, and should work closely with the SENCo and any specialist staff involved. The preschool or nursery should tell you who is responsible for the support your child receives.
The SEND Code of Practice says:
Where a [early years] setting makes special educational provision for a child with SEN they should inform the parents and a maintained nursery school must inform the parents. (5.38)
The plan should include a review date - on or before this date, everyone involved with the plan should meet to discuss whether the plan is working and whether it needs to be changed.
At the meeting:
- Have all your child's needs been identified?
- Is help in place to meet all their needs?
- Have you agreed the outcomes to aim for? Are they the right ones for your child? Are they specific and measurable?
- What progress is your child making towards their outcomes?
- What difference is the help making?
The SEND Code of Practice says:
Parents should have clear information about the impact of the support provided and be involved in planning next steps. (5.43)
For advice about handling meetings, see our section on Getting your voice heard, which includes what to do if you have already had a meeting and still have concerns.
You and your child should be involved in the review and in planning the next steps. If your child has not responded to the help they were given, the review should decide what can be done next. This may include more or different help.
The idea of this assess, plan, do, review cycle is that the plan is improved over time, and the child starts to make measurable progress.
Funding for Early Years children with special educational needs and/or disabilities
SEN Support plans should include information about the total hours of support or cost of the support. Ask the education provider for this information if you need it and do not have it. Remember that if the child has been taught in a small group, only a proportion of the hours or cost will benefit them e.g. A child or young person in a group of 4 for one hour per week will benefit from 15 minutes of small group support per week which is 25% of the total cost.
Buckinghamshire, like all local authorities, is required to have a Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund (SENIF) to support funded 3 and 4 year-olds with SEN, who are taking up their free entitlement.
In Buckinghamshire it may also be used to support funded 2-year-olds with SEND and children with SEND starting in reception classes in mainstream schools .
For more information see the Early Years SEN Inclusion Fund page.
Reasonable adjustments for disabilities should not be charged to individual parents/carers. Providers should adjust their fees for all parents/carers to absorb these costs. The Disability Access Fund helps funded providers make those reasonable adjustments within their provision to support children aged 3 - 4 with a disability.
Some early years children with SEND may also be eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium
More detailed information about early years funding in Buckinghamshire is available from the Information and guidance page.
When Early Years SEN Support is not enough
Think about what the education provider has already done. For example:
What evidence is there of the graduated approach? For example:
- reviewed SEN Support plans
- information about the total hours of support or cost of the support from the last year.
Could the education provider do more from their own resources?
- Has the child been mostly taught on their own, on a part time timetable for more than 6 weeks or even excluded? These may be indicators that the current help isn't enough to enable the child to be included in activities with other children
- Have they had a lot of help but not made progress?
- Is the education provider giving the child more help than they have resources for, so the help might have to stop? What would be the impact on the child if the help stops?
- Maybe everyone agrees the child requires additional support, but it has not been provided, because it is not available without an Education, Health and Care plan
- Perhaps the education provider has been providing a great deal of help under SEN Support and now the child is due to move to another education provider which will not be able to give the same level of support, or has a different environment which the child will find very difficult without more help than the education provider can give
Sometimes the next step may be to ask the local authority for an EHC needs assessment. If the preschool or nursery decides to do this they must involve you. If you think it is needed you can ask for it yourself.