Early Years SEND Assessment Guidance
A practical guide to identifying SEND needs in the early years
Dingley’s Promise has worked in collaboration with the Department for Education to create Assessment Guidance for early years educators, using our extensive knowledge of identifying and responding to a wide variety of needs within our centres and using effective strategies to support children in making their next developmental steps.
The assessment guidance has an accompanying toolkit and supports a child centred, strengths based approach to assessing children’s emerging or existing needs. Linking to the 4 broad areas of need, the educator should select the assessment tool which relates to the child’s most significant areas of need and review progress regularly within their assessment process to track progress.
We hope that this simple approach gives those working with children with SEND the confidence to identify and respond to needs quickly to plan next steps for each child.
The attached handbook, developed by Dingley’s Promise has been designed to provide a step by step guide to implementing the guidance in your setting. Click below to select the assessment tool for the developmental area you would like to assess, or use our accompanying resources to support your assessment process.
Cognition and Learning
Communication and Interaction
Sensory and Physical
Social and Emotional
Additional resources
“At the Alliance, we believe every child, without exception, should be given the best possible start in life. As such, we warmly welcome these new resources, which will provide much-needed guidance to early years providers and help ensure that children with SEND get the support they need, when they need it.”
Neil Leitch – CEO Early Years Alliance
“We are delighted to launch this guidance nationally, having worked in collaboration with the DfE as part of our vision to create a more inclusive early years sector, and are excited to see this hard work come to fruition. We hope that it will improve early intervention that is so critical for improving life outcomes for children with SEND. We are grateful to all those who helped in the development of this guidance by giving their feedback on draft versions, including settings, local authorities, health professionals and early years experts.”
Catherine McLeod – CEO Dingley’s Promise