Category: National Impact

  • Organisational Newsletter Summer 2026

    Organisational Newsletter Summer 2026

    A message from our CEO, Catherine Mole MBE

    “What an exciting academic year for Dingley’s Promise! As we enter the summer holidays, we have twelve Centres supporting children from Worcester down to Poole, we have trained over 35,000 early years educators in how to make the mainstream more inclusive, and we have been central to governmental discussions around changes to the education system and policies.

    We continue to share our knowledge and understanding of early years SEND to inform, educate and inspire others and are making real progress in our mission to ensure every child with SEND has access to early education and support. We are excited about all of the opportunities for positive growth and change and are so grateful as ever to supporters of our charity who believe in and support our mission, to ensure that every child gets the best start in life.”

    Our Centres and Family Support: A message from our Chief Operating Officer, Lee Friend

    “I am so proud of everything our centres and family support workers have achieved over the past year, they have showed incredible dedication and commitment to making every day engaging and impactful for the children they support. Every educator has incredible knowledge and understanding of each child and family, and respond in a tailored way to every child which has a huge impact on developmental progress. The feedback we have received from families this year has been a reflection of their unique approach and the impact they make every day.”

    “Dingley’s Promise has provided us with a safe and inclusive space, where we feel valued and visible. Having a child with complex needs can be extremely lonely as a parent/carer, and I have often felt invisible. Dingley’s helped me feel seen, which as a parent has been invaluable and energised my role as a parent carer.” ~Midlands Centre Parent

    “Dingley’s Promise is the best place for a special needs child. The support is phenomenal and my daughter has thrived so much since starting there due to the Staff’s encouragement and support. She wouldn’t be the child she is now if it wasn’t for them.” ~South Centre Parent

    “We finally feel as though we have real support as a family and are so grateful for all of the help and guidance we have received. Every single person at Dingley’s has been incredibly kind and friendly, you can tell that they genuinely want to help families and children.” ~South Coast Centre Parent

    Quality & Staff Development

    This year, we have had a busy academic year exploring a variety of seasonal enhancements for the children in our centres, including Three Billy Goats Gruff, floral playdough, potion making and much more! It has been exciting to see each centre customise our specialist inclusive curriculum to each child’s individual needs and interests and adapting to each child.

    In addition, the centres have been developing their sustainability practices, using our curriculum as the foundation to support children to learn and care for living things, as well as our environment. From creating “a home for bees” to sharing stories about plastic waste with “Somebody Swallowed Stanley”.

    Celebrations

    We are delighted to report that we have had 4 successful Ofsted Inspections – Poole Strong Standard, Bournemouth Expected & Strong Standard, with Droitwich & Worcester which are yet to be published, but also went extremely well.

    We have embedded our Early Years SEND Assessment toolkit, which enables a celebratory approach to identifying needs and responding quickly to these, in our centres. Dingley’s Promise developed the toolkit alongside the Department for Education last year and very much hope that it will be rolled out and used more consistently across local authority areas, where many are already seeing the positive impacts of its use. Explore the toolkit here.

    New Centres

    In September, our West Berkshire Centre moved to a new site at Spurcroft School. The team have transitioned to the new environment brilliantly. With local funding and support, as well as local authority investment and school backing, the nursery has a new outdoor area, new resources, and 2 wonderfully equipped new playrooms, which have enabled us to increase the number of children we can support.

    We opened our Tidworth Centre in January 2026 and have been developing our community connections and family support service, before welcoming new children to our beautifully refurbished new centre.

    We are looking forward to welcoming new children to our centres in September and are committed to ensuring that every child in our care receives high-quality inclusive support which helps them to thrive and that each family feels fully involved and supported in their child’s journey.

    Lee Friend – Chief Operating Officer  

    Training Impact

    We have had a fantastic year in the training team, reaching over 35,000 educators who have completed our Early Years Inclusion Training through our Comic Relief programme. The project has made a real difference in the 32 local authorities who took part, transforming the way they approach inclusion and the relationships they have with settings, who are striving to support more children with SEND.

    96.9% of practitioners feel confident in supporting children with SEND after completing Dingley’s Promise Training

    Of our registered learners, 51.3% have completed at least one course and 34.2% have completed three or more.

    We are hopeful to drive wider inclusion across more areas of England over the coming months, using the experience we have gained and consistently improving our courses, resources and information for educators. Look out for new over the next few weeks about exciting new training and CPD opportunities coming up!

    Fundraising

    Celebrating our Englefield Estate Community Fair

    What an unforgettable day! We were delighted to welcome more than 900 supporters to our Englefield Estate Community Fair, raising an amazing £10,500 for Dingley’s Promise. Thank you to everyone who helped make the event such a success – from our fantastic stall holders, entertainers and choirs, to the families, volunteers and staff who gave their time so generously.

    We’re also incredibly grateful to our generous sponsors, Irwin Mitchell, and to our wonderful hosts, Lord Benyon and the Englefield Estate team, for their continued support and hospitality.

    Click here to take a look at a few of our favourite moments from our day out at Englefield Estate.

    Big Give Christmas Challenge 2026

    Preparations are already underway for one of our biggest fundraising campaigns of the year – the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2026! This year’s appeal will raise vital funds for our Family Support Programme, which provides one-to-one support, practical advice and community outreach for families of children with SEND. Families often tell us they feel overwhelmed, isolated and unsure where to turn. Our programme is there when they need it most, helping to prevent challenges from escalating into crisis.

    Our goal is to raise £40,000, but first we need to secure £10,000 in pledges by 28 August to unlock match funding. These pledges are essential, as they mean every donation made during the Big Give campaign will be doubled, allowing us to reach even more families. If you, your organisation or someone in your network could make a pledge, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact our fundraising team at [email protected] to find out how you can help make twice the impact this Christmas.

    A huge thank you to all of our incredible supporters, volunteers and fundraisers who continue to make our work possible.

    Kate and Jo – The Fundraising Team

    Lobbying

    We have had really positive year in the political space, with opportunities to regularly feed in to the reform changes to Ministers, The Department for Education and as part of early years sector groups to directly influence change. We were delighted to see the introduction of the Best Start in Life Strategy which heavily focuses on training the early years workforce and ensuring more support for families of children with SEND in the earliest years, both key areas in our recommendations for change.

    We are currently feeding into the early years funding consultation to ensure that settings and families are able to access the funds they need to respond to a broad range of needs. We are also calling for greater sufficiency of places for children with SEND to access their full entitlements and better support for families to navigate the system. We will continue to raise the voices of families and ensure that early years remains the centre of discussions around changes to the system.

    Thank you for continuing to support our vital work which helps to build a more inclusive early years for children with SEND.

  • Our response to Early Years Inclusion Fund Announcement

    Our response to Early Years Inclusion Fund Announcement

    On Wednesday 25th June the government have announced guidance on support spaces and new buildings within schools designed specifically to support children with SEND and to promote inclusive practice. They have also announced the IEYF (Inclusive Early Years Fund) which is designed to strengthen inclusive practice in early years.

    Whilst we welcome the government’s move to encourage new and tailored spaces in which children with SEND can thrive, we must ensure that the school system is designed to enable flexible use of these spaces, whilst ensuring that they do not have the unintended consequence of isolating students and removing the opportunity for them to work and learn alongside peers, vital social interaction which impacts so much on developmental progress, communication and wellbeing.

    Within the guidance, there is clear acknowledgement of the need to look closely at the environment in which children are expected to learn within, and we know first-hand the importance of considering the physical, social and emotional environment for children with SEND, to ensure that they feel settled and can thrive. However, it must be acknowledged that without the necessary early intervention and investment also in the early years to provide this, the children with SEND who are currently unable to gain access to education will be failed before they have even entered school. Many of these children may be forced down a path of specialist education when they have the potential with the right support to thrive in mainstream, purely due to being failed in their earliest years.

    We would therefore request much more emphasis on the early years and on inclusion spaces, which are funded and effectively resourced with trained staff to meet this growing need, reducing costly reliance on inclusion bases further into the education system.

    Whilst we welcome the introduction of the IEYF, we feel strongly that settings of all types should benefit from inclusion funding. The distribution of this fund means that smaller settings and childminders, who provide vital tailored support and are often chosen by families of children with SEND over larger and overwhelming nursery settings, do not qualify to receive funding. There is also a risk that settings who are not inclusive, such as those who turn away children with SEND are rewarded with inclusion funding and that larger chains and groups of nurseries may pool these funds and reallocate to central costs without appropriate reporting mechanisms for funding spend in place.

    We would like to see greater investment and fair allocation of early years funding to all settings in future, judged not on size but in response to their inclusive approach, and the access they give to children with SEND in line with local sufficiency and planning measures. We would also call for inclusion bases to be invested in across the education system from early years to post 16.

    Without a more balanced approach to support which recognises the stages of the education system and types of provision for their equal importance and impact, we will continue to see the division and siloed delivery of education where in reality we need increased cohesion, communication and smooth transition.

    “The government continues to demonstrate its commitment to inclusion and this investment in the early years is welcomed. However, the allocation of this funding must be revised to ensure that it reaches all types of provision including small settings and childminders, who are often the setting of choice for families of children with SEND.  We hope to see a clear description of how the allocation of IEYF will be monitored so that settings are held to account for being inclusive. Finally we would like to see all of this funding to be spent directly in each setting for children to develop inclusion, not pooled by larger providers to fund central SEND costs.”

    Catherine Mole – CEO – Dingley’s Promise

    Read more about the government announcements here.

  • Early Years Engagement Events

    Early Years Engagement Events

    Dingley’s Promise is inviting parents of children with SEND under 8 to share their early years experiences and help shape national policy.

    Join us for an online session exploring the government’s new SEND proposals and feeding back directly into the consultation.

    Your voice matters! Sign up here: https://dingley.org.uk/send-reform-engagement-events/

    If you can’t attend, you can still have your say through the national consultation: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first

  • Response to the Government’s SEND reform white paper

    Response to the Government’s SEND reform white paper

    We welcome the white paper’s focus on early years and the acknowledgement of this as a vital stage which shapes the educational journey for all children. This is the first time that the early years has been centred within SEND education reform plans, and as such this provides a huge opportunity.

    The white paper aims to “strengthen the ability of every educational setting to meet the varying needs of children and young people”. This aspiration, if successful, puts children on a level playing field, regardless of need or disadvantage, finally giving educators the resources needed to be truly inclusive and welcome every child.

    The government’s commitment to £47 million funding for inclusion, specifically in the early years, provides an opportunity for quicker response to needs which are identified early. We have long championed early identification of need, however the effectiveness of this will rely on a simple, standardised and effective way of assessing needs and responding to them, which can be communicated across all professionals involved with the child.

    There are however clear gaps in detail and a lack of clarity over specific areas relating to children with SEND in the early years , which we are keen to feed into as part of the government consultation, these include:

    • The need for tracking of children with SEND clearly in each local authority to enable better awareness of levels of children with SEND and improved sufficiency measures
    • The need to ensuring full whole setting, needs-led inclusive practice with the new school-based nurseries.
    • Acknowledgment of early years specialist provision as a distinct sector that requires clear guidelines, controls and expectations
    • Early years access to medical professionals, currently a significant issue – how will this be address by the Experts at Hand programme.
    • Eligibility criteria for SEND support needs to be much clearer and we need to ensure that packages of support are suitable for children in the early years.
    • The new Inclusion Standards must take into account materials already created by the Department for Education such as the Early Years Assessment Guidance (2024).
    • Local authorities all have different early years SEND offers, and the new BSiL role has to be flexible enough to fit in and compliment other services and professionals.

    Read our full recommendations document here.

  • Response to the new Child Poverty Strategy

    Response to the new Child Poverty Strategy

    Dingley’s Promise welcomes the new Child Poverty Strategy, which recognises the urgent need to address the growing numbers of children across the country living in poverty. Families of children with SEND are amongst those most impacted by the ‘double disadvantage’ of higher living and care costs as a result of their child’s needs, as highlighted in recent research from The Sutton Trust linking poverty and SEND.

    The strategy recognises that affordable childcare is critical for giving children the best start in life and reducing the impact of child poverty. However, the strategy does not address the fact that access for children with SEND to early years education is a key barrier to equal opportunity. The link between poverty and SEND is clear and therefore any policy aiming to reduce child poverty must also actively consider how to ensure children with SEND have full access to education, health and care services. Without addressing the needs of this group of children, closing the gap cannot become a reality and a large number of children will continue to be left behind.

    We welcome the scrapping of the “two-child limit” on benefits (Universal Credit/child elements), which will provide much needed financial support to more families.  The strategy also welcomes a number of areas for extended support such as breakfast clubs and holiday and wrap around care. We are however, very aware that unless correct measures of support are put into place to make these sessions fully inclusive, children with SEND often face limited access to these services due to an inability to meet needs effectively, leading to greater inequality.

    The Strategy refers to strengthening “local services,” such as health, social care, housing and other support services, which would make a significant difference to families of children with SEND, who regularly have to repeat information within different formats. However greater integration between anti-poverty measures and local SEND services is needed for this to be impactful.

    The document demonstrates the intention to remove ‘structural barriers to employment’, which may in some cases, where children are able to access entitlements, help families to work more. However, we know for many families the demands on family life, medical appointments and levels of care and support required in reality make working extremely difficult – something which is not fully recognise or addressed within the strategy.

    We stand with our partners in committing to contribute to the Government’s upcoming childcare review and the Schools White Paper, to strengthen the equity in the system, by directly tackling the crisis in access to early education for children with SEND. This will build on what has been outlined in the Poverty Strategy and is critical for ensuring that we do not continue to uphold an inequitable system, in which children with SEND are already more likely to be living in poverty, and have less chance of accessing life-changing early education.

    You can read the full Governement Strategy here.

  • Solving the SEND Crisis report – our response

    Solving the SEND Crisis report – our response

    We welcome the ‘House of Commons Education Committee Report’ and were grateful to have been asked to provide evidence for this process, which has clearly been acknowledged within the recommendations. The report recognises that ‘there needs to be that value and recognition of the early years’ and aligns closely with the recommendations Dingley’s Promise made when giving evidence to the Committee to improve funding, access and workforce capacity in the early years. We are pleased to see repeated emphasis on early identification, which is especially vital for the growing numbers of children with SEND.

    The report identifies the need to ‘undertake further work to understand where the balance of resource should sit between early years and reception’ and we would strongly recommend the focus on a needs led approach in the early years and increased resource and investment to enable effective and smooth transitions between the two stages of education.

    The report addresses the current ineffectiveness of the funding in early years and the ‘inconsistency in the delivery of early years provision and (SENIF)’, and encourages the Department for Education to ‘establish a ‘set of national inclusivity requirements for early years settings’. We welcome this in principle but are clear that funding must be directed to both children with ‘High Needs’ and those with ‘Low and Emerging’ needs. Funding must be sufficient and sustainable to enable educators to respond effectively to meet a range of needs regardless of whether there is an EHCP, diagnosis or specialist input. This requires the ringfencing of the High Needs Block to support children in the early years and for SENIF funding to be available and sufficient for those with low and emerging needs. We also support the recommendation to delink Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Disability Access Funding (DAF).

    We are pleased to see the report acknowledge the role of Best Start Family Hubs in ‘presenting a valuable opportunity to engage with families earlier and identify SEND needs at the earliest possible stage’. The need for greater integration of specialist services, early years teams and early years settings to provide holistic early support to families is unquestionable. To be effective, family hubs should support early identification of need and leadership of local support services for families of children with SEND. All staff need to have inclusion training, and the SEND staff should be skilled and experienced in supporting families of children with SEND.

    Upskilling the workforce to support inclusive practice is key to the success of any funding measures and we are pleased to see the report acknowledge the opportunity through the Best Start in Life strategy to ‘ensure that there is a ‘strong and consistent framework for building SEND capacity and good practice in early years settings’. It is vital that a whole setting approach to inclusion is taken in every setting, underpinned by high quality inclusive practice, accessible environments and inclusive curriculum. Without mandatory SEND Inclusion training across the sector for new and existing educators, we can not hope to achieve inclusion and give every child an equitable early years education, which improves children’s longer term outcomes and supports the government’s aims to improve child development levels.

    We encourage the government to factor in these clear recommendations to the forthcoming White Paper reforms and are keen to work with them to support reforms that ensure necessary system change in the early years and greater opportunity, access, support and funding for children with SEND and their families.

    Read the full report here Solving the SEND Crisis

  • Government ‘Best Start in Life’ Strategy – Our Response

    Government ‘Best Start in Life’ Strategy – Our Response

    Dingley’s Promise welcomes the Government’s ‘Best Start in Life’ Strategy and its vital focus on valuing and investing in early childhood. For too long, children with SEND have not been able to access their early years entitlements in the same way as other children, leaving them further behind their peers, and their families feeling isolated and frustrated.  

    The Government states that it will “increase access for children with SEND, by investing in the help available to them to support inclusion, and early intervention to prevent the escalation of needs.” We have actively called for changes to the system to improve access and life outcomes for children with SEND, and for a system which puts children and families at the centre and ensures collaboration for the best outcomes of each individual child. We are delighted that the Strategy aligns with many of our recommendations for early years SEND Inclusion.  

    There was recognition that ‘the early years funding system creates a barrier to delivering provision for children with SEND.’ We are pleased to see increased investment in early years SEND, through a new, easy to access funding stream in early years settings. This is intended to ‘help fund extra resources for providers to invest in inclusion and early intervention and prevent the escalation of needs at a time when additional support can have the biggest impact in a child’s development.’   

    In addition, we welcome the proposed funded partnership working between early years settings and schools, to allow for smoother transitions for children, seeing first-hand the impact of effective and ineffective transitions on long term educational outcomes for children. 

    Having developed an outreach service in each of our communities as well as online information sessions and digital resources, we are happy to see the expansion of Family Hubs. Having a dedicated professional in each hub who is trained to support families of children with SEND is absolutely critical. We welcome the drive towards ‘helping to identify children with SEND who may need extra help early on’ as well as building links with early years settings and health services and assisting parents at this early stage. We believe this approach will have significant impacts on families, many of whom have expressed the importance of feeling included and supported at what can be a confusing and isolating time. 

    The issues raised by families in our recent parent roundtable held in Westminster highlighted the complexity and ineffectiveness of current family support systems and just how critical it is for families to have this kind of support, information and signposting in the early years.  

    Dingley’s Promise has long called for an inclusive approach to early years education. We were encouraged to see a recognition of the importance of ‘strong inclusive practice’ for all children. The Government has demonstrated their intention to ‘make inclusive practice standard practice in the early years by embedding an inclusive approach in our workforce education, training and leadership opportunities.’ Our own research with providers reflected that 77% believe that inclusion training is a priority for their teams, and when considering inclusion as a whole, 63% of settings felt the best way to improve their support to children is through staff training. We have seen first-hand the impacts on individuals and settings who undertake high quality inclusive practice training, increasing confidence and knowledge to support a broad range of needs and welcome more children into their settings.  

    Chief Executive Catherine Mole MBE welcomes the proposed Best Start Strategy: “This strategy reflects the Government’s commitment to prioritising early years and children with SEND, and we are delighted that it addresses many of the barriers we have highlighted in recent months. Dingley’s Promise believes that these initiatives will make a significant difference to children with SEND and their families in the early years, opening up more places in early years settings, and driving strong inclusive practice within a skilled and valued workforce, from which all children will benefit. We are committed to working with the Government to bring this strategy to life and recognise that this is the first step in a longer process that we hope will enable every child to thrive in the early years.”  

    We look forward to hearing more about the direction of the strategy and the specific SEND reforms which will be outlined in the Schools White Paper in the autumn.  

  • Dingley’s Promise statement regarding planned reform of EHCP process

    Dingley’s Promise statement regarding planned reform of EHCP process

    We welcome the government’s attention to reform of the SEND system, including the review of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). We strongly advise that if these Plans are to cease, there must be an alternative process in place that does not erode the rights of children, and ensures every child gets the support they need at the earliest possible opportunity.

    We fully understand the concerns of families, who at the current time are unsure of what the reform of this process will look like. However as the government is clearly considering possible alternatives, we urge families of children with SEND to continue to contribute to the conversation, alongside sector professionals and organisations, to create a system that works effectively and in which services can be held to account.

    From an early years perspective, reform is urgently needed to remove current barriers. There are significant issues in accessing professional support during early years and diagnosing children when they are still developing rapidly can be unhelpful. The process requires families to complete deficit-focused application procedures at the very start of their educational journey, which can be traumatic and exacerbate worries and concerns about their current and future developmental potential. We also have an early years workforce which is struggling to meet heavy demands of an inadequate funding system and processes which place an unnecessarily heavy administrative burden on them. The current systems and processes in early years are not fit for purpose and place increased pressures later in the education system.

    We believe that an effective system of support for children with SEND in the early years should be based on needs and not on diagnosis. Changes to the funding process in the early years is required, to remove the current barriers and backlogs in the system which are leaving many children unable to access their next stage of education or without the support in place to thrive. A fully funded, needs-led and easily accessible process is paramount. A wider range of SENIF funding streams should be available to early years providers that enable them to support all children. These should use streamlined application procedures which focus on needs of children and place trust in early years educators to identify those needs in partnership with families.

    This approach would allow early years educators to use a graduated approach when identifying and meeting needs, removing the expectation from schools for children to have an EHCP before they can be accepted into the next stage of education. With rising numbers of early years children deferring entry to school because their EHCP is not in place, this change is critical in ensuring that children move on at the same time as their peers and are neither socially nor educationally disadvantaged.

    We believe that this will build strong inclusive practice from the beginning of every child’s educational journey, and reduce the over reliance on EHCPs in the early years. It places the emphasis on the individual needs of each child, reduces pressure on families and early years professionals and allows a wide range of children to play and learn together. The EHCP process, or any new process that is created must continue to hold educational settings to account once they have started school, but in the early years the needs led approach gives children the best start without the need to label or diagnose children earlier than is necessary.

    Catherine McLeod MBE

    CEO Dingley’s Promise

  • “Heads forced to ‘lobby’ for specialist provision in early years” – TES Magazine

    “Heads forced to ‘lobby’ for specialist provision in early years” – TES Magazine

    In an article for TES Magazine, Dingley’s Promise CEO Catherine McLeod highlights the importance of early years SEND provision amidst the concerns of many in the sector that not enough is being done to support children with complex needs in this crucial stage of development.

     

    Catherine McLeod, CEO of Dingley’s Promise, warned that creating specialist provision in early years has been an overlooked policy area until now.

    She leads the largest specialist provider of nursery education to children under five with SEND in England, running nine centres.

    “When it comes to creating units, specialist provision has never been properly considered in the early years,” she told Tes.

    Ms McLeod said this was strange given the prominence of such provision in schools, and suggested that in the past, there have been concerns that specialist provision in early years works against ensuring inclusion in mainstream.

    But she added: “I think people have to get their head around the idea that actually, if you get in early, you give the right intervention, you can actively move that child into the mainstream.”

     

    Read the full piece here.

  • Solving the SEND Crisis – Evidence from Dingley’s Promise

    Solving the SEND Crisis – Evidence from Dingley’s Promise

    Over the past few years, giving every child the best early years education has increasingly been considered the key to success in their educational journey and their life outcomes.

    Despite the importance of this stage of education, we are currently failing children with SEND and their families in the early years. Coram’s annual childcare survey in 2024 found that only 6% of local authority areas felt they have enough early years provision for children with SEND. This is a drop from 18% in 2023, showing a dramatic worsening in access to early years provision. Dingley’s Promise research in late 2023 found that one in five families had been turned away from an early years setting because of their child’s needs, something that is repeatedly being raised as a concern through our work with families and local authorities across the country.

    In this evidence, we offer key strategies for improving this untenable situation, highlighting areas of concern from the viewpoint of families, settings and local authorities.

    Click here for our full evidence submission.