Category: National Impact

  • Dingley’s Promise sponsors APPG on Childcare and Early Education

    Dingley’s Promise sponsors APPG on Childcare and Early Education

    Dingley’s Promise has become a sponsor of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Childcare and the Early Education in order to ensure that the national conversation about the value of the early years sector includes the voice of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families. In the wake of the pandemic, the vital importance of the early years has never been more clear. In recent months calls have increased for greater investment in the earliest years, and just last month the Government launched their new early years review, led by The Rt. Hon. Andrea Leadsom MP. ‘ The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days‘ outlines the importance of giving every child the best start in life to minimise inequalities, and is in line with increasing calls for greater focus on the earliest years.

    The charity runs specialist early years settings in Berkshire and a national training and consultancy programme, focused on transforming the early years for children with SEND. As a member of the Disabled Children’s Partnership and a delivery partner in the Department for Education-funded Early Years SEND Partnership, Dingley’s Promise has been increasingly involved in bringing about change. The charity has worked to raise awareness among MPs of the need for excellent early interventions for children with SEND, therefore when given the opportunity to join the APPG it was a logical next step.

    The APPG on Childcare and the Early Education is Chaired by the Member of Parliament for Winchester, Steve Brine MP, who is passionate about the early years agenda in particular child development in the first 1001 days and the quality of the settings in which they receive early education. The group’s other sponsors include The Early Years Alliance, the National Day Nurseries Association, the Montessori Group, CACHE, The Foundations Stage Forum and Tops Day Nurseries.

    Chief Executive of Dingley’s Promise Catherine McLeod MBE said: ‘We are thrilled to have been accepted so warmly by Steve and welcomed by the other sponsors, reflecting the recognition that an early years conversation cannot be complete without consideration of how to be inclusive of children with SEND. We are committed to raising awareness nationally and among parliamentarians of the lack of sufficient early years provision for children with SEND throughout the country, and we hope to see real progress on this in the coming year.’

    The first APPG meeting of this financial year will be held virtually on 27th April on the topic of ‘Parent Perspectives on Early Education’, with the Chair presenting the results of the survey carried out in Childcare and Early Education week. Practitioners and families are invited to attend the session and should contact Connect PA, the APPG’s Secretariat, [email protected] to secure their place.

  • CEO’s Blog: Learning from lockdown

     

     

    What can we learn from lockdown about how to best support children with SEND in the early years?

     

    Lockdown has been hard for everyone – but particularly for children with SEND and their families. Research from the Council for Disabled Children highlights how the early years sector is concerned about transitioning children back to settings, as well as transitioning them on to school in light of the long absence from settings. The research also raises concerns about the social and emotional impact of lockdown for children, and an increase in challenging behaviour as children struggle to cope with changes to routine and the loss of usual social interactions.

     

    As children started returning to our Centres in June, we were surprised to find that few of them had difficulty in returning and in a relatively short time they had all resettled well. Once settled, we focused on working with them and their families to understand what the impact of lockdown had been on them and their learning. What we found was that in general, the higher the needs of the child, the more they had fallen behind, which leaves us with concerns about those children who are still self-isolating with their families and are clinically vulnerable. For children with higher needs that experience a longer period of absence, the return to settings is likely to be more challenging.

     

    For those children, we have put in place a plan to focus on the therapy they have missed while in lockdown when they return in September. Our teams have identified activities and strategies for each child who had a Physiotherapy, Speech & Language, and Occupational Therapy Plan to ensure they can access as much professional therapy as possible. In addition, we have started planning activities for each of them that will complement that therapy whilst in the setting. We are also continuing to support children and families remotely through the summer holidays and are doing our best to ensure that they have a sense of belonging, structure and continuity in their lives.

     

    Specifically, the key learning areas that we discovered to have suffered the most during lockdown, among all of our children, are ‘health and self care’, and ‘listening and attention’. In order to help the whole cohort of children, we have planned a range of activities linked to these skills for all the children in our Centres in September so that we can contribute to recovering lost progress in these areas.

     

    Of course, all of this will be done very carefully so that children are not overwhelmed, and we are aware that it is unlikely children will fully catch up to where they would have been had lockdown not happened.

     

    More surprisingly though, we also found that some children had thrived during lockdown. The lack of pressure to conform to daily routine, the familiar surroundings and faces of home, and parents with much more time to support them, has meant that for some children lockdown has been a gift and they have developed fast. Our research showed that for 40% of our families, learning and communication actually improved for their children during lockdown.

     

    As education providers, we must pause and think about what all of this means. It gives us the opportunity to restart our settings with a greater understanding of what helps children thrive, with the recognition that all children are unique. It is so important for all of us to consider which strategies used in lockdown will continue to be important in the future – and certainly for Dingley’s Promise this will mean more remote support that enables us to support and empower families more than ever before.

     

    – Catherine McLeod MBE, CEO of Dingley’s Promise

     

     

    If you would like to support our recovery programme for children with SEND, please donate to our project on the Good Exchange. 

     

    If you donate via The Good Exchange this Friday, the 24th of July, your donation will be trebled by the Greenham Trust as part of Double Matched Funding Day. 

     

    Learn more and donate here: https://app.thegoodexchange.com/project/18286

  • 30 hour childcare entitlement – Dingley’s Promise lobbies central government

    Last week, the Chief Executive of Dingley’s Promise, Catherine McLeod MBE lobbied members of Parliament on the accessibility of the 30 hours provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

    Recent statistics released by the Department for Education show that children with SEND are less likely to access their entitlements in the early years compared to their mainstream peers.

    Only 6.3% of 3 and 4 year olds accessing their 15 hours entitlement have SEND

    Only 2.6% of 3 and 4 year olds accessing their 30 hours entitlement have SEND

    Our research undertaken in 2017 identified a training and development need in settings in order to increase their capacity for children with SEND.  68% of settings felt they needed more support and advice, whilst 63% felt they needed better training in order to take more children with SEND.

    Our own research with families found only 4% are taking up the new 30 hour offer for their child, whilst a whopping 45% still weren’t sure if they were entitled.

    Catherine McLeod MBE attended the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Families in the Early Years campaign day.  Catherine met with Richard Benyon; MP for West Berkshire to discuss the issue, gaining his commitment to raise this with the Minister.  She also spoke with Tulip Siddiq; the Chair of the APPG on Childcare and Early Education, and Tracy Brabin MP; the Shadow Minister for Early Years, both of whom were very interested in the latest research findings, and strategies for ensuring every child is included.  After the event, Catherine also met with Windsor and Maidenhead MP Adam Afriyie in his offices to raise awareness about the same issues.

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    Our recommendations to MPs include a duty on Local Authorities to ensure SEND early years sufficiency, increased training and support for early year’s settings and further support for families to help them understand and access their entitlements.

    Catherine McLeod MBE said “It was heartening to see so many MPs attending the lobbying day, and I do believe there is a strong will to ensure inclusion for all children in the early years.  However, in order to achieve this, there needs to be a clear focus on enabling children with SEND to access their entitlements, using direct actions and support for both settings and families.  Without this, the gap between children with SEND and other children will continue to grow and the life chances of children with SEND will continue to be limited for many.  We cannot let this happen in our society and must take a stand now to ensure equity for all of our children.”