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