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.