Early Years settings and Special Education Needs Disabilities (SEND)

As a parent of a young child who may have special educational needs and/or a disability (SEND) choosing an early years setting for your child is a really big step.

The relationship between your child with SEND, you and their early years settings can be one of the most important relationships in your child’s young life.

Whilst we cannot recommend any specific setting as we are neither familiar with your child or any of the settings, we are able to share with you information that should be consistent across any setting in North Yorkshire.

Want to find a nursery/childminder in your area follow the link Choosing childcare | North Yorkshire Council

The vast majority of early years settings in North Yorkshire and many of the childminders are registered to receive Nursery Education Funding. That means that they can offer free nursery places to all 3 and 4 year olds and some 2 year olds (there are set qualifying criteria for this though these are currently being updated)

It is really important for parents/carers to know that early years settings are not allowed to charge them extra just because their child has special educational needs.

This means that if your 2 year old with SEND takes up their 15 hours and you pay for some extra sessions the setting is not allowed to charge you more than another 2 year old for those extra settings.

Find out more about early years funded places on the North Yorkshire Council website – Early education and childcare | North Yorkshire Council

Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage for group and school providers (publishing.service.gov.uk)

SEND Code of Practice January 2015

Early Years Providers have numerous responsibilities in relation to children, the following being specifically related to those with SEND. Above are two of the main documents that describe the legal duties of early years settings –  

• Early Years providers that offer funded educational places must have regard to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (SENDCOP).
• Early Years providers should have information available for parent/carers on how they assess and meet the needs of children in their care with SEND.
• Where a setting identifies a child as having SEND, they must work in partnership with parents to establish the support the child needs.
• All Early Years providers should regularly review and evaluate the quality and breadth of the support they offer or can access for children with SEN or disabilities.
• The leadership team is responsible for ratifying policies. Every Early Years provider must have arrangements in place to identify and support children with SEN or disabilities and to promote Equalities of Opportunities for children in their care.
• Settings should identify children whose learning and development is not at the typical level for their age, and what actions they have taken to ensure those children make sufficient progress.
• Settings should evaluate the impact of any interventions they have made.

All early years providers also have duties under the Equality Act 2010.

They must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at substantial disadvantage.

The duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory, i.e., they should already have in place general access and environmental modifications.

The adjustments should not prevent the setting from continuing to provide as service to other children.

For more information follow the link Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk)

(Code of Practice 2015, Chapter 5, 5.10)

These duties are anticipatory – they require thought to be given in advance to what disabled children and young people might require and what adjustments might need to be made to prevent that disadvantage. All publicly funded early years providers must promote equality of opportunity for disabled children.

All early years settings that are in receipt of nursery funding will be inspected by Ofsted.

They will be given a grade of inadequate, requires improvement, good or outstanding.

The report will also describe strengths of the setting and areas for improvement.

An Ofsted report can give you an indication of the quality of education that a setting will provide for your child however do not rely solely on this information. An Ofsted report is just a snapshot.

Visit the setting, look on their website, talk to other parents……

There are at least three sets of funding available that can be applied for to assist a setting in supporting a child with SEND.

These are –

1. Early Years Pupil Premium – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-business-sustainability-guides-for-providers/extra-sources-of-income-for-early-years-providers#early-years-pupil-premium-eypp

You can apply for early years pupil premium if your child is aged 2, 3 or 4 and you get 15 hours free childcare.

You must also get at least one of the following:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit(provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190
• Working Tax Creditrun-on, which is paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit – your household income must be less than £7,400 a year after tax not including any benefits you get

You may also get early years pupil premium if your child is currently being looked after by a local authority in England or Wales or if your child has left care in England or Wales through; adoption, a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order.

1. Disability Access Funding (DAF)  – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-business-sustainability-guides-for-providers/extra-sources-of-income-for-early-years-providers#disability-access-fund-daf

Three- and four-year-old children will be eligible for disability access funding if they meet the following criteria:

the child is in receipt of child disability living allowance and;

the child is accessing funded childcare at a North Yorkshire early years funded provider.

To claim this funding, you must tell your childcare provider that your child is currently in receipt of disability living allowance.

You will be required to name the specific childcare provider and provide them with a current disability living allowance award letter to enable the claim to be made.

The childcare provider (nominated by the parent on parental agreement) will be entitled to receive a one-off payment of £800 in a financial year (April to March). This additional funding is intended to help to eliminate barriers that may prevent children in receipt of disability living allowance from accessing their funded place. You should discuss directly with your childcare provider how this funding is to be used.

Please note, a child is only eligible if they are currently in receipt of disability living allowance and will not be granted this funding if the award letter is not produced.

Disability access funding is not available for two-year-old children.

1. Early Years Inclusion Funding – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-business-sustainability-guides-for-providers/extra-sources-of-income-for-early-years-providers#special-educational-needs-sen-inclusion-fund

Early Years Inclusion Funding is additional funding that can be applied for by a setting.

Early Years Inclusion Funding (in North Yorkshire previously called Element 2 funding) is aimed at supporting the inclusion of those 2, 3 and 4 year olds with SEND in early years provision (PVI and maintained) receiving funded education.

The setting can apply when they have exhausted their own resources including seeking specialist advice and support from the SEND Hub,

However it is useful to know that if there is a professional involved with your child and the professional agrees that their level of need is going to require support over and above that which a setting should be able to provide using it’s own resources then an application for funding can be completed by the setting with support from the professional so that the funding is available from your child’s first day at the setting.

An application for inclusion funding must be discussed with, supported by and signed by the parent/carer.

Further information

• Coram Family and Childcare – Where to find information about local childcare | Family and Childcare Trust and Five steps to choosing childcare | Family and Childcare Trust
• NYCC Early Education and Childcare webpage – Early education and childcare | North Yorkshire Council
• Choosing childcare | North Yorkshire County Council
• Local Parent/ Carer Group*, e.g. Parent Carer Voice North Yorkshire (countywide), POSCH (Hambleton and Richmondshire), OHANA (Ripon and area), Ryedale Special Families, Yorkshire Coast Families , SELFA (Skipton), Neurodiverse Community Catterick Garrison, Connecting Neurodiverse Families (Tadcaster)
• * There are more parent groups out there – try local searches on Google or Facebook or the NYCC Local Offer.