developmental needs are picked up and addressed early on, drawing in
professionals across service boundaries. Too many children are starting school without the basic skills and behaviours to enable them to learn. We want to improve the opportunities available to children in their early years, and the Department for Education and the Department for Health will publish later this Spring a joint policy statement on the early years, setting out our vision for reform. We want a system that is led by the professionals who understand how best to deliver these services, and so we will be working closely with experts in the early years sector to produce our publication, collaborating on a new vision for the crucial foundation years of each child’s life.
1.19 Staff in early years settings can help to identify SEN and impairments early on
and provide all children with a broad range of stimulating learning experiences. The Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage is considering
recommendations on the assessment of young children, as well as how to simplify and reduce the bureaucracy of assessment. Our intention is that early assessment should focus on those areas that are essential to young children’s good
development, such as communication and language; social and emotional skills; and physical development.
1.20 Such early assessment – specifically in connection with the 2 to 2½ year health
and development review undertaken by health visitors – should help to facilitate health and early years professionals working together to provide the support that individual children require. Commissioners of children’s centre services can ensure that their children’s centre provision encourages this joined-up way of working.
1.21 In many cases, young children who are disabled or who have SEN receive effective
support before school, which can help to reduce the need for special educational provision. Local authorities must not, however, have a blanket policy not to statement children under five. Parents have a right to request a statutory assessment of their children and local authorities must draw up a statement of SEN where it is necessary to do so in individual cases.
1.22 Early learning can have a positive impact on children’s SEN; research has shown
that the number of children ‘at risk’ of SEN dropped from a third to one in five after receiving nursery education,43 but, as described later, families who live in
poverty or who have children that require different or additional support can find early education and childcare particularly expensive. For these reasons, the Department for Education is continuing to invest in the free entitlement to early years education, and extending this to all disadvantaged 2 year-olds from 2013. The Department is trialling with local authorities approaches for the expansion of the entitlement for 2 year-olds. The Department for Education will ensure that the extended free entitlement of 15 hours of early education for disadvantaged 2 year-olds is developed to accommodate disadvantaged children with more complex support needs and their families.
1.23 High quality early learning has a particularly positive impact on young children’s
development and a skilled early years workforce is a vital component of that quality.44 There are now over 6,000 people holding Early Years Professional Status.
The Department for Education is continuing to invest in graduate early years programmes, both the Early Years Professional Status and the New Leaders in Early Years programmes. As well as supporting the development of a graduate-led workforce, the National College will continue to support the development of children’s centre leaders through the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership and the Children’s Centre Network. Area SENCOs and others working in an advisory role with early years settings on SEN and disability support effective early assessment and intervention and can provide a link between settings, social care and health services.
1.24 Laying the foundations for early language development is at the heart of a high
quality early years experience, and is an area of development where many disabled children and children with SEN can require a different approach or additional support. Many early years practitioners and local authorities have improved their support for early language development as part of the Every Child A Talker programme, and we will look at how we can provide further support in embedding these practices.
43 Sammons et al (2003)
1.25 The Early Intervention Grant will give local authorities greater control over
resources for early years training with scope to invest in the quality and
qualifications of the workforce to meet local needs. Local authorities involved in the Disabled Children’s Access to Childcare Programme have adopted a range of training approaches that have helped settings move away from costly one-to-one support to more effective and less resource-intensive models of support.45
1.26 Parents tell us that finding childcare for disabled children with can be difficult and
much more expensive than for children who do not need any extra support or a different approach. 46 Families with disabled children are also more likely to
experience poverty.47 Every Disabled Child Matters found that: ‘It costs three times
as much to raise a disabled child and 93 per cent of families with disabled children have reported facing financial difficulty. One sixth of families have reported going without essentials such as food and heating’.48
1.27 Families with disabled children are less likely to use early years and childcare
settings even when it is free as they may feel that settings do not offer support appropriate for their particular needs.49 For many parents, early years settings are
often the first time that they entrust the care of their child to anyone outside their immediate family. For the parents of disabled children, this can be particularly challenging and it can be harder to build up the necessary level of trust with early years practitioners.
1.28 Local authorities, with their role as champions for vulnerable children and
families, are in a unique position to commission appropriate services and must fulfil their duty from the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient childcare for disabled children. Local authorities also have a duty, through their Family Information Services, to provide advice for parents on childcare and early years services in their area and to help parents find a suitable early years setting. 1.29 Sure Start Children’s Centres play a key role for disabled children and children
with SEN and their families.50 They can bring health, early learning and other early
years services together and offer a space for an integrated response using, for example, the Early Support approach described in chapter two. In particular, health professionals can work alongside other professionals in Sure Start Children’s Centres to improve early identification of SEN and impairments. 1.30 We have set out our intention to retain the national network of Sure Start
Children’s Centres with a core universal offer, while also ensuring that they deliver proven early intervention programmes to support families with the greatest needs. The core purpose of Sure Start Children’s Centres is to improve outcomes and narrow gaps, particularly in terms of identifying, reaching and helping the families in greatest need to improve their parenting capacity, health and wellbeing, child development and school readiness. This focus on outcomes, rather than inputs, will give greater flexibility for children’s centres to assess the
45 NatCen et al (2010)
46 Reported by parents in research by Campbell-Hall et al (2009) 47 Blackburn et al (2010)
48 Every Disabled Child Matters (2010)
49 Early Education for Two Year Old Children Pilot Evaluation, DCSF (2007) and Pinney (2007) 50 Pinney (2007)
needs of families in their area (including families with young disabled children) and to provide, or signpost, appropriate integrated support to meet those needs. Question 1: How can we strengthen the identification of SEN and
impairments in the early years, and support for children with them? 1.31 We know from programmes such as the Early Support programme for young
disabled children described in chapter two, and Achievement for All concerning school’s approaches to SEN described in chapter three, that many children’s support needs can be met effectively without the need for a statement of SEN. These approaches involve professionals working together with parents right from the start to support the child’s learning and development and can have huge benefits for the child’s achievement and wellbeing. Learning from parents and sharing information with them can give professionals a much better
understanding of how best to support a child. We say more in subsequent chapters about how we will ensure that families who need additional help know how to get it and in a timely way.
1.32 In addition to using effective approaches in the early years, such as Early Support,
or in school, such as Achievement for All, it is important that all children can start school ready to learn, but we know that this can be a particularly difficult time for some children with SEN. We will say more in due course about how we might strengthen the transition between the early years and Year 1 in the light of recommendations from the Tickell Review.