Early years - Local Offer
Early education enables young children to set the foundation for a lifelong learning, behaviour, and health.
Early education contributes to achieving the best possible educational experiences with positive outcomes. It also enables a child to become a confident young person with a growing ability to communicate their own views, ready to make the transition into compulsory education.
Special educational needs (SEN) and disability (SEND) and early years settings
Always speak to your childcare provider first if you are worried about your child's learning.
All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with SEND and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care.
SEND assessment guidance and resources for Early Years providers.
What to expect from early years providers
Early years providers must:
- use their best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEND gets the support they need - this means doing everything they can to meet the child or young person's special educational needs
- ensure that children with special educational needs or disabilities engage in the activities of the setting/school, alongside children who do not have special educational needs or disabilities
Local Authority Maintained Nursery Schools will have a designated teacher who is responsible for coordinating SEND provision and they will inform parents when they are making special educational provision for a child.
Local Authority Maintained Nursery Schools must also prepare a report on:
- the implementation of their SEND policy
- their arrangements for the admission of disabled children
- the steps being taken to prevent disabled children from being treated less favourably than others
- the facilities provided to enable access to the school for disabled children
- their accessibility plan showing how they plan to improve access over time
Support from early years staff
All education staff, including early years settings, expect to support children with a variety of needs. Your child's nursery, pre-school or childminder should provide a written summary of your child’s progress when they are between 2 and 3 years old.
This will give details about your child’s development, their strengths, talents and likes, as well as any additional support that they might need.
Specialist support in the early years can take several forms, including:
- specialist support from health visitors, educational psychologists, speech and language therapists or specialist teachers, such as a teacher of the deaf or vision impaired - these specialists may visit families at home to provide practical support, answering questions and clarifying needs
- early learning programmes suitable for parents to use to promote play, communication, and language development
- home-based programmes, such as Portage, through the SEND Support Service (SSS) which offer a carefully structured system to help parents support their child’s early learning and development
Portage aims to:
- work with families to help them develop a quality of life and experience for themselves and their young children
- play a part in minimising the disabling barriers that confront young children and their families
- support the national and local development of inclusive services for children
Responding to your child's needs
Where a child has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than their peers, or a disability that prevents or hinders a child from making use of the facilities in the setting and requires special educational provision, the setting should make reasonable adjustments to provide this.
They can apply for financial support to the Local Authority through the Disability Access Fund to help cover costs.
In all cases, early identification and intervention can significantly reduce the need for more interventions at a later stage.
Children’s SEND are generally thought of in the following 4 broad areas of need and support:
- communication and interaction
- cognition and learning
- social, emotional, and mental health
- sensory and/or physical needs
Read the SEND Code of Practice on the Gov.UK website.
It is particularly important in the early years that there is no delay in making any necessary special educational provision. Delay at this stage can give rise to learning difficulty and subsequently to loss of self-esteem, frustration in learning and to behaviour difficulties.
Early action to address identified needs is critical to the future progress and improved outcomes that are essential in helping the child to prepare for adult life.
SEND support in the early years
Identifying a child as needing SEND support after carrying out clear analysis of the child's needs.
Parents must be notified when their child is to receive SEND support although parents should have already been involved in the assessment stage.
The setting, in consultation with parents and the child should agree the outcomes they are seeking, the interventions and support to be put in place, the expected impact on progress, development or behaviour and a clear date for review.
Plans should consider the views of the child. Adjustments, interventions and support put in place should be expected to impact the progress, development, or behaviour along with a clear date for review.
The support and intervention provided should be selected to meet the outcomes identified for the child, based on reliable evidence of effectiveness, and provided by practitioners with relevant skills and knowledge.
Any related staff development needs should be identified and addressed.
Parents should be involved in planning support and, where appropriate, in reinforcing the provision or contributing to progress at home.
The early years practitioner remains responsible for working with the child on a daily basis. With the support from the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) they should oversee the implementation of the interventions of programmes as agreed as part of the SEND Support.
The SENCO should support the practitioner in assessing the child’s response to the action taken, in problem solving and advising on the effective implementation of support.
The effectiveness of the support and its impact on the child’s progress should be reviewed in line with the agreed date. The impact and quality of the support should be evaluated by the practitioner and the SENCO working with the child’s parents and considering the child’s views.
They should agree any changes to the outcomes and support for the child considering the child’s progress and development. Parents should have clear information about the impact of the support provided and be involved in planning next steps.
SEND support should include planning and preparing for transition before a child moves into another setting or school. This can also include a review of the SEND support being provided or the Educational Health Care plan (EHC).
To support the transition, information should be shared by the current setting with the receiving setting or school. The current setting should agree with parents the information to be shared as part of this planning process.
Where a child has an EHC plan in an early years setting, this must be reviewed at least annually, preferably every 6 months and in anticipation of any transition to statutory schooling.
Children with medical conditions
The early years setting will work with parents and health professionals to implement an effective health plan for children with medical conditions that affect their learning or access to education.
A medical condition (such as diabetes) is not considered to be a special educational need.
Read about how children with medical needs can be supported.
Disability Access Fund (DAF)
The Disability Access Fund is designed to support children aged 0-5 years with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
The DAF helps early education and childcare providers to make reasonable adjustments to their settings (be that for the child in question or for the benefit of all children who attend the setting).
Providers who have funded entitlement children who are eligible for the DAF will be entitled to receive a single, one-off payment.
Children do not have to take up the full 570 hours of funded childcare.
Childcare providers are responsible for identifying children who are eligible for the DAF.
Find out more about the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children.
Parents or carers of children qualifying for Disability Living Allowance are required to provide documented evidence of this allowance.
To make a claim for DAF funding, childcare providers need to email [email protected] with evidence provided by the parents and carers.
Targeted SEND Funding
Read more about the funding that Early Years settings can apply for.
What happens if you're unhappy with the support your child is receiving
If you do not believe that the educational establishment is working effectively to support your child's progress, you should, in the first instance, speak with the setting to discuss your concerns.
You can contact the SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SEND IASS) for impartial advice and support.
If this does not resolve your concerns, you can follow the setting's complaints policy.
What happens if the early years setting cannot support your child's complex needs
Where assessment indicates that support from specialist services is required, it is important that children receive it as quickly as possible.
If a child or young person has significant or complex needs, a parent, an education provider can request support from West Northants Specialist SEND Support Service or can make a request for a statutory assessment of educational needs.
Funded places pre-school children
You can get help paying for childcare.
Free early education and childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds
The government funds up to 15 hours of free childcare. Any hours above this must be paid by the parent or carer.
All 3- and 4-year-olds can receive up to 570 hours a year of early education and childcare, often called Universal Entitlement. This is spread across three funding blocks, with a maximum of 15 hours a week.
Working parents may be able to claim additional hours to support with childcare costs, known as 30 hours.
Extended / 30-hour childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds
Some parents and carers may be entitled to an additional 570 free hours per year. It’s usually taken as 30 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, but you may be able to choose to take fewer hours over more weeks.
Read more about 30 hours free childcare.
15 hours for 2-Year-old for families in England, receiving some additional forms of government support
If you receive some additional form of government financial support, you could be eligible for funded childcare for your child when they turn 2. Children looked after by the local authority automatically qualify for this childcare.
You can check the current eligibility criteria on GOV.UK.
15 hours for 2-year-old for eligible working families in England from April 2024
This will include:
- up to 15 of early education over 38 weeks of the year
- a total of 570 hours per year, that you can use flexibly with one or more childcare providers.
Some providers will allow you to ‘stretch’ the hours over 52 weeks, using fewer hours per week.
15 hours for children between 9 months and 23 months old for eligible working families in England (from September 2024)
This will include:
- up to 15 of early education over 38 weeks of the year
- a total of 570 hours per year, that you can use flexibly with one or more childcare providers.
Some providers will allow you to ‘stretch’ the hours over 52 weeks, using fewer hours per week.
30 hours for children from 9 months up to school age for eligible working families in England (from September 2025)
This will include:
- up to 30 of early education over 38 weeks of the year
- a total of 1, 140 hours per year, that you can use flexibly with one or more childcare providers.
Some providers will allow you to ‘stretch’ the hours over 52 weeks, using fewer hours per week.
Local Childcare providers
Details of local childcare providers and other services of benefit to parents, prospective parents, children and young people can be found on West Northants Council Family Information Service (FIS).
Search the Local Offer directory.
Last updated 02 October 2024