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Early Years Inclusion Fund

Good practice guidance

Statutory Guidance

A child or young person has Special Educational Needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them, that is provision which is additional different to provision ordinarily available to the majority of children their age (SEN Code of Practice 2015).

The SEND Code of Practice states that provision for a small number of children in nurseries is funded by an Early Years Inclusion Funding (EYIF). It comes from the Local Authority and is in addition to the usual free childcare and education funding.

All settings must have an understanding of the Statutory Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021), the Equality Act (2010), the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (0-25) (2015) and the Children and Families Act (2014). This legislation and statutory guidance make it clear that children with SEND have a right to expect their needs to be met and not to be disadvantaged.

Early Identification

  • Early Identification and Intervention is key to children in the Early Years achieving their potential and is clearly enshrined in the Code of Practice.
  • When parents or professionals start to be concerned that a child may not be progressing as expected, it is important to work together to consider a range of sources to ensure a thorough understanding of the child.
  • The Graduated Approach alongside Early Identification, another key principle of the Code of Practice is the graduated approach. This is a four-part cyclical process which consists of: ASSESS, PLAN, DO, REVIEW. Practitioners are continually assessing, planning, implementing (doing), and reviewing as part of their everyday (universal) teaching process.
  • When a potential special educational need has been identified, the spiral of support will draw on more targeted approaches to meet children’s specific needs. If this approach is not enabling a child to make sufficient progress, practitioners will need to refer to increasingly specialist advice to develop a personalised approach for the child.
  • For provision to be effective it needs to be matched to the child’s need.

The Code of Practice defines four areas of need:

Communication and Interaction

Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication. The profile for every child with SLCN is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives. Children with autism are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction. They may also experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.

Cognition and Learning

Support for learning difficulties may be required when children learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD), where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with mobility and communication through to profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), where children are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment. Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder. Nurseries should have clear processes to support children, including how they will manage the effect of any disruptive behaviour so it does not adversely affect other children.

Sensory and Physical

Some children require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. These difficulties can be age related and may fluctuate over time. Many children with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or habilitation support. Children with MSI have a combination of vision and hearing difficulties. Some children with a physical disability (PD) require additional on-going support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.

Meeting Children’s Needs

A Graduated Response

EYIF Graduated response

Universal Support

A setting with high quality universal provision is inclusive and enables most children to thrive without further adjustments. Practitioners are knowledgeable and experienced in child development and know how to motivate children through the Characteristics of Effective Learning. This enables children to make good progress and takes account of their strengths and difficulties. Senior staff and the SENCO provide universal training where appropriate to staff on to adjust their responses to children’s developmental stage and implement and provide access to the routines and social life of the setting. There are clear strategies in place to involve and engage parents in the continued development of their child’s skills.

Targeted Support

Targeted support is given in addition to universal support. This includes focused interventions for those with specific needs and differs from support given to mainstream teaching and learning.  Support focuses on the area where the child has the highest needs. The needs are identified through assessment and are regularly reviewed.

Specialist Support

Specialist support is given when needs are not yet met despite previous levels of support. It most often is stated in an ECH Plan. The child may have needs across all areas of development and ongoing learning difficulties. External agencies and professionals are likely to be involved at this stage in this support. Some specialist provision can and should be provided in the mainstream setting.