Supporting children with SEND in the early years
The Mayor recognises the vital importance of ensuring that all children are supported to access high quality early education, particularly those with special education needs and disabilities (SEND).
Read on to find out how some of our recent project have supported this aim.
SEND task and finish group
In 2019, we formed a SEND task and finish group to explore how best to support children with SEND within London's early years sector.
This group was an extension of the work of the Mayor's Early Years Hubs programme (which ended in December 2020) and included members of education and health teams from the four participating boroughs - Barnet, Newham, Wandsworth and Merton.
One of its key functions was to respond to the London Assembly's report into SEND provision in London, which recommended that the Mayor's Early Years Hubs should trial a best practice template for transition from early years to primary school, exploring the need for a more consistent approach across the capital.
The group produced and piloted two key documents, which are available now to download and use:
- A collection of best practice principles for transition reports in the early years - the group recommends that all London boroughs review the format, content and use of their current transition reports against these principles.
- A transition report template - this can be downloaded and used by all London boroughs, to support successful transition of children moving between early years settings, or from an early years setting to school.
The group also explored other identified priority areas, including integrated reviews, inclusion funding and strategic and operational joint working to identify and support children with SEND.
For more information about this work, contact [email protected]
London Early Years Conference
Our London Early Years Conference, in March 2019, provided an opportunity to bring together professionals from across the early years and SEND sectors and discuss early identification of additional needs and best practice for children with SEND.
Recommendations from the conference included:
- Improving collaboration between agencies, including education, health, statutory and non-statutory organisations
- Increasing support for parents
- Improving support for the early years workforce
London Early Years Campaign: supporting children with SEND
In November 2019, the Mayor extended his London Early Years Campaign by offering a grant of up to £20,000 for a project which would:
- raise awareness of free early education for 2-year-olds amongst families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- improve early identification of children with additional needs
The grant was awarded to London Borough of Islington, whose successful proposal focussed on improving early identification for children with autism.
Originally starting in January 2020, the project was unavoidably delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and concluded in 2021.
In this time, it offered training to selected early years settings, run in conjunction with the borough’s health partner, Whittington Health.
This training aimed to raise awareness about the difficulties associated with autism and strategies to support children with autism in early education. It also emphasised the benefits of free early education more generally, supporting early years practitioners to help shape parental understanding of the offer. It was hoped that health partners’ understanding of the offer will also further develop - allowing them to improve parental awareness and confidence in early education.
The project supported ten early years settings, and 17 early years practitioners in Islington.
For more information, please contact [email protected]
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