Equality of opportunity

 

Identifying and Supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disability

​

Agreed On: November 2025

Review Date: November 2027

​​

Policy statement

 

We aim to provide an environment in which all children, including those with special educational needs, are supported to reach their full potential.

 

We have regard for the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (2015) set out by the Department for Education which requires all funded early years providers to be aware of the requirement on them to meet the needs of children with SEN and disabilities. We strive for our provision to be inclusive to all children with special educational needs and disabilities, to remove the barriers that prevent access to early education and work with parents/carers to give each child support to fulfil their potential.

 

The term SEN support defines arrangements for identifying and supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Children’s SEND generally falls within the following four broad areas of need and support:

-communication and interaction

-cognition and learning

-social, emotional and mental health

-sensory and/or physical needs

 

Staffing

• We designate a member of staff to be the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) and give his/her name to parents. Our SENCO is: Emma Clements

• We designate a member of staff to be the Equality needs coordinator (ENCO). Our ENCO is Emma Clements. The role of the ENCO is identify ways to promote equality and diversity within the setting.

• The role of the SENCO is to support and advise all staff in identification and planning for individual children and their responsibility to individual children.

• We ensure that the provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities is the responsibility of all members of the setting.

• If required we provide in-service training for practitioners, volunteers and parents.

 

Partnerships

• We will work in partnership with parents, professionals and other agencies in meeting individual children's needs.

• We work closely with parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities to create and maintain a positive partnership.

• We ensure that parents are involved at all stages of the assessment, planning, provision and review of their children's education to agree progress and targets.

• We provide parents with information regarding appropriate professionals and services that we work with and signpost them to Somerset choices website.

• We work with other professionals involved with children and family, sharing information regarding progress, needs and agreeing targets, through meetings and phone conversations. We also attend meetings regarding transfer arrangements to other settings and schools.

 

Other Procedures

• We ensure that our admissions procedure ensures equality of access and opportunity.

• We provide a complaints procedure.

• We monitor through ongoing reflection the effectiveness of our special educational needs and disabilities provision and review our policy, making any necessary adjustments.

• We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and make use of the Developmental Journal.

• Where applicable we will follow the graduated response below for SEND, this could include the local authority offer for provision and Education Health Plans.

 

Graduated approach

Initial identification and support (identifying special educational needs)

•     Ongoing formative assessment forms part of a continuous process for observing, assessing, planning and reviewing children’s progress.

•     Children identified as having difficulty with one or more area of development will be given support by applying some simple strategies and resources.

•     For most children application of some simple differentiation approaches will be enough to build confidence and help the child develop.

•     If despite applying differentiated strategies a child continues to struggle and is showing significantly more difficulty with learning than their peers or has a disability which requires specific adjustments, then the key person will raise a concern with the SENCo/setting manager and the child’s parents.

 

Observation and assessment of children’s SEN

Where a child appears to be behind expected levels, or their progress gives cause for concern, practitioners will consider all the information about the child’s learning and development from within and beyond the setting.

•     Information is collated from formal checks such as the progress check at age two, observations from parents/carers and observation and assessment by the setting of the child’s progress.

•     When specialist advice has been sought externally, this is used to help determine whether a child has a special educational need (SEN).

•     The child’s key person and SENCo/Manager use this information to decide if the child may have a special educational need.

•     If the decision is that the child does have a SEN and the parents are not already aware of a concern, then the information is shared with them. Once parents/carers have been informed, they should be fully engaged in the process, contributing their insights to all future actions for their child. 

 

Planning intervention

• Everyone involved with the child is given an opportunity to share their views. Parents/carers are encouraged to share their thoughts on the child’s difficulties and be involved in the decision as to what will happen next.

• A first intervention option may be to carry on with applying differentiated support and to review the child’s progress at an agreed date.

• If the child’s needs are more complex, then the decision may be to prepare an immediate Action plan with detailed evidence-based interventions, whilst simultaneously making external referrals.

 

Involving the child

• The SEND Code of Practice supports the rights of children to be involved in decisions about their education.

• The key person/setting manager/SENCo will work in partnership with parents/carers and other agencies to involve the child wherever appropriate. The child should be appropriately included in development of the action plan at a level which reflects their stage of comprehension.

 

SEN action plan

• The purpose of the Action plan will be to ensure that children who are identified, or suspected of having a SEN will receive the right level of support and encouragement with their learning and development as early as possible.

• It should show what support is required to help achieve outcomes for the child and detail the frequency of these interventions and who will apply them and with what resources.

• A review date (at least termly) should be agreed with the parents/carers so that the child’s progress can be reviewed against expected outcomes and next steps agreed.

• A copy of the plan is stored in the child’s file so that any other member of staff can see how the child is progressing and what interventions have been or are being applied.

• If a child requires specific medical interventions during their time in the setting, a Health care plan form should also be completed and integrated into the general plans to ensure the child’s medical needs are known and safely met.

• The action plan should provide an accessible summary of the child’s needs, which can be used if further assessment is required including a statutory Education Health and Care (EHC) Assessment, and development of an EHC plan.

• Planned interventions should be based on the best possible evidence and demonstrate the required impact on progress towards both long-term goals and in achieving short term outcomes.

• The plan should focus on the needs of the child, the true characteristics, preferences, and aspirations of the child and involvement of the parents with a clear set of targets and expected outcomes for the child.

 

• It should:

• focus on the child as an individual and not their SEN label

• be easy for children to understand and use clear ordinary language and images, rather than professional jargon

• highlight the child strengths and capacities

• enable the child, and those who know them best, to say what they have done, what they are interested in and what outcomes they are seeking in the future

• tailor support to the needs of the individual

• organise assessments to minimise demands on families

• bring together relevant professionals to discuss and agree together the overall approach

 

If the child fails to make progress and multi-agency support is sought, then it is at this point that Early Help/CAF assessment should be considered.

 

Record keeping

If a child has or is suspected of having a SEN, a dated record should be kept of:

• the initial cause for concern and the source of this information, (eg the progress check at age two and/or outcomes of previous interventions).

• the initial discussion with parents/carers raising the possibility of the child’s SEN

• the views of the parents/carers and other relevant persons including, wherever possible, the child’s views

• the procedures followed regarding the Code of Practice to meet the child’s SEND e.g. SEN action plan, referrals to external agencies and for statutory assessment

• evidence of the child’s progress and any identified barriers to learning

• advice from other relevant professionals; and all subsequent meetings with parents and other persons and any subsequent referrals

Records may include

• observation and monitoring sheets

• expressions of concern

• risk assessments

• access audits

• health care plans (including guidelines for administering medication)

• SEN action plans

• meetings with parents/carers and other agencies

• additional information from and to outside agencies

• agreements with parents/carers

• guidelines for the use of children’s individual equipment; Early help CAF referrals

• referral to the local authority identifying a child’s special educational needs and request for statutory Education, Health, Care (EHC) needs assessment, and a copy of an EHC pla

• ​

Seeking additional funding/enhanced/top up

If the child’s needs cannot be met from within the setting’s core funding, then the evidence collated will be used to apply for top up/enhanced funding from the local authority’s inclusion fund. If a new or existing child is disabled, then we will check if the family is in receipt or have applied for Disability Living Allowance. If so, we will also apply to the local authority for the Disability Access Fund.

 

Statutory education, health and care (EHC) assessment and plan

Statutory assessment

• If a child has not made progress, then the next steps may be for the child to undergo an Education, Health and Care Assessment.

• The local authority will conduct an EHC needs assessment if they consider that the child’s needs cannot be met within the resources normally available to the early years setting.

• When a child’s needs appear to be sufficiently complex, or the evidence suggest specialist intervention then the local authority is likely to conclude that an EHC plan is necessary

• The local authority should fully involve the parent and must seek advice from the setting in making decisions about undertaking an EHC assessment and preparing an EHC plan.

• We will prepare for this by collating information about the child’s SEND including:

• documentation on the child’s progress in the setting

• interventions and support provided to date

• evidence of external agency assessment, support and recommendations

• parent/carer views and wishes (and where appropriate those of the child)

The information will then be submitted to the local authority to allow them to accurately assess the child in the context of the support already given.

• The local authority inform the child’s parents of their decision within six weeks of receiving a request for an assessment and give its reasons for their decision. If the local authority decides to conduct an assessment, it ensure the child’s parents are fully included right from the beginning and are invited to contribute their views. If the local authority subsequently decides not to conduct an assessment it inform the parents of their right to appeal that decision, of the requirement for them to consider mediation should they wish to appeal.

• If the local authority decides that a statutory EHC plan is not necessary, it notify the parents/carers and inform the provider, giving the reasons for the decision. This notification take place within 16 weeks of the initial request or of the child having otherwise been brought to the local authority’s attention.

• If the decision following an assessment is to compile an EHC plan the local authority should consult collaboratively with the parents/carers in the preparation of the plan ensuring that their views and their child’s preferences are considered and that plans describe positively what the child can do and has achieved to date.

• Plans are evidenced based and focus on short term outcomes and long-term aspirations for the child including family and community support. Parents/carers have the right to request a particular provision for their child to be named within their EHC plan.

• If an early years setting is named, the local authority must fund this provision. They cannot force a setting to take a child and can only name the provision in the EHC if the setting agrees.

• Local authorities should consider reviewing an EHC plan for a child under age five at least every three to six months. Such reviews would complement the duty to carry out a review at least annually but may be streamlined and not necessarily require the attendance of the full range of professionals, depending on the needs of the child. The child’s parents/carers must be fully consulted on any proposed changes to the EHC plan and made aware of their right to appeal to the Tribunal.

• ​

External intervention and support

Where external agency intervention has been identified to help support a child with SEND then this intervention should be recommended in writing by a suitably reliable source such as a speech and language therapist, paediatrician or educational psychologist.

 

Further Guidance:

• Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (DfE 2017, update 2025)

• Working Together to Safeguard Children (DfE 2015)

• Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (DfE & DoH 2014)

• Guide to the Equality Act and Good Practice (Pre-school Learning Alliance 2015)

• SEND Code of Practice for the Early Years (Pre-school Learning Alliance 2014)

• Effective Support for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families in Somerset (February 2020)

• Ready Steady SENCO (Early Years Alliance)

• Somerset SEND Strategy (April 2023)

• Somerset’s SEND Local Offer https://www.somerset.gov.uk/children-families-and-education/the-local-offer/

• ​