Early SEND support needs going unmet

Latest analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reveals the benefits of Sure Start children’s centres to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Researchers concluded that children’s centres – a central plank of New Labour’s childcare policy – were found to have increased the amount of SEND support available for pre-school age children which had led to a 9% decline in the need for education, health and care plans – or SEN statements pre-2014 – by the time someone reached 16.

The IFS also found that having access to a centre significantly reduced the number of children recorded as having SEND in secondary school (11-16).

By 2010 – at the programme’s peak when there were 3,000 centres run and commissioned by councils in operation – researchers calculated that the benefits reduced the cost of SEND support by £200mn or around 8% of the £2.5bn cost of Sure Start centres.

The programme provided services such as home visiting and playgroups tailored to children with SEND. Yet the research highlights that more than two-thirds of Sure Start centres have closed in the last decade, reducing this support.

Coram Family and Childcare’s annual survey found that just 6% of councils have sufficient childcare for children with SEND – a 12% drop from last year.

Niamh Sweeney, deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, says the decline in support has had an impact on families and the early years workforce.

“Sure Start centres gave families the services they need…enabling them to give their children the best start in life,” she explains. “The results are clear: improved attainment, especially for children from low-income households and early intervention and support for those with SEND. Unfortunately, such valuable support has been decimated, leaving families in desperate need of support. Our members tell us their work has expanded far beyond early education and can now include speech and language therapy; emotional and mental health support for families; and parenting classes.”

Michael Freeston, director of quality improvement at the Early Years Alliance, says that “early identification and the subsequent provision of support from the early years onwards has been proven to have a lasting impact on a child’s long-term development”, but the “slow, overly complex and grossly underfunded system” leads to families going without provision.

“The majority of SEND support and funding is skewed towards children from school age onwards, meaning that a notable proportion of families have to wait until their child is older before they can be assessed,” Freeston adds.

There is also evidence that the decline in SEND support in the early years combined with rising numbers of children diagnosed with a special educational need is increasing pressure on schools. A MAT factor report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that SEND provision in multi-academy trusts (MATs) is increasingly supporting SEND provision in mainstream secondary schools (see box).

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, says that government underfunding – despite extra money announced last autumn – underpins issues in the early education sector.

“The additional £204mn of funding – rising to £288mn in 2024 – was welcome, but it did not prevent further closures and therefore does not go far enough to meet the annual shortfall in funding for existing entitlements,” he says. “Gaps remain both in current funding allocations and in the plans for extending funded hours, which look set to make a dire situation worse.”

Access to specialist support

The NFER report calls for government funding to improve access to external specialist support including mental health and speech and language services. Coram’s survey also calls for a government-appointed chief early years officer and a simplified funded childcare offer.

National Day Nurseries Association’s early years SEN co-ordinator (SENco) lead tutor Gillian Christie calls current SEND support a “postcode lottery”.

“It is not sustainable to expect nurseries to fund SEND support from their own pocket,” she says.

“We need to see SEND funding match the actual cost of support, along with making the early years pupil premium equal to that for schoolchildren.”

As 63% of local authorities are still concerned about insufficient childcare provision for children with SEND, the sector will be looking for more support from the government to deliver the expanded entitlements over the coming months.

Multi-academy trusts 'have a significant role to play' in supporting children with SEND in the early years

Sally Earl, early years lead, The Learning Partnership

The rising number of children being diagnosed with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is putting increasing pressure on schools and early years settings. According to government figures, the number of pupils with SEN support has increased by 5% from 2022 to 2023, to 1.18 million, and has increased 19% since 2016. These figures highlight the need for multi-academy trusts (MATs) to consider how to approach these challenges.

At The Learning Partnership, we believe that MATs have a significant role to play in supporting children with SEND in early years settings. We know we have the capacity and ability to ensure the transition from nursery to primary school is smooth.

We have four key tenets that uphold our approach:

1. Taking on a ‘community’ role: In our communities, some local authorities are facing budget cuts and subsequently offering less support to families. This is where we can step in and offer outreach to local nurseries and pre-schools, to share our expertise.

2. Strong early years network: Every term, practitioners from across the trust meet to share best practice and training and offer peer-to-peer support.

3. Collaborative working: We work together to identify school training needs. For instance, we have provided training for all early years staff to identify children with complex needs and how to ensure high quality adult/child interactions.

4. Teaching assistant (TA) development: We automatically offer every TA joining our schools continued professional development, and Early Years specific training that includes how to best support children with additional needs.

We are facing the challenges of the increasing needs of children by fostering a strong early years network and ensuring our nurseries play a central role in their communities, while embedding practices to smooth the transition from nursery to reception. Our ability to harness a broad network and work across schools helps to create a thread of continuity that supports children with additional needs.

The Learning Partnership is the largest multi-academy trust in Cheshire East, comprising nine primary schools, six of which have a nursery, and the trust is working towards all the primaries having an early years setting over the next 18 months.