CYP Now - Research highlights barriers to identification of SEND in the early years

A lack of staff training and resource pressures are making it harder to identify children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the early years, latest research has found.

Four out of five SENCO's were confident in their ability to identify SEND in young children. Picture: Adobe Stock

In its report, Identifying special educational needs in the early years: perspectives from special educational needs coordinators, charity Nasen says removing such barriers could help improve identification of children with SEND as well as preventing others from missing out on support.

While its research, compiled from more than 200 survey responses and interviews with special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) between November 2019 and March 2020, found 80 per cent of them were confident in their ability to identify SEND, a number of barriers were still affecting their ability to support children.

Most notably, staff training was often found to be lacking, with some SENCOs sharing concerns that less experienced members of staff had received no SEND training at all, despite such experience being central to early identification, the report states.

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