SEN Policy

This policy is about our approach to the inclusion of:

• Children with special educational needs
• Children with disabilities
• Children with medical needs and conditions (see separate Medication Policy)
• Children with any other needs which could affect their access to the curriculum, their development and progress, or their enjoyment.

This policy is written in line with the SEND Code of Practice (2015), Children’s and Families Act 2014 and the Equalities Act (2010)

Please see Glossary for explanation of abbreviations (SEN, SEND, SENCO, EHCP, Short Term Plan)

Our aims and objectives of the policy:

• To ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to access, engage in and enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum, involving rich first-hand experiences and play.
• To ensure that needs are identified early and followed by timely support and intervention.
• To ensure high aspirations for children with SEND to achieve their full potential.
• To involve work in partnership with parents and carers at every stage in plans to meet their child’s additional needs.
• To consult with and involve children in planning for their education as far as is appropriate given their age and stage of development.
• To ensure staff continually learn about different needs and disabilities of children on roll, and being confident and able to engage with and support the development of all children.
• To maintain a positive culture of respect, understanding and appreciation of difference throughout the Preschool.
• To ensure an effective, collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to meeting the needs of children with SEND, actively seeking the support of professionals working with the child.
• To ensure systems are in place that enable us to review the effectiveness of our work with children with SEND.

Our Approach

At Thurston Childcare, we welcome all children as part of our community and we recognise and value each child as a unique individual. We recognise that children learn at different rates and that there are many factors affecting achievement, including ability, emotional state, age and development.

We work on the belief that all children and their families have the right to be part of their local community and to be welcomed and included whether they have an identified SEND or not. In this way, we promote and celebrate an understanding of and respect for difference.

We take a whole team approach to meeting the needs of children with SEND and see it everyone’s responsibility to remove barriers to learning and ensure all children reach their potential. Our first response to supporting all children is through high quality teaching, differentiated to the needs of the individual. Some children need additional support. At Thurston Childcare, we aim to identify these needs as soon as they arise and provide support which enables every child to achieve to his or her full potential. However, we are aware that many difficulties are resolved as children mature and that children develop at different rates, resulting in some children only needing extra support for a limited period. We therefore offer different levels of additional support depending on the level of need.

We believe individual’s SEND are best met through working closely with children, their families, and other professionals, building on their strengths, resilience and deep understanding of the child. This close partnership with parents and professionals, the high quality of care offered to the children through our Key Person system, and the careful control of the environment (indoors and out) enables children to settle and thrive in the setting.

Thurston Childcare takes children from 2 to 5 years old, including those with Special Educational Needs (SEND). The code of practice (DfE, 2015) defines a child under compulsory school age as having SEND when he or she ‘has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age or has a disability which prevents of hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provide for others at the same age in mainstream schools’. Thurston Childcare provides additional/or different provision for a range of needs, including: (Also known as the Four Broad areas)

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
• Sensory and/ or physical needs

Additional Funding to support children with SEND

We use this funding to pay for an additional staff member during the core day in term time. We use any excess to fund SENCO time and any particular resources needed. The additional member of staff works closely with Key Persons to support children in working towards the targets identified on their support Plans. The SEN staff member may also contribute to Support Plan reviews.

Children who are in receipt of DLA (Disability Living Allowance) and receive middle or high rate are eligible for a yearly grant at a setting of their choice to help with their child’s development and needs.  This is known as DAF (Disability Access Fund).

Inclusion Funding

Some children with more complex needs may benefit from enhanced provision or additional resources for a period of time. High quality, inclusive practice is essential in the early years. The inclusion fund, where needed, will support early year’s providers to secure good progress in children’s learning and development. The inclusion fund will promote early intervention and ensure settings can access timely and appropriate funding to support their valuable work with young children in their care.

High needs funding is where it is felt that a child or young person has significant special educational needs which cannot be met through reasonable adjustments within the existing resources to provide for their early education.

Other additional funding

We are also able to bid each term for some additional funding to support children with SEND. This is used to offer extra support to children with Support Plans to work on an identified area of difficulty through some one-to-one adult support or in a small specialist group.

We also use additional funding to allow us to offer additional support to individual or groups of children.

Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Some children with complex needs may have an EHCP which comes with additional funding.

The SENCOs role

The SENCO is responsible for the day-to-day operation of Thurston Childcare SEND policy. The SENCO will support the identification of children with special educational needs, co-ordinate additional support for children with SEN and liaise with their parents, keyworker and other professionals who are involved with them. The SENCO is also responsible for coordinating professional development, and monitoring the provision for SEND.

The SEND Co-ordinator or ‘SENCO’ is Lauran Collins and Sarah Simmons.

 

Monitoring Provision

Professional support and feedback is sought via work with the Educational Psychologist and close partnership with the area SENCo and Child Development Team.

 

Staff Training in SEND

The SENCO is responsible for co-ordinating training for all keyworkers that supports their work with children with SEND. Training is offered in a range of ways as follows:

• The SENCO offers guidance and support to staff directly via discussion and joint observation of children.
• Staff learn new information and strategies through professional discussions at Short Term Plan review meetings.
• Other professionals, who support children with SEND, may visit the Preschool and offer advice individually to practitioners or to groups of staff via staff meetings or training programmes.
• Staff may attend CPD courses offered by the local authority.
• Staff may attend accredited courses.
• Staff may visit and learn from other early years settings.

 

Arrangements for coordinating SEN provision

In line with the SEN code 2015, we offer a ‘graduated response’ to teaching and learning for children with SEND. The graduated response includes a cycle of assess, plan, do and review and for children with special needs (See Figure 2). The response becomes increasingly individualised as we build up a detailed picture of the child’s strengths and difficulties.

Figure 2: The graduated approach

The SENCO has responsibility for overseeing and leading the process of ‘assess, plan, do and review’ and for ensuring that communication with children, families and outside agencies is as smooth as possible.

The SENco and the SEN code of practice 2015 has responsibility to contribute to the graduated response, to be aware of children’s additional needs and to plan for the individual children accordingly.

Stage 1 Identification of a special educational need or disability

Identification of a child’s special educational need or disability happens in a range of ways:

• Some children enter the setting with information and possibly previous assessment of their SEND. The child and family may already have a professional team working with them such as the ‘Early Years Development Team’. In these cases, some preparatory work can be done before the child starts at Thurston Childcare to ensure they have a positive and safe start. For these children, we will normally hold a transition meeting and complete a Plan.
• Parents or carers may raise a concern about a child’s development at any time during a child’s time in the pre-school.
• Staff or other professionals may raise a concern about a child’s development, either through observation and interaction with the child, via the assessment system when tracking a child’s progress or via information shared with them by the child’s family. Staff are encouraged to share any concerns immediately with the SENCO.
• We use the Early Years Foundation Stage developmental outcomes or ‘Development Matters’ to help us assess if a child’s progress is within the expected range of development in a particular area or if it is behind or ahead.
• Wellcomm is a complete speech and language tool kit to help children from 6 months to 6 years. This helps us identify children who might be experiencing delays.

We also offer the Early Years Foundation Stage ‘Two Year Progress Check’ for all children on roll in the setting between their second and third birthday which supports the integrated review between education and health services. The two year checks offer us a standardised way to assess children’s progress against expected levels.

Initial response to a concern or identified need

The SENCO will initially explore any concerns raised or identified needs via discussion with staff or examining any additional information such as reports from outside agencies. If the concern has been brought from a staff member, the SENCO may ask them to seek further information either via observation of the child or discussion with the child’s parents. The SENCO will also observe children to clarify concerns or gather information.

As soon as a concern is clearly raised or identified the SENCO will lead the process to fully discuss the child’s needs with their parents. From this discussion several courses of action or a combination of courses are possible.

Response to an identified special need or disability

Via discussion with the child’s parents, the Key Person, the SENCO and any other professionals already supporting the family we respond in a range of ways. The SENCO takes the lead in this process. We offer different levels of support depending on the child’s level of need. All levels of support in the setting are termed ‘SEND support’. We always consider how to work in partnership with outside agencies.  We may plan:

• To continue monitoring the child’s progress in line with the assessment policy for all children via our tracking system and regular termly reviews with families. We may choose for example particular termly targets that are linked to a child’s particular need.
• To make a Support Plan for a child focusing on the areas that have been identified.
• To make an Individual Health Care Plan for a child with the input of at least one health professional with knowledge or access to knowledge of the child’s medical needs.
• To refer the child for further support to a professional agency, for example the Art Therapy Service, Speech and Language Therapy Service or Child and Adult Mental Health Service (CAMHS). We may also seek advice or support from a specialist service to inform our planning, for example the Area SENCO with responsibility for visual impairment.

At any point in a child’s time in the setting their plans could be reviewed and we may choose to respond differently or to increase, decrease or end our level of extra support for a child. The key to planning is that it is flexible and responsive to new information or changes in the child or the child’s family circumstance.

            Monitoring plans made for children

• Targets for children’s learning and development are set termly by Key Persons in conversation with the child’s parents. Progress is monitored via the assessment on tapestry (see Glossary) and via observation and tracking against the developmental outcomes in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. Parents or staff may arrange more frequent meetings if they feel that is appropriate.
• Individual Health Care Plans are routinely reviewed at termly review meetings or in the light of any new information regarding a child’s health or medication.
• Support Plans are either reviewed at the child’s termly review or when a child has outside agency support.

Ending intervention to support a SEN or disability

Some children will need extra support but it is important to remember that, either in response to the intervention, their access to the provision or simply through maturation and the support of their family that children may not need to continue to have additional support throughout their time at Thurston Childcare. When this happens, in full consultation with the child’s family we discontinue additional support.

Support Plans

A Support Plan includes several (usually 2-4) short term goals and the strategies to help children reach those goals to enable progress. It always includes the arrangement to review the plan. The goals are clear, measureable in some way and designed to be achievable by the following review. Support Plans should include anything that is additional or different to the general provision offered to all children.

The Support Plans also contain a brief record of any other issues discussed with the family and/or professionals that might impact on the child’s development.  Following or during a Support Plan review the SENCO will record changes on the plan and forward copies to the child’s parents and other professionals supporting the child, with parental permission.

The Support Plan is a working document.

Partnerships with other Early Years Providers

Where a child is attending more than one Early Years Setting we endeavor to work in as close a partnership as possible with the other provider, with explicit parental permission. This might include sharing health care plans or holding joint Support Plan reviews or generally sharing information.

 

Request for statutory assessment and Education Health Care Plans

For a child who is not making adequate progress, despite a period of SEN support, and in agreement with the parents/carers, we may request the Local Authority to make a statutory assessment in order to determine whether it is necessary for the child to have an Education Health Care Plan (see Glossary). The Early Years team will be contacted through an IAA (see glossary) and with Parental permission too. Children have Education Health Care Plans when their needs cannot be met through the ‘Local Offer’ (see Glossary) of provision for children with SEND. When an application is made there are different possible outcomes; the child’s needs don’t meet the threshold for an EHCP and continues with SEN Support; the child is given a revised co-ordinated SEND Support Plan, or an assessment for an EHCP is granted. Families are supported through this process by the SENCo.

If an assessment is granted, then the SENCO and local authority will co-ordinate the pre-school and the parent’s contribution to the assessment process and facilitate other professionals to gather information about the child in the setting. It is important that this is done in a timely way, particularly if a child will be making the transition to primary school. Parents are fully involved in all stages of the assessment process and the local authority will allocate a key worker from the SEN team to support families through the process. Planning, provision, monitoring and review processes continue as before while awaiting the outcome of the request.

Education Health Care Plans

Education Health Care Plans are reviewed at least annually to consider the appropriateness of the provision and to recommend to the LA whether any changes need to be made, either to the EHCP or to the funding arrangements for the child.

Some children are awarded an EHCP just before their entry to primary school. In this case the SENCO will liaise with the receiving school using the EHCP as material for the discussion in planning for the child’s needs in the new setting.

Transition to Primary School (or another Early Years setting)

All children are sensitive to change and change may induce a child to regress or falter in their development. Children with difficulties in processing information, with mobility issues or any form of SEND are likely to find the transition to primary school or any new setting even more challenging than normally developing children. Families of children with SEND may also find the choices they need to make are more complex than those facing other families.

We make plans to offer extra support to all children with SEND when they are about to transfer to a new setting. These usually include a visit to the new setting with their Key person as well as a parent and use of photos of the new setting or new significant people to help the child think about the change.

We support parents by signposting to outside agencies, for parents of children with SEND around choosing schools. We also plan carefully with parents and hold a ‘transition meeting’ before a child is due to transfer with staff from the new setting and any other relevant professionals to ensure there is a smooth and supported flow of information. This offers a chance for the new setting to plan and allows families to communicate their knowledge, hopes and any concerns to new staff with the support of professionals that they know well.

 

Glossary

Equalities Act 2010

This act includes a duty on all schools to publish information each year about their plans to tackle discrimination, particularly towards with protected characteristics. Protected characteristics include having a disability.

Individual Health Care Plan

If a child suffers from a medical condition that might endanger his or her life or cause severe illness or is subject to a programme of medication, then they are required to have an Individual Health Care Plan before they are left in the care of nursery staff. This plan must be completed by or checked by a health care professional who knows the child’s needs well or has access to that information. The child’s parents also fully participate in writing the plan and sign it, along with the head teacher. Examples of children who might require a health care plan are a child with a severe allergy that could engender anaphylactic shock or a child who suffers seizures or has regular medication to control an on-going and serious condition.

SEN and SEND

These terms refer to ‘special educational needs’ and ‘special educational needs and/or disability’.

SENCO

This stands for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. The role of the SENCO is outlined clearly in the Code of Practice 2015. The SENCO is charged with liaising with outside professionals, staff and families, co-ordinating and facilitating the support for children with SEND, arranging training for staff and generally ensuring that the code of practice is fully adhered to.

Support Plan

This is the plan of agreed goals for a child who has or may have SEND. It is usually agreed in a Support Plan meeting, in consultation with parents, Key Person and SENCO. Sometimes this also involves other professionals. The Support plan is usually reviewed every 6 – 8 weeks.

Education Health Care Plan (EHCP)

If a child has severe and complex SEND and their needs cannot be met by the local offer, then they may be assessed as needing an Education Health Care Plan. The assessment is carried out in a co-ordinated way by professionals from health, education and other agencies as appropriate. The child’s family and, as far as possible the child themselves must be fully involved in creating the plan. The plan sets out the child’s needs, outcomes sought for the child, the special provision required and the child’s interests and aspirations. It will also include the name of the school the child is/will attend.

 

The Local Offer

The local offer is provided by Suffolk County Council to give clear and up-to-date information about the support and provision for SEND in the local area.

IAA referral (Information, advice and assistance)

With parental consent we can signpost children to be referred should we feel necessary.

Tapestry

All parents use and have access to Tapestry online, to track and add to their child valuable learning journey.

This policy links to:

• Valuing diversity and promoting inclusion and equality
• Equality and diversity statement
• Key person and settling-in
• Admissions
• Working in partnership with other agencies
• Parental involvement
• Information sharing and privacy notice
• Complaints Policy and statement

(SEND Code of Practice 2015 paragraph xiii pg:15).

This policy was adopted at a meeting of:	Thurston Childcare
Held on:	September 2021
Date to be reviewed	September 2021
Read and agreed on behalf of the management and the committee	Sarah Simmons and Committee Director