What is really going on with Early Years SEND, and why are our children not accessing the enforceable support that they are legally entitled to?

We are all told, and those of us who are involved know without a question of doubt that early intervention for SEND is vital. Spotting the signs as early as possible that a child may need additional support to reach their age-related expectations will help prevent additional difficulties further on in their educational journey. 

Parents know their children best, and if they raise concerns these must be taken seriously. Different children may meet their milestones at different points, and this must, of course be considered. Every child is wonderfully unique. However, it is natural to be concerned as a parent, knowing that a friend’s child can sit, stand, talk, identify colours, count and purposefully mark make, and their own child cannot, they will, and do compare and worry.  Everyone wants the best for their child, not for their child to be playing catch up with their peers of a similar age. 

Is this the naturally concerned parent moment because one child is developing more strongly in one area and another child is at age related expectations, or something more?

Difficulties with challenging behaviour: is this inexperienced parenting or something more? 

A child whose play appears to be solitary, when their peers are at parallel and emerging into associative and then onto cooperative play? Is this the child’s usual way of learning through play, or just a very attentive and focused child? 

Is this child age-appropriately seeking to investigate boundaries and rules, the ‘angry when thwarted’ stage of development? Or is this child often in a state of dysregulation, and finding it extremely difficult to regulate, explain the reasons for their upset, and accept strategies to help the next time?

Is this child wondering if the playdoh is biscuit mix or are they consistently putting non-food items into their mouth, are the cuffs of their jumpers frayed because they chew on them? 

Is this a child playing at being a character from the television or are they a gestalt language processor and speech is developing in this way with echolalia past the usually expected age? 

We track children’s progress, and we may see differences beginning to emerge.  Early years must be a time when all those involved in the care and education of young children have the skills, knowledge and understanding in how to support children whose difficulties are just appearing on the radar.  Indeed Early Years often is the time when children with additional needs are best supported. The training in child development and psychology that Nursery Nurses have undertaken, to give one example, can be highly beneficial to both identifying and supporting little ones who are not hitting their age-related expectations. 

EYFS provides a very different way of learning: the fluidity, the kinaesthetic approaches, with an acceptance that children are still developing at their own pace, in their own way. 

A child with a need for movement will have this opportunity, a child with sensory needs will be drawn to water play and sand, a child who struggles with demands will have choices throughout the day in ways that will not be available in the years that follow. 

Many of these characteristics will be seen as just this, not a difficulty – not a need, but an interest. “Oh yes she loves the sand, can’t keep her away”, “he is so engaged with our transport topic, he knows so much already about trains and tractors, he’s been teaching us all about them”.  Delightful, sharing interests and being able to find the activity that calms and centres you, until the learning style expectation begins to change. 

The expectations to transition from one activity to another without debate and upset. The sand is put away, and the topic subject is not a favoured one. The child who is always ‘full of beans’ has to sit for longer periods of time. The child who is happiest playing alone has to join in with a group activity. The child who repeats set phrases, struggles to communicate,  begins to have a few difficulties maintaining friendships, needs and wants can’t be understood by anyone other than those who know the child very well. The child who just wants to climb and run, is stronger and faster now, and if that door is slightly open, they’ll be off. 

Is the child tired, or disregulated, maybe both? A conversation with parents reveals that sleep hygiene is very poor, their child cannot settle and if they don’t co-sleep no one sleeps. The child is very tired by the afternoon, and in the afternoon it’s unstructured activities and they are unable to focus on using the scissors, and sharing in a group activity is just too hard. It’s too much, and then someone gets too close, the room is too noisy, the lights are too bright, and the child cannot communicate any of these difficulties. So they run and hide, shout, throw and push, put hands over ears, spin and flap, cry inconsolably and ask to go home, any or all of these may apply. Just tired, or is there more to this? 

“Come and join in, we’re all playing …” The response is a definitive “NO!” Alternatively: “I don’t really know if we should play <game 1> or <game 2>, and I’ll need someone who knows what to do. Do you know anyone?” Can result in a “yes we are going to play game 2, because I know what to do”. The demand has been removed, and the choice has been made. You have been having to ‘entice’ this child to join in for weeks, and you have to tread carefully as he is a ‘natural leader’ and has to be in charge, has to be at the front of the queue and shouts his answers out. He is extremely upset if this doesn’t happen.

The child who is ‘so full of energy, and enthusiasm’ is now being regarded as impulsive, a fidget, cannot wait their turn, is always wandering around, struggles to concentrate on the activity and loses interest very quickly. They too shout out, push to be at the front, talk too much and too loudly, are beginning to disturb the concentration of the children sat next to them, and their play is very physical and often with more force than they realise. 

You notice that another child never has their trousers pulled up, they can’t put their coat on and even if you start the zip, they can’t pull this up. They avoid all mark making and eat with their hands. They never seem to be sat straight at the table and spend more time on the floor and bumping into things than remaining upright, and they cannot wipe after going to the loo. The majority of their friends can do all these things, and they are starting to notice. This child never goes out to play on time, because they need someone to help them, and that can start with finding their coat, because they didn’t hang it up properly. By the time the child is outside, everyone else has someone to play with, so they sit by themselves. 

The little girl who appears to be ‘fine’, she will struggle occasionally; she isn’t the first to ask questions or say that she needs help – so she must be okay; you notice that she will ‘follow’ others and seek to please but will often fall out with friends. Rules are important to her, and she makes sure that these are enforced. She is quieter than the rest of her peers and can get tearful at times especially when separating from mummy in the mornings. She will get very upset if the game or activity she is involved with doesn’t go as well as planned. Even at this age this little girl could be described as a ‘little perfectionist’. Then when talking to parents they describe how she comes home, crashes and bashes her toys, cries and screams and hides under a blanket with her tablet. No one has talked about masking and how this is especially prevalent in girls. Why? 

Difficulties such as the ones above are not consistently being flagged as potential warning signs of a child requiring additional, targeted, specific and enforceable (funded) support.

Why?

From our professional experience, the lived experience of our Facebook community, and from our own research, the reasons are, at face value not as difficult to explain as may be expected. This does not mean that they are simple to alleviate. 

For many parents, years down the line and battle scarred from trying to achieve support, these reasons are at the very crux of why their children’s difficulties have increased exponentially. The likelihood of the intensity of need being reduced if support had been put in place earlier will not have passed anyone by. A child who has been repeatedly put into isolation, suspended, had fixed term exclusions and then been permanently excluded due to difficulties with emotional regulation, who only after this receives a diagnosis of ASD with a PDA profile and Sensory Processing Difficulties, could have been saved a from a world of distress if their difficulties had been investigated robustly and with empathy and understanding. 

This is not to say that EYFS staff are not doing their best, from the conversations we have with parents and EYFS placements the issue is not about the want to help, it’s about the information that is made available and the support provided from Local Authorities. 

When the information is provided by your Local Authority, when the training is undertaken by the Local Authority, it’s an obvious enough assumption that this information and training is correct.  Why would ‘policy’ not also follow SEND law? Why would Local Authorities promote unlawful policy en-masse? 

Having spoken to a selection of EYFS pre-schools and Day Nurseries the following has been disclosed:

“We don’t have any of those children here, our children don’t have SEND, they are all just normal children. We have, in all our years never had to apply for an EHCP, but sometimes this happens when they go to school. It’s not something we have to do.”

“Yes, we have applied multiple times, and at each time we are knocked back. Apparently, we don’t provide enough evidence, but we use the application process that the LA have told us to use, so what can we do?”

“Tell me about it – it’s a nightmare for us, the child, their parents and, to be honest the other children here. We have made 5 applications and non-have been approved. We are always told that we have to provide evidence that the child already has Special Needs and that they have a huge amount of additional provision already in place. We can’t afford to provide full time 1:1’s so the help they need isn’t provided. So, we offer a part time placement, or their mother comes in to help”.

“We have battles every step of the way, the paperwork isn’t correct (it is), or it’s because the evidence isn’t there, the child doesn’t have a diagnosis (I don’t think they need one, do they?), we haven’t undertaken enough Assess, Do, Plan Review. The child is happy, or the child can speak, or the child can make marks on a piece of paper, or the usual one at the moment is ‘all children at this age behave like this’. We apply, we get the parents involved and then it’s our fault because the assessment is refused.”

“EHCPs for EYFS don’t come with any funding so what’s the point?”

The bottom line is the same whoever we talk to, it’s almost impossible to have an EHC Needs Assessment (EHC NA) agreed to assess at EYFS, if this is undertaken by the setting, because the LA are using ‘policy’ and not SEND law. And if you have not been given training and information on SEND law for EHC NA, then why would you not know any different? 

We are seeking to change this. Empowering Families of Children with SEND.

We firmly believe that early intervention is imperative for SEND and getting that EHCP as early as possible, getting the needs identified, and the provision correctly funded to ensure providers can fulfil the EHCP is essential to the child reaching their potential in all further education key stages. 

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