Early Years Action

Early Years Action is designed to identify pre-school children who may have special educational needs.

Early Years Action happens if the child's rate of progress is well below what is expected for children of a similar age and it becomes necessary to take some action which is additional to or different from that usually used.

The triggers for Early Years Action are when a child:

• makes little or no progress even when different teaching approaches have been tried
• continues working in certain areas at levels well below that expected of children of a similar age
• has emotional and/or behavioural difficulties which are not helped by the behaviour management usually used in the pre-school setting
• has sensory (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch) or physical problems which do not improve even with the help of specialist equipment
• has difficulty communicating and/or socialising and needs special individual help in order to learn.

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) and other staff should collect information about the child and ask for any further information from the parents. Outside professionals from health, social services or the educational psychology service may already be involved with the child.

Nature of Support

This could be:

• individually or with a group of children
• extra adult time to plan and monitor the support
• occasional advice from Local Education Authority (LEA) support services.
• training for staff in useful strategies

Parents should always be consulted and kept informed about the actions taken to help their child and the result of the actions.

The numbers in brackets relate to the section and paragraph number of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.

Early Years Action Plus

Early Education Action Plus happens when, after talking with parents at the meeting where the Individual Education Plan (IEP) is looked at again, a decision is made to ask for help from outside agencies. When Early Years Action Plus takes place, advice should always be asked of specialists.

The triggers for Early Years Action Plus are when a child, despite receiving support under Early Years Action:

• continues to make little or no progress in certain areas over a long period
• continues working at Early Years Curriculum levels well below that expected of children of a similar age
• has emotional or behavioural difficulties which regularly interfere with their own, or others education even though they have an individual behaviour programme
• has sensory (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch) or physical needs and additional equipment or regular advice/visits are needed by a specialist service
• has ongoing communication or social difficulties that stop the development of social relationships and makes learning very difficult.

When a pre-school setting asks for outside help, those services will need to see the child's records to know which plans have been made and which goals have been set and reached.

Outside agencies (Local Education Authority and others) will usually see a child in their place of education so that they can advise on new and correct goals for the child's IEP and all plans which go with it.

The numbers in brackets relate to the section and paragraph number of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.

Early Years Individual Education Plans

Plans to help a child make progress should be written in an Individual Education Plan (IEP).

The IEP should include information about:

• goals set for the child which can be reached within a short time
• the teaching plans
• the equipment to be used
• when the plan is to be looked at again
• the result of the action taken.

The IEP should only have in it anything that is additional to or different from the differentiated curriculum, which is in place for all children.

The IEP should be brief and have three or four goals.

IEPs should always be discussed with parents/carers and the child.

IEPs should be looked at regularly and at least three times a year. Parents/carers views about their child should be asked for as a matter of course.

The numbers in brackets relate to the section and paragraph number of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.

Early Years: The Role of the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator

Those who provide early education will need to have a member of staff to act as the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO). Where accredited childminders are part of an approved network, the SENCO role may be shared between individual childminders and the co-ordinator of that network.

The SENCO should have responsibility for:

• making sure communication between parents/carers and other professionals take place with regard to children with special educational needs
• advising and supporting all other staff in the setting
• making sure appropriate Individual Education Plans (IEPs) are in place
• making sure that all information about individual children with special educational needs (SEN) is collected, recorded and updated.

The SENCO should take the lead in:

• further assessment of the child's particular strengths and weaknesses
• planning future support for the child in discussion with colleagues and parents
• checking, and then taking another look at, any action taken.

The SENCO should also make sure that correct records are kept including a record of children at Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus and those with statements of SEN.

Parents should always be consulted, and kept informed about the action taken to help the child and the result of the action.

The numbers in brackets relate to the section and paragraph number of the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.