SEND and inclusion - early years

Early years funding and referral pathways

Early Years settings can also apply for SEN Inclusion Funding (SENIF) for children in their care, that can be used to enhance the setting and support them in developing staff skills, including strategies that can support individual children's needs and learning.

This additional support is used to enhance the ordinarily available resources in place within the setting. The setting must evidence how best they plan to use their resources to support the progress of children they have applied for. Any additional support awarded is intended to enable early years settings to meet the needs of children with additional or special educational needs and disability, keeping within the principles of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice.

SEND toolkit

The SEND Toolkit is an interactive Padlet where you can access information, guidance, tools and strategies for supporting children across the four broad areas of need, which are:

• Communication and Interaction
• Cognition and Learning
• Social, Emotional and /or Mental Health
• Physical and/or Sensory Development

The toolkit is organised into columns and enables you to offer universal and targeted support for children whose development may diverge from typical pathways. You can access the Padlet here

Early years funding

The available forms for relevant SEND and Inclusion funding (SENIF) are as follows:

Early years disability access fund form (word)
Early years inclusion funding/support procedure (pdf)
SEN inclusion fund application form (word)
SEN inclusion fund review form (word)

Inclusion funding/support panel dates 2024/25

Here are the special educational needs inclusion funding (SENIF) panel dates 2024/2025:

• Monday 29 April 2024
• Monday 24 June 2024
• Monday 29 July 2024
• Monday 30 September 2024
• Monday 28 October 2024
• Monday 25 November 2024
• Monday 16 December 2024
• Monday 27 January 2025
• Monday 24 February 2025

Applications must be received one week prior to panel dates to ensure they can be collated and presented at panel.

Please send securely to inclusionsupportrequest@ealing.gov.uk

Referral pathways

Here is the pathways for referral (FIS). Please note that the referral processes can be subject to change, and you will be informed if this occurs.

Attendance

Good attendance at school and early years provision is one of the most important factors in ensuring that children and young people have the maximum life chances. Good attendance is strongly linked to positive outcomes for children and young people, as well as overall development. Promoting positive full attendance is therefore everyone’s responsibility.

Guidance on reduced timetables in schools and early years provision - October 2021 (pdf) sets out the legal obligations and suggested approaches for all schools and early years settings in Ealing when they are considering the use of reduced timetables (sometimes referred to as 'part-time’ timetables).

Example phased transition plan (Appendix 1 to the above guidance)

Speech and language therapy in the early years

Training available, support groups and communication needs.