SEND: The route to diagnosis

The way children with special educational needs are diagnosed and supported has changed significantly, particularly following the implementation of reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in 2014. For schools and early years settings, these changes have introduced new ways of working and fresh challenges.

Government figures show that since 2010, the proportion of children with special educational needs has fallen sharply from 21.1 per cent to 15.4 per cent. However, the proportion of children with Education, Health and Care Plans or statements of special educational needs has not fallen in that time, so the apparent decline is solely among children with less severe difficulties, who may no longer be included on the SEN register.

‘The proportion of children with special educational needs and disabilities has not necessarily changed, but teachers are now looking more carefully at how they may be able to use quality teaching to better meet individual needs,’ explains Dr Adam Boddison, chief executive of the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN). ‘If the needs can be met by better teaching, then those children should not be included on the SEN register.’

Early years settings too are encouraged to look at how children can be supported within their settings before referring to outside agencies.

The official number of children with special educational needs and disabilities may drop further if proposed changes to high-needs funding, currently being considered by the Government, are introduced.

‘The first £6,000 of any needs will have to be met by the school, which is likely to remove perverse incentives to over-identify SEND,’ says Dr Boddison. Others, however, fear schools are likely to under-identify children with SEND. Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of charity Ambitious About Autism, says, ‘If pressure on budgets is driving schools to reduce the number of children they identify as having SEN, that is deeply worrying.’

CLEAR APPROACH

As part of the reforms, which include a new Code of Practice, early years settings are charged with developing a clear approach to identifying children with special educational needs. Combined with a rise in the number of young children attending early years settings, this means that despite official figures, early education providers are often dealing with more children with special educational needs than in the past.

‘There is a population increase, so there are more children coming into early years, particularly with the two-year-olds funding, so the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities in early years settings is also increasing,’ says Sue Robb, head of early years at charity 4Children. ‘The introduction of the Integrated Review also means issues will be picked up earlier.’

While some early years settings are effectively meeting the early identification requirements, others are not. ‘There is significant variation in SEND provision across the broad range of early years settings,’ says Dr Boddison. ‘The spirit of the new Code of Practice is clearly a good thing for children, but there are practical issues that must be resolved.’

SEN co-ordinators (SENCOs) in schools, for example, are required to be more highly qualified than those in early years settings. ‘The Masters-level NASENCo Award that is a compulsory qualification for SENCOs in schools does not apply in the early years and, if it did, it would need to be pitched appropriately to ensure it was relevant,’ says Dr Boddison.

Early years trainer Sue Fisher says the Code of Practice states that while maintained nurseries ‘must’ ensure a qualified teacher is a designated SENCO, others offering group provision are merely ‘expected’ to do this.

BARRIERS TO IDENTIFICATION

The new Code of Practice states that identifying children with special educational needs is the responsibility of everybody in a setting. This approach can make identification easier, as a child’s key person may be better placed to recognise any issues they may have, with the appropriate training. ‘I am really pleased that with the new Code we appear to have a change of ethos, and now everyone is responsible for SEND,’ says Ms Fisher.

However, there are still a number of potential barriers to effective identification of children with special educational needs in the early years.

‘There is some element of not wanting to upset the parents,’ says Ms Fisher. ‘There have been occasions where practitioners have found it very difficult to talk to parents because they feel if they have that discussion, the parents will whip the child out of the nursery. That does sometimes happen, because the parents are not ready to deal with any issue the child may have. There is also the element of a setting wishing not to label a child.’

‘Working with the parent is a big part of early years, especially if children have got a hidden disability,’ says Janice Darke-Sutcliffe, early years consultant and former team leader for area SENCOs in Liverpool. ‘You may be the first person to raise a concern with a parent, and it can be a painful thing for parents to make their own concerns public.’

More training is key, but settings are hampered by a lack of funding. ‘There is not as much training around SEND as there was previously,’ says Ms Fisher. ‘If I were a local authority, I would want to train everyone in a setting, not just SENCOs, based on the changes to the Code.’

Diagnosis of special educational needs in early years is complicated by the fact that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between normal developmental stages, developmental delay and a special educational need. ‘The issue in early years is that you have got emerging needs, and one thing that often comes up with practitioners is “When does something become a SEND and when is it about developmental delay?”,’ says Kay Mathieson, early years consultant and trainer.

‘There is a difference between a developmental need, when children can catch up given the right support, and an SEN; for example, the difference between speech delay and a speech and language impairment,’ says Ms Fisher. ‘I would encourage settings to put things in place that move all children forward with their developing needs, such as Every Child A Talker. It’s about inclusion, and meeting the needs of children before they are identified as having a special educational need or disability.’

Some special educational needs are hard to diagnose before a certain age. ‘It is difficult to make a diagnosis of autism, for example, before a child is three,’ says Ms Fisher. ‘A two-year-old likes lining things up; someone on the autistic spectrum also likes lining things up.’

SPATE OF REFERRALS

Early years settings can become particularly anxious about identifying special educational needs when a child is moving on, but this is not necessarily the right approach, says Ms Mathieson. ‘Transitions, whether to nursery school or Reception, always bring a spate of referrals and anxiety,’ she says. ‘It seems like in the nine months or so before a child moves to school there is a massive panic around “Have we done enough, he’s never going to cope in school?”. However, the essence of the Code is to meet a child’s needs as we see them at that moment, and gathering evidence on the way – once they are at school, it is the school’s responsibility to carry on doing that.’

TOO ZEALOUS?

Mother-of-two Laura Jones* believes that early years settings can be too zealous in identifying special needs, and that this is partly down to anxiety about school readiness. ‘The nursery felt my son Bobby* was a bit behind in speech and making friends with other children when he was two,’ she says. ‘The key worker said she felt it would be sensible to call in a portage worker to observe him and give recommendations on how we can improve his progression through play, and find ways to help him get school-ready.’

Ms Jones is ambivalent about the support her son has had from the nursery. ‘I am not really certain this support has made any difference but it hasn’t done any harm, although my husband felt the nursery were interfering,’ she says. ‘I feel that it is all about getting them to sit in a circle and follow instructions. The settings say they don’t want to let children down, but I think it’s more about supporting the schools by preparing children to go.’

As more local authorities roll out the Integrated Review and the number of young children in childcare rises, early years settings will continue to be expected to identify children’s issues at an early age. ‘SENCOs are getting it right most of the time, and other agencies such as occupational therapy/health are more willing to have conversations with early years settings,’ says Ms Mathieson.

But in order to fully realise the spirit of the SEND reforms, support for early years settings, especially training, is vital.

*Names have been changed

MORE INFORMATION

SEN and Disability in the Early Years Toolkit – put together by 4Children and the Council for Disabled Children. Each section of the toolkit provides a briefing on a particular aspect of the SEN and disability reforms as they apply to early years providers. Includes tools, activities and reflective tasks to support practitioners in applying the topics to their setting. Available at www.foundationyears.org.uk/2015/06/sen-and-disability-in-the-early-years-toolkit

SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 Years– sets out the duties of local authorities, health bodies, schools, colleges and early years settings to provide for those with special educational needs and disabilities. Chapter 5 focuses specifically on early years. Go to www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

Governmentstatisticson the proportion of children with SEND, www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen