According to the report, Special Educational Needs: A mainstream issue, arrangements for funding additional provision to meet children's SEN in the sector remain 'incoherent and piecemeal', and far behind those available to school-age children. The report stressed the importance of early intervention and found that in spite of a plethora of local initiatives it has yet to become the norm.
Early years partnerships had identified 'a pot' from which providers could bid for funds to help individual children, 'but success depended on knowing about the pot, putting together an effective bid and, crucially, the availability of funds,' the report said.
However, the Audit Commission said the situation should improve in England with new funds being made available for the establishment of a network of area specialists in the early years sector. But 'arrangements still fall far short of the level of advice and support provided for children of school age'.
The disparity between school-age children and those in early years settings is also reflected in the larger number with statements in the older age group. The Commission found that 'statements direct proportionately more SEN resources to secondary education than to primary, and more to primary than to nursery'.
LEA responsibility towards children with statements, it said, left 'limited scope for wider preventative work with children with lower levels of need'
-the 1.6 million SEN children who have no statement.
The report concluded that the training many early years workers had in early child development 'provided a valuable back-ground to working with children with SEN' and that the sector 'was more inclusive in its ethos than later stages of education'.
Special needs charities welcomed the report. The National Autistic Society described it as a 'comprehensive investigation of a key issue for families affected by autism', particularly its 'emphasis on the needs for early intervention and the short-falls in therapeutic support'. NAS policy and campaigns officer Steve Broach said its research showed a gap between the needs of children with autistic spectrum disorders and the autism-specific provision available, and that 'as a first step the Government must treat training teachers in an awareness and understanding of autism'.
Scope said the tension at the heart of the Government's agenda was revealed by the report. Research and public policy officer Caroline Cooke said, 'It is promoting the policy of inclusion at the same time as failing to value anything other than the achievement of academic targets.
'Until there are some real incentives for doing well at inclusion, disabled children will continue to have a less than equal opportunity in education.'
