Michael Pettavel: Why early years settings need to be accessible to all

It’s difficult to know where to start this month. I’d like to focus on the vulnerable, especially those with additional needs.

I think we would all anecdotally agree that the number of children who need a different approach to learning are increasing in our nurseries and the challenges to support them are many and varied. Our nursery has a policy of never saying ‘no’ to a family, and as a result we appear to have become renowned for inclusion. We find ourselves recommended by paediatricians and health professionals as a place where children will be valued, whatever their needs.

Parents choose us because of our staff. Relationships are at the core of our practice and the commitment of our team is demonstrated through action, not simply ‘policy wording’. Even in the most challenging situations, our team holds a clear vision of a world in which everyone is important and you can judge your practice by the progress of the most vulnerable. Increasing numbers of children with complex needs does not make life easy, but it does make it worthwhile. Each small step is an opportunity and each setback a chance to learn. Inclusion has refined our practice and made us better for it.

What is sad is the number of children who have been told (often after a day) that their current provision can’t manage their needs or that they don’t ‘fit’. This is also a problem when they leave to go to primary school. Given the increasing number of children who cannot access specialist provision, there is a hole in mainstream education, demonstrating a lack of confidence to include all children within a community.

I struggle to understand barriers to inclusion apart from adequate funding (which, by the way, isn’t a good enough excuse), because if working with children is your calling, why would you restrict who is part of your community? It would be like looking at a landscape and wishing a lake wasn’t in the middle. We can be fearful of what we don’t understand, but isn’t this what education is; the opportunity to discover new things and understand the unknown?

We are blessed in the early years, we retain education at our core and can avoid the pressures of a constricted curriculum that simply focuses on the acquisition of core skills needed for the workplace, rather than lifelong learning. So, what better time to offer all children, rather than just those who ‘fit in’, the opportunity to be a part of society.

Nothing to do with politics, just human relationships.