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we have a new child started he comes for 3 hrs a week. His mother said he has communication problems down to poor speech, he attends speech therapy. This morning she told me he has been given 1:1 in his other nursery and the local early years team are assessing him. He hits everybody including staff and can't be left unattended for a second. Would you apply for 1:1 for just 3 hrs?My problem is it is taking a staff member out permanently for 3 hrs to shadow him.

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Is there a particular reason he is only doing three hours with you? Only asking because it sounds like he needs a stable routine, and it can't be easy for him having to follow a different routine in a new place that he only attends for a short time. Does he attend the other setting for more hours or the same?

 

Personally I think I would apply for support if it is likely to be available. ( which you wouldn't get in our area anyway)

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No help in Suffolk either for SEN children we have to get on with by ourselves....although 2/3 of our children shoud be 1;1 because of the 'violence'...hitting etc.....but the help will never be forthcoming so no option but to soldier on until they get to school where they can get the 1;1...amazing ...

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I agree that 2 settings could be confusing. Does mum realise that him coming to you will make no difference in terms of whether he gets a school place or is so that he gets to know some of the children who may be going to the same school? Has she passed on information (IEPs/reports) so you have some strategies to use? Maybe a meeting with everyone involved would be a good idea. I wonder if the communication problems are due to limited speech or is it a receptive language/social communication difficulty.

 

There seems to be less and less funding available for children with SEND in pre-school settings. I'm using the election to "hound" my MP and other candidates to find out if their party will carry out the recommendations in the attached parliamentary inquiry. At the moment, it's a complete postcode lottery which isn't fair on parents, setting staff and most importantly the child. Rant over!

Parliamentary_Inquiry_into_childcare_web.pdf

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katkat...i haven't read it all but interesting so far. What upsets me is that despite no funding as a setting we accept every child. I would never say no ...unless it was physically impossible to accept (disabled toilets are an issue for us!)

I wonder how all these poor parents have been treated by settings...i have just had a Mum try to find a school place for her son who has challenging medical needs. The attitude of some of the local schools was appalling! We were the first setting that accepted him without issue ....his previous nursery had sent him home every day after a few minutes! :o

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Our latest children,with the council behind them,contacted 3 settings before us to place these children,(1 disabled)..all were closer to where they live....bearing in mind we are ALL supposed to support Inclusion......All 3 settings never even returned the call from their Social Worker.....could be they were full....I suspect not.....just choosy........which is unforgiveable. Level playing field and all that xx

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Sometimes though it is not always a case of being choosy. We currently have two mornings per week where because of the challenging behaviour of a number of children that attend on these days and the fact we have 2 SEN children, my staff are stretched so thinly that a child requiring a 1:1 would tip us over the edge...........and we are by no means full on these days.

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No help in Suffolk either for SEN children we have to get on with by ourselves....although 2/3 of our children shoud be 1;1 because of the 'violence'...hitting etc.....but the help will never be forthcoming so no option but to soldier on until they get to school where they can get the 1;1...amazing ...

There is funding for SEN children in Suffolk. A percentage of you EY funding is supposed to be allocated to SEN and then you can apply for HTN funding for children that require additional support.

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Thanks Jeany we do receive the HTN funding but our child has complex needs (£50 per hour per funded hour per term)so equates to £750 per term......or since our child is fulltime.....means over the 14 weeks of 50 hrs per wk... means we receive £1.07 per hour extra to help him 8am-6pm and also to ensure no harm comes to our other 25 children,This will not pay for an extra member of staff....nor resources....So we carry on.....knowing that disabled children at our local village primary school...have 1-1 assistants for their full day.Hopefully things may improve....eternally optimistic thats me.

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we have children turned down for funding , struggling on to support them and still give enough attention to all the other children, only to find that a few months later in school they do meet the criteria, I know they have less adults already than us, and to be honest when we only took 3 yr olds we always had the luxury of being over staffed and able mostly to support Sen/behavioural needs with in our ratios, but not any more with the 2yr olds lowering ratios and no extra funding and it's only getting worse.....the government need to take a step back and look at what they're doing...none of our children are getting what they need and used to get anymore, next they'll be telling us to buck our ideas because the 4 yr olds going into schools aren't where they used to be ....

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I'm on a mission to get a direct answer from the DfE, my initial question was this:

Please can you tell me which of the recommendations from the Parliamentary Inquiry into childcare for disabled children (July 2014) have been actioned and what the time-scale is for further actions? Families with disabled children are being failed on a daily basis, unable to secure childcare because funding for additional support is unavailable.

I received this response yesterday:

Thank you for your email of 5 January asking what steps the government has taken to ensure that all disabled children and young people can access appropriate childcare.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Parents with disabled children should have the same opportunities as other parents via increased choice and access to high quality childcare.

The Government already provides significant support to families. This includes the provision of free early education for all three- and four-year-olds and for around 40% of all two-year-olds including those children with an Education, Health and Care Plan or who received Disability Living Allowance. Low income families can also claim up to 70% of their childcare costs through working tax credit while Universal Credit will extend childcare support to those working fewer than 16 Hours and will provide up to 85% of childcare costs. Families with children who have disabilities will also be eligible to claim tax-free childcare, which is being introduced this year, for children up to age 17 compared to age 12 for other families. This will pay up to 20% of childcare costs up to £2,000 per child.

We are aware that families with disabled children often experience challenges and financial pressures in getting the services they need. We recognise that there is more we can do to build on good practice using the levers within our reformed frameworks (EYFS and SEN code) to increase the supply of providers offering affordable, high quality childcare for children with a disability. We are keen to work with providers to identify what more can be done to ensure that early years settings are building inclusive and accessible service for parents with disabled children.

The Department has also included in its 2015-16 VCS national prospectus, specific reference to early years SEN provision. Through this, we aim to increase levels of awareness and understanding of the SEN reforms amongst the wider Early Years market audience, and increase the number of quality childcare places for disabled children.

Thank you for writing on this important matter and I hope the information provided is helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Tereena Burman
Childcare, Special Educational Needs and Children’s Strategy
www.gov.uk/dfe

 

I've replied today asking if they can please answer my question. I've highlighted and underlined the section that says they welcome views from providers - here's the link for you to make your views known:

https://form.education.gov.uk/fillform.php?self=1&form_id=cCCNJ1xSfBE&type=form&ShowMsg=1&form_name=Contact+the+Department+for+Education&noRegister=false&ret=%2Fmodule%2Fservices&noLoginPrompt=1

 

Mencap also have a great online form you can complete to raise awareness of the issue with your MP and parliamentary candidates:

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=78&ea.campaign.id=30806

 

Sorry for going off topic but this is such an important issue.

Edited by katkat1972
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