Nursery World - Early years settings struggle to access funding for rising numbers of young children with SEND

Three-quarters of early years settings have seen an increase in the number of children with formally-identified SEND at their setting over the past two years, but four in ten receive no extra funding to support them.

Many nurseries struggle to access extra funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities PHOTO Adobe Stock

The findings come from a survey by the Early Years Alliance of 1,300 settings, published to coincide with the publication of the Government’s SEND green paper.

The survey into special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision and funding in the early years found that while children are now being identified as having additional needs at a younger age, the focus on SEND is almost exclusively on schools. There is 'very little attention' paid to the huge difficulties that early years providers are facing to ensure they can offer the right support that children need.

The Alliance said that insufficient government funding for children with SEND in the early years, alongside a sustained lack of adequate investment into early years 'free' entitlements for parents, is putting the early development of a generation of children with SEND at risk and the sector under unsustainable pressure.

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