The Department for Education guidance has been developed in collaboration with Dingley’s Promise in response to concerns among the sector that assessment processes for children with SEND can be time consuming and ‘often not fit for purpose’.
The guidance links directly to the areas of need highlighted in the EYFS and has practical tools and resources to support the assessment process. It has been created to support a child-centered, strengths-based approach to assessing children’s needs and aims to help practitioners assess the development of each unique child and providing a simple approach to identifying and meeting their needs as soon as possible.
It is hoped the guidance will be adopted by settings and local authorities to achieve a ‘simpler and more consistent’ assessment process, and reduce stress on families and on professionals.
Catherine McLeod, chief executive of Dingley’s Promise, said, ‘We are delighted to finally launch this guidance nationally, having worked in collaboration with the DfE as part of our vision to create a more inclusive early years sector, and are excited to see this hard work come to fruition. We hope that it will improve early intervention that is so critical for improving life outcomes for children with SEND. We are grateful to all those who helped in the development of this guidance by giving their feedback on draft versions, including settings, local authorities, health professionals and early years experts.’
It comes after the schools minister, Catherine McKinnell, warned last week that children with SEND and their families are 'being left in limbo' for too long after official statistics showed that three in five decisions made by councils on whether to issue an EHC plan took six months.
