Memorandum submitted by the Pre-school
Learning Alliance
INTRODUCTION
1. The Pre-school Learning Alliance is a
leading educational charity specialising in early years, with
over 40 years experience of working with children and families.
The Alliance provides practical support to over 15,000 early years
settings and makes a positive contribution to the care and education
of over 500,000 young children and their families each year. We
encourage and actively promote parental involvement and partnership-working
in all aspects of our work.
2. The Alliance is the largest voluntary
sector provider of Neighbourhood Nurseries and Children's Centres,
having opened 29 new nurseries in the last two years, of which
22 are designated as Children's Centres. The charity is a major
employer of early years professionals within the sector and aims
to be involved in 100 Children's Centres by 2008.
3. The Alliance has always been inclusive
in its practice, providing help and support to early years settings.
Since the Mary Warnock Report in 1978, the Alliance has formerly
recognised the benefits of specifically trained early years workers
for children with special educational needs. SEN co-ordinators
(SENCOs) visit and support groups on a regular basis, advising
them on legislation and best practice. This is supported by publications
for early years settings, outlining clear guidance for early years
professionals and support staff. The charity also provides a range
of key products and services including publications, childcare
consultancy, information and advice, quality assurance, research,
training and family programmes.
4. The Alliance welcomes the opportunity
to submit evidence to the Committee on the SEN inquiry. The Alliance
recognises the need to define a specific set of guidelines for
the early years sector, distinct from primary education. It is
important that children under five with SEN are recognised as
having complex and often distinct needs to children of statutory
school age.
DEFINITIONS OF
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL
NEEDS
5. The 2001 Special Educational Needs Code
Of Practice (SENCOP) encouraged the move away from `statementing'
and separate provision for children with SEN. It was intended
that this would give parents more choice about the best setting
for their child's individual needs. However, many parents have
found the statementing process demoralising and have experienced
difficulties accessing the help they need from their local authorities
despite the supporting documentation.
6. Peter Farrell states in his 2001, "Special
education in the last twenty years: have things really got better?"
(British Journal of Special Education, 28 (1):3-9) ". . .
parents have a much louder voice, there are more mechanisms to
support them and they have far greater rights of appeal but perhaps
more important are the continued problems associated with the
bureaucratic and cumbersome statutory assessment procedures which,
despite proposed changes in the new draft Code, still seem to
be a millstone round the necks of all those involved in striving
to provide the best quality education to pupils with SEN and their
families."
7. If a system of statements is to be continued,
there needs to be an easier way for this to happen. Definitions
of SEN and disabilities can be confusing. Anecdotal evidence from
early years providers suggests that uncertainties exist as to
what constituted or defined an SEN or a disability, which appeared
to cause confusion in their duty of care. The 2001 SEN Code of
Practice uses the terms for a special educational need from the
Education Act 1993 and a disability from the 1989 Children Act/1995
Disability Discrimination Act.
8. With the new Disability Discrimination
Act (2005) in place, it would be beneficial if government created
a process that clearly defines what characterises a child with
SEN or a disability. This should be communicated clearly so that
all early years providers and professionals in voluntary, private
and maintained sectors can be consistent.
INCLUSION
9. The Alliance supports a move towards
inclusion for children with special needs in to mainstream schools.
However, adequate funding must be provided if we are to realise
this objective. Funding will be required to train early years
professionals in delivering effective inclusive practice and to
provide the extra facilities needed to provide a high quality
learning experience for the child. The Alliance does not believe
that Special Schools are advantageous, as they can foster a culture
of separation, which directly contradicts the philosophy of inclusive
practice. However, it would be ill judged to undertake a process
of dismantling all Special Schools without putting the appropriate
infrastructure and resources in place for genuine inclusion.
10. Children with SEN have different needs
according to their type of condition or disability. Early years
professionals will therefore need access to specialist inclusion
training. Children with profound special educational needs or
disabilities require individual and specific attention to benefit
fully from any inclusive form of education. These children should
not be segregated from their peers. A process of inclusion is
the best way to provide good learning outcomes for children and
also supports their individual rights. By ratifying the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Child in 1991, the UK Government
accepted the obligations set out by the Convention and agrees
to be responsible for implementing its principles.
11. Raising standards of achievement for
SEN pupils is an important objective. However, funding needs to
be provided for key staff to follow the correct policies and specialist
staff need training on how to follow procedures (as defined in
the 2001 Special Educational Needs Code of Practice and other
relevant legislation).
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
12. The Alliance welcomes the Committee's
decision to highlight the important role of parents. Parental
involvement underpins the Alliance's work. Parents and carers
are a child's first and primary educator. For children with special
educational needs, a parent is the first informer of their child's
needs and/or disability. Parental involvement can only work with
good communication between the early years professional and the
parent. Experience shows that Alliance member groups have found
it very beneficial to involve parents in all aspects of their
child's early development and learning, parents welcome the support.
This enhances a child's educational experience and the parents
also benefit from the support and advice given by the early years
professional.
LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK
13. Feeback suggests the legislative framework
for SEN provision is very confusing for early years providers.
The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) not only applied
to pre-schools (with or with out educational funding), but also
applied to other service providers such as restaurants and petrol
stations etc Evidence provided by the Alliance's local SENCOs,
suggests that some early years providers were unclear about how
to comply, until a year after the Special Educational Needs &
Disability Act of 2001 (SENDA). The SENDA and part 4 of the Disability
Discrimination Act was only applicable to maintained nurseries,
schools and post 16 providers. This caused confusion within the
sector. It would have been more helpful to have a clear guidance
specifically for the early years sector before the new legislation
was enacted.
14. Unfortunately, clear guidance on duties
for educationally funded early years settings did not come in
until 2002, with the production of the SEN Code of Practice (SENCOP)
and for the whole sector in 2003 with the joint guidance from
the Sure Start/NCB/CDC-Early Years and the Disability Discrimination
Act 1995, what service providers need to know. Generally the process
is considered by early years professionals as too bureaucratic,
complicated and time consuming.
15. The Alliance supports the Government's
move to establish a legislative framework to specifically address
the process of inclusion for children with special educational
need and/or disabilities.
The process has been difficult both for individual
childcare providers and for organisations to interpret legislation
and support their members. The Alliance has consistently urged
government to provide a clear and concise set of guidelines specifically
for early years settings.
CONCLUSIONS
16. It is clear that the legislative framework
for children with Special Educational Needs has been fragmented
and non-cohesive in the past. To move forward and build upon past
experiences, the Alliance recommends that the Committee consider
the following:
— Wherever possible children with SEN
should be educated in mainstream settings, providing there is
adequate funding and resources to support this. It is clear that
more funding is needed to specifically address any transition
from special schools to inclusion in mainstream settings.
— Special Schools by their very definition
do not promote inclusive practice and in some cases can isolate
children. However, the specific expertise of those within special
schools should be utilised within the mainstream sector.
— Standards will only be raised for
SEN pupils if the early years workers receive appropriate training.
— Clearer guidance for educational
establishments needs to be available for those settings who have
children with SEN, including a clear definition of what constitutes
a SEN or a Disability.
September 2005
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