Memorandum submitted by the Early Childhood
Forum
The Early Childhood Forum welcomes this opportunity
to respond to the Select Committee. We believe that all children
should have access to high quality inclusive early years services
and settings. To inform this process, ECF urges the Committee
to focus on early years as a key element of its inquiry and not
restrict its investigations to school based provision.
BACKGROUND
1. The Early Childhood Forum (ECF) is a
coalition of professional associations, voluntary organisations
and interest groups united in their concern to develop the care
and education of young children from birth to eight. ECF is unique.
It is the only body that brings together nearly 50 member organisations,
covering the full spectrum of early years providers (see end for
list of membership).
2. ECF includes a number of organisations
that represent the rights of disabled children. Our policy agenda
includes a section on Addressing Inequalities and Valuing Diversity
and we maintain an active debate on inclusion. We have agreed
a definition which features on the Sure Start web site:
ECF believes that inclusion is a process of identifying,
understanding and breaking down barriers to participation and
belonging (ECF, 2003).
3. As part of the dissemination process
of the ECF inclusion definition, the National Children's Bureau,
which facilitates ECF, will be hosting a series of conferences
on the theme of Participation and Belonging: ensuring equality
for every child. The aim is to support change in settings by working
with practitioners across children's services in the early years
sector.
CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION
4. The population of children with SEN and
disability is diverse and includes a growing number of children
with significant continuing additional needs: these children and
their families often require a high level of long term support.
For instance, the report of the British Childhood Visual Impairment
Study Group (Rahi et al, 2003) found that visually impaired children
are now more likely:
— to have been premature;
— to be of South Asian origin;
— to have associated neurological problems;
— to have a condition which is not
treatable;
— to have had their condition from
very early life;
— to have similarly affected siblings;
and
— to be from areas of disadvantage.
5. The population of disabled children is
also much larger than previously thought with 7% and not 3% of
all children having a disability or long term health need. For
the early years this means that we need to be planning for 250,000
disabled children under 5 needing to access high quality early
years services.
6. Other factors such as unemployment and
poverty are more prevalent in families with a disabled child and
there is evidence of difficulties for these families in accessing
services (Daycare Trust, 2001). Other research has shown that
the combination of disadvantaged circumstances and difficulties
in securing access to appropriate services, which are found for
the majority of families with a disabled child, are particularly
acute for families from minority ethnic groups (Fazil et al, 2002).
7. Consequently, support services require
a high degree of specialist knowledge and flexibility in structure
to meet the diverse needs of individual children and families
within their cultural community.
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL
NEEDS: A NEW
LOOK
8. We would like to take this opportunity
of using some of the comments from Mary Warnock's pamphlet to
present the case for your inquiry to fully include the early years
sector.
9. Warnock gives two positive views on early
years provision:
— the benefits of early education for
long term outcomes for children
— the benefits of the concentration
of resources on early years
10. Some of her other statements provide
an opportunity to consider the inclusive nature of early years
provision.
"the concept of inclusion must embrace a
feeling of belonging"
this is at the heart of the ECF definition and
at the heart of our policy agenda.
"the failure to distinguish various kinds
of needs has been disastrous for many children"
early childhood principles focus on the individual
child and the way that each child learns best in the context of
a sound knowledge of child development—true personalized
learning.
"the greater the pressure to raise academic
standards, the worse the fate of those who could never shine according
to such standards"
early childhood principles focus on assessment
for learning based on informed observations of individual children;
these are set in the context of the core documents, Birth to Three
Matters and the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage which
provide a framework of learning opportunities for children, not
an abstract set of standards.
"inclusion should mean being involved in
the common enterprise of learning"
early childhood principles recognise the community
of learning which involves parents, practitioners, supporting
professionals, and the child; the concept of "reflective
practitioner" is embedded in early years quality assurance
schemes to ensure that quality is at the heart of evolving practice.
a redefinition of inclusion which "allows
children to pursue the common goals of education in the environment
within which they can best be taught and learn"
while for Warnock this may mean the recreation
of specialist schools, in early childhood the focus of supporting
and extending children's learning is by creating effective learning
environments indoors and out in local community settings.
11. Warnock suggests that one of the good
outcomes of her work has been a focus on training and whole setting
responsibility for SEN. In this we cannot be complacent. The Audit
Commission report (2003) found a "lottery of provision"
in early years. Early Support has been developed to counter this
by providing a family-focussed programme designed to deliver better
co-ordinated services through effective multiagency working. Emerging
findings are positive and may provide a model of specialist and
targetted services which support inclusion in universal services,
across the age range.
RECOMMENDATIONS
12. ECF would recommend the Education and
Skills Committee to consider the opportunities and omissions in
early childhood provision for children with SEN and disabilities
in the context of
— the challenge of a changing population
of children (paragraph 4)
— the role of support services (paragraph
6)
— the emerging findings of the Early
Support Programme (paragraph 11).
13. The Early Childhood Forum would recommend
to the Committee that it may find that "the principles which
inform early education can be seen to provide for the whole of
education a model of genuine inclusion" (Lloyd, 1997, p 172).
REFERENCES
Audit Commission (2003) Services for Disabled
Children. White Paper London: Audit Commission.
Daycare Trust (2001) Ambitious for All: Rising
to the Childcare Challenge for Children with Disabilities and
Special Needs. Childcare for All Thinking Big 5 London: Daycare
Trust.
Fazil, Q, Bywaters, P, Ali, Z, Wallace, L and
Singh, G (2002) Disadvantage and Discrimination Compounded: the
Experience of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Parents of Disabled Children
in the UK in Disability and Society vol 17 no 3 pp 237-253.
Lloyd, C (1997) Inclusive Education for Children
with Special Educational Needs in the Early Years in Wolfendale,
S (ed) Meeting Special Needs in the Early Years London: David
Fulton.
Rahi, JS and Cable, N (2003) on behalf of the
British Childhood Visual Impairment Study Group (BCVISG) Severe
Visual Impairment and Blindness in Children in the UK in The Lancet
volume 362 25 October 2003 pp 1359-1365.
Warnock, M (2005) Special Educational Needs:
a New Look Impact No 11 London: Philosophy of Education Society
of Great Britain.
October 2005
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