1998 Early Years Development Plan
SECTION J - IDENTIFICATION AND INCLUSION OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABLED CHILDREN
Current Provision
A. Education Department
Bristol LEA provides for children with Special Educational Needs in its mainstream provision and in Special Schools which comprise:
3 for children with severe learning difficulties/profound and multiple learning difficulties
2 for children with moderate learning difficulties
1 for hearing impaired children
1 for children with physical disabilities
1 for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties
Resource and support services are as follows:
1 Portage scheme with places for 20 children
1 resource base for children with autism in a mainstream primary school
1 resource base for children with speech and language difficulties in a mainstream infant school
2 resource bases for hearing impaired children in infant schools
Educational Psychology
Bristol Special Needs Support for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties
Bristol Special Needs Support for children with learning difficulties
B. Social Services
Social Services has 9 day nurseries all of which make provision for children with special educational needs/disabilities. Two particular examples are:
Southmead Day Nursery
Currently 20 of the total 66 places are offered to children with sen/disabilities. 6 of these 20 places are for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties, the remaining 14 are for children with significant learning and communication difficulties.
Whitehall Day Nursery
Offers places to 6 children with significant learning difficulties/disabilities, usually children with cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia), Downs Syndrome, autism and other communication disorders.
The role of day nurseries in the city is gradually changing to provide more structured family support in addition to child care provision.
C. Voluntary/Private Sector
i) All registered providers can offer places to children under 5 with SEN/disabilities. This is usually arranged and funded by parents although support for these children is sometimes made available by Social Services and paid to the voluntary/private sector.
ii) Services from education and health trusts are available to these providers for the individual child and family to enable identification and assessment of SEN.
iii) A variety of play projects are made available mainly for school age children but sometimes also available to pre-school children.
D. Health : Health Services for disabled children in Bristol are provided by four trusts:
Phoenix Health Trust
United Bristol Health Trust (UBHT)
Frenchay Health Trust
Southmead Health Trust
i) Universal surveillance
by health visitors, pre-school and school nurses in school. Support is targeted at families and children in need, children with developmental, behavioural and health problems are identified and referred to the appropriate agency.
ii) Community paediatricians
diagnose and assess children with developmental, behavioural and health problems
iii) Speech therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists provide services to children with disabilities
iv) Clinical psychologists advise and support families of children with severe behaviour problems
v) Child Assessment centres
Tyndalls Park Children=s Centre
Frenchay Children=s Centre
Westgate House (Southmead)
offer extended assessment facilities in a nursery setting
E. Inclusive Provision for children with sen/disabilities : current developments
i) Inclusive education policy
Proposals being developed for the strategic development of SEN provision within an inclusive education policy to enhance provision for children with autism, emotional and behavioural difficulties and complex learning difficulties.
ii) Nursery provision for children with severe learning difficulties in a nursery school : New Fosseway Annexe.
iii) Nursery provision for children with severe learning difficulties in the nursery unit of a school for children with moderate learning difficulties.
iv) Resource bases for
hearing impaired children } in
children with autism } mainstream
children with speech and } schools
language difficulties
v) Statements of SEN
provided for children in mainstream nursery schools and classes.
vi) Mainstream school places
for children with cerebral palsy and Downs Syndrome in the early years
vii) Multi-disciplinary meetings
in Whitehall Day Nursery with professionals from the community health team for Frenchay meeting once a month with the nursery staff and educational psychologist to discuss children with sen/disabilities
viii) Review of Sponsored Day Scheme
this review has a specific aim to ensure that the scheme can meet the needs of disabled children appropriately
ix) Clinics in an Early Years Centre
the Community Paediatrician from UBHT holds clinics in Hartcliffe integrated Early Years Centre.
x) Resource Worker project at Southmead Day Nursery - joint finance project to promote services for disabled children within mainstream provision. Early Years Inclusion Project, South Bristol - a similar project is the subject of a joint finance bid for 1998/9.
F. Support for children with SEN in all early years settings
The outcome is currently awaited of a bid for external funding to provide additional Education Psychologist time to provide the staff in non-LEA early years settings with advice and support in assessing and meting the needs of children with SEN. This would enable appropriate support to be made available for all types of early years settings on a gradual basis with training provided.
G. Provision for children with English as an additional language
(ie : special needs but not necessarily special educational needs) Details of the current provision, issues and areas for development are outlined in the Section referring to Audit of Need and Provision.
Issues
A. Day Nursery/Nursery School/Class Provision
 | staff often anxious when disabled children are admitted; |
| reluctance to admit children who are not toilet trained, sometimes even when centrally funded support is provided; |
| frequent concern about whether the level of support provided is adequate to meet the needs specified on a Statement of SEN; |
| shortage of qualified and trained learning support assistants and little help available to the Headteachers in finding such staff; |
| variation in extent to which day nurseries can cater for children with significant disabilities/SEN; |
| only one of the nine Social Services day nurseries has well developed facilities for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties - significant gap in provision for under 3s. However, a number of private and voluntary settings as well as childminders do meet these needs. |
| haphazard whether combined placements e.g. private nursery school and day nursery can be arranged to provide package of inclusive provision; |
| lack of clarity about recommended adult/child ratios for children with disabilities/SEN in day nurseries. |
B. Voluntary/Private Sector Provision
| variable ratio of adults to children; |
| playgroups and playschemes find it difficult to provide for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties; |
| inadequate training opportunities e.g. communication skills, sign language training, intimate care, administration of medication, meeting the needs of disabled children; |
| need for good practice guidelines relating to intimate care and administration of medication; |
| no agreed procedures for identifying, assessing, recording and meeting special educational needs in private and voluntary settings which are applied on a city wide basis. |
C. Health Service Provision
| the health authority which purchases health care on behalf of the population (as opposed to the health trusts which provide services) need to give higher priority to contributing to the planning of services for young children and their families; it has however been actively involved in the Partnership and has recently conducted a review of children=s services which will address some of the issues identified below. |
| some families do not find it easy to travel to the child assessment services based in the child assessment centres; |
| the child assessment centres do not offer interpretation/translation services to families who speak English as a second language; |
| the child assessment centres can be intimidating to some families; |
| scope for improved liaison and communication between the health services and local authority services - the Children=s Services Plan proposes the establishment of a service planning group for disabled children=s services which would include a whole range of agencies and service users. |
| need to review organisation of child development teams to promote closer working with the many agencies involved with disabled children; |
| In the past the Health Service provided nurseries for disabled children but this is no longer sen as an appropriate role for Health which now concentrates on assessment. Such changes have not, however, been compensated for by developments in e.g. social services day care. |
D. General
| need to establish one source of contact point for information about services, resources and assessment for parents of children with SEN/disabilities; |
| need for such families to receive personalised support; |
| need for all services to work together in partnership. |
| need to develop opportunities for deaf pre-school children to access other deaf children and adults as well as considering inclusion/integration options. Should extend Bristol=s education policy regarding deaf children into the early years building on the existing positive work. |
| need to develop a programme of training on the SEN Code of Practice in all early years settings to include familiarisation with the Code as a way of working, using entry assessment and other assessment to determine whether children should be placed on the Code=s staged procedures, Portage training, using play as a vehicle for assessment and intervention, and working with parents. |
| need to develop a common transfer document to be used by all providers when a child moves from one setting/phase to another with a system of Ahandover@ area meetings attended by all parties involved. |
KEY FINDINGS
 | Only one of the nine social services day nurseries regularly caters for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties. |
| The Health Authority is currently consulting on the outcome of its review of children=s services and it is to be hoped that this will facilitate communication with the other service providers catering for the needs of disabled children. |
| Consideration needs to be given to the most appropriate means of supporting nursery schools and classes in meeting the needs of children with SEN/disabilities to overcome the concerns and reluctance of some settings to admit such children. |
| There is a need to establish a single, personalised contact point and source of information and support for parents of children with SEN/disabilities and to review generally the most effective way of communicating with, and working in partnership with parents. |
| The voluntary and private sectors need to be able to access training on all aspects of catering for children with SEN/disabilities with appropriate support from trained and experienced professionals. |
| There needs to be a system in place for professionals and parents to be able to come together to work in partnership and to plan the most appropriate package of support for the child and to determine appropriate placements. |
Forward A:Introduction B:Background C:Early Years in Bristol D:The Partnership & Consultation E:Audit of Need & Provision F: Quality & Inspection G: Curriculum & role of Qualified Teachers H: Training & Staff Development I: Family Support/ Parent Involvement & Under 3's J: SEN K: Integration L: Affordable Childcare M: Information Services Conclusions Annexes Executive Summary/Action Plan Supplementary Info