George, aged two, has visual impairments and epilepsy. Before his mother Jenny got him a place at KidsFirst Nursery in Hull she was finding it hard to cope. 'A social worker managed to get George a place at KidsFirst when he was still just a baby,' she says. 'Because of his disability I thought he needed to go somewhere they could support him from an early stage and I knew a sensory room would be particularly beneficial.'
Things have now improved for Jenny and George. 'It's like a day off,' she adds. 'On the days he's at the Kids nursery I get to be a mother, rather than his constant carer.'
Run by the charity Kids, KidsFirst provides glowing testimony to the inclusive ethos. It demonstrates how an environment that caters for children with a range of needs can be ultimately more stimulating and rewarding not just for the children, but for parents and practitioners as well.
Accessing inclusive childcare can be a problem for many parents. A report last year by the Daycare Trust, Everyone Counts, found that nearly three-quarters of parents with disabled children have difficulty sourcing childcare. When they do find it, it can be up to three times more expensive than that available for children without disabilities.
This means that many parents are unable to go out to work. Only three per cent of mothers of disabled children work full-time and 13 per cent work part-time, compared respectively with 27 and 39 per cent of other mothers.
KidsFirst in Hull was set up in 2004 to support these children and families by providing good quality, inclusive provision for disabled and non-disabled children.
Funding challenge
Housed in a listed building, KidsFirst prides itself on its facilities and quality of staff. Attention to detail is all - not least in the kitchen, where wholesome meals are prepared on an Aga cooker.
Jane Popplewell, assistant director for Kids Yorkshire and Humber, believes that the challenges in being inclusive come down to funding more than anything else.
'Some children might need additional adult support and equipment, and it is definitely a challenge getting the funding for that,' she says. 'When KidsFirst takes on a child it will assess their needs and look at what equipment will be needed.
'We have one child who has to have a specially adapted chair because he can't stand up by himself. We don't have funding for those kinds of things within our early years remit, so we have to work creatively with the parents to get funding for individual children.'
Ms Popplewell says that no child has ever been turned away from KidsFirst for having needs that are too challenging and complex for them to deal with. 'We welcome all children, whatever additional needs they have,' she says.
Tailoring activities
The nursery has 20 registered places and currently a quarter of the children who attend are disabled.
However, if the number were to increase, the nursery would simply take on more staff to cater for their needs, says nursery manager Claire McLatchie.
She concedes that training can be an issue. 'We can't know about every single disability'.
However, the nursery has strong links with the local authority. 'It can work in partnership with a range of professionals,' she says. 'If, for example, we have a child who is tube-fed, we will work in conjunction with a community nurse.'
The staff at KidsFirst are also given additional internal training by Kids and attend various courses throughout the year.
Ms McLatchie believes that the staff really benefit from working in an inclusive setting. 'It broadens their outlook and it can be incredibly rewarding,' she says. 'Especially when you have a child who has been coming for a year and suddenly he or she will lift up their hand and wave at you - it is an amazing feeling.'
She says that tailoring the activities to make them truly inclusive is not difficult.
'It is just a matter of adapting the activities for the children and assessing what their needs are, so they can take part in the activity.
'We do all the ordinary activities with sand and water, but we also do a lot of sensory activities with things like jelly and pasta that the children can touch and feel.'
The nursery also uses a storysack so if a book is read out to the children, they can find things in the sack that relate to the book. 'If it is a book about teddy bears we will get the teddy bears out of the sack, so it is not confined to just being a listening activity,' says Ms McLatchie.
The nursery has a sensory room with fibre optic lights, a vibrating chair and a bubble machine. It also has a sound wall, which plays a different nursery rhyme according to where the children press their hands.
Ms McLatchie describes the nursery as 'one big family' and adds, 'We also have a good mix of staff of different ages and experience, which is important.'
Further information
* www.kids.org.uk
Kids has published a leaflet called All of Us which provides a checklist for early years settings on what they need to be inclusive. NW
CASE STUDY
Sam is three years old and has limited vision. He has been attending KidsFirst Nursery since the age of one.
'It has been able to offer Sam really good, individual, specialist attention and because of that he has really thrived,' says his mother, Alison Pattinson.
'His speech, his attention span and his social skills have all improved since he joined.'
Mrs Pattinson particularly likes the fact that Sam plays with both disabled and non-disabled children.
'He's mixing with lots of different children and, left to themselves, they don't judge their individual differences as making some of them better or worse than others, and that is really important to us.'
Activities are adapted for Sam, so, for instance, if the children are read a story, it is not just a matter of listening.
'They did The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle with the children and the staff brought in all the fruit that is listed in the book for them to taste. They were also given a big, furry caterpillar to touch, which was really good for Sam,' says Mrs Pattinson.
'The nursery has also got good links with the LEA's vision and hearing service and they go in for an hour a week and work with him one-to-one.'