Sometimes a change is undeniably great but the consequences of it are not. This is what has happened with the changes made to the EYFS in September 2021.
The move away from rigid tracking of child development allows practitioners to focus more of their time on really knowing their children. However, it is unclear what this means for children with SEND. In order to access funding and support for them, there continues to be a focus on demonstrating development and tracking progress – contradicting the changes. Many settings say that without this tracking data they cannot access local authority funding.
When asked for more clarity on how the new EYFS impacts children with SEND, the Government re-released the Pen Green document ‘The Celebratory Approach’, which focuses practitioners straight back on previous tracking models. While movement away from a deficit model is a good thing, the document focuses back on tracking of children with SEND and the use of the old ‘ages and stages’ structures that were supposed to have been left behind.
What this means is that the gap between the paperwork needed for children with SEND and that needed for other children has widened. Research from the University of Leeds states that increasing numbers of settings are considering turning away children with SEND because they cannot afford to support them, and the Early Years Alliance found that 28 per cent of settings had turned away children with SEND, and 92 per cent had to use their own funds to support them.
This is likely to work against inclusion as settings consider the administrative costs of supporting children with SEND at a time when they are struggling financially.
Time needs to be taken to outline how the new EYFS can work for children with SEND, and to share it with local authorities so there can be agreement on what needs to be provided to access funding. If both settings and local authorities are on the same page, then children with SEND can benefit from the same increased time to focus on their unique needs, and settings will be more likely to admit and support them effectively if the administrative demands are reduced.
Coram's 2022 Annual Childcare Survey states that only 21 per cent of LAs have sufficient places for all children with SEND, so it must be a priority to make it as easy as possible to support them in our settings.
- Catherine McLeod will be speaking at NW's conference, EYFS: Supporting every child to thrive, on 9 November.