1. National context: data and research

2. National update
A bit of Ofsted and CQC
Quite a lot of data
A bit of research, the anatomy of the gap
DfE update

3. Ofsted/CQC
Local area SEND inspections: one year on Children’s and young people’s SEND were identified well in the early years, particularly for those with complex needs. Parents generally felt supported and involved in the process.

4. Advisory teachers, EPs ensure access to settings
Gloucestershire:
Advisory teachers, EPs ensure access to settings
additional funding available
68% reduction in early years children entering special schools compared to three years ago
The Whitby Communication Project:
improved proportion of children achieving expected level in speech and language from 43% in 2010 to 83% in 2015.
Advisory teaching staff and Educational Psychologists help to ensure children receive the support they need to gain access to pre-school settings, nursery education and reception class. Practitioners who identify the need for additional support to help children access early years settings can seek extra funding. As a result, there has been a 68% reduction in the number of early years children entering special schools compared to three years ago.
A specialist infant mental health service effectively supports families with children under 5 with priority given ante-natal referrals and children under 1.

5. Levels of identified SEN: 2, 3 and 4 year olds
2 year olds in funded EY education:
3.1% had SEN
743 (0.5% of cohort) had a statement or EHC plan
4079 (2.6%) were on SEN support
3 and 4 year olds in universal EY education:
6.3% had SEN
10,106 (0.8%) statement or EHC plan
70,455 (5.5%) SEN support
3 and 4 year olds in extended funded EY education:
2.6% had SEN
919 (0.3%) with a statement or EHC plan
6,908 (2.3%) on SEN support

6. % 3 and 4 year olds with SEN: universal offer
2016
2017
2018
All ages (2017)
% with EHCP (or statement)
0.7
0.8
2.8
% SEN support
5.3
5.4
5.5
11.6
Total
6.0
6.1
6.3
14.4

7. Longitudinal study: childhood disability
Transitions and trajectories research, longitudinal study
ESRC funded work: CLS, IoE, NCB and CDC, LSE
Found associations between:
Disability and disadvantage
Disability and bullying and later adverse health and social problems
Disadvantage, learning, speech and language and behaviour difficulties

8. Longitudinal study: childhood disability
Transitions and trajectories research reviewed cognitive development:
between ages of 3 and 5
again between 5 and 7
Found that:
disabled children and children with SEN make less progress over the early years than their non-disabled peers with similar levels of cognitive skills, that is, the same prior attainment

9. Outcomes
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, a growing gap between young children with SEN:
2014 gap: 47.1 percentage points
2015 gap: 50.4 percentage points
2016 gap: 52 percentage points
2017 gap: 53 percentage points

10. Communication and language gap
% pupils achieving at least expected level in Communication and Language
Listening & attention
Understanding
Speaking
No identified SEN 91 90
All SEN pupils 44 41

11. Education Endowment Foundation with Public Health England
Preschool language difficulties:
between 7% and 14% (different measures, age, thresholds)
highly sensitive to social disadvantage
Around 70% of children with difficulties make good progress
Around 30% have persistent difficulties
A small, late-emerging group start well but fall behind their peers later
EYFS measure of communication, language, and literacy skills (CLL), 15–20% of four- and five-year-old children were not meeting expected levels (England, 2015)

12. KS1 attainment SEN/non-SEN

13. Levelling the playing field, 2015
How much of their free childcare offer are parents with disabled children accessing?
60% receive (then) full free entitlement, 15 hours per week for 38 weeks
15% receive some of the free entitlement, but less than 15 hours per week
25% receive none of the free entitlement

14. Levelling the playing field, 2015
Why are parents with disabled children not accessing any of the free childcare offer?
38% do not think provision can care for child safely
30% do not think staff are adequately trained
28% do not think provision is inclusive and supports their child to participate in activities alongside their peers
25% say the nursery/child carer refused a place or excluded their child because of their disability or SEN

15. Levelling the playing field, 2015
Why are disabled children being excluded from early years childcare settings?
49% say setting cannot meet child’s needs
47% say their child needs one-to-one care (or other additional support) which is not available/affordable
34% say setting cannot manage child’s behaviour

16. Exclusion of young children from school
Increases in the exclusion of young children from school:
The data draws only on exclusions from schools
The figures are drawn from DfE statistics up to
Taking into account numbers and percentages

19. Links
Levelling the playing field: playing-field-campaign Identified SEN: data/file/709496/Special_educational_needs_Publication_May18.pdf Take up of EY entitlement, children with special educational needs: age-january-2018 EYFSP outcomes: to-2017 Exclusions data: data/file/726741/text_exc1617.pdf *Please note, not all the DfE data is broken down by region and by LA *Some of the compendia of data provide links to more specific datasets