It was lovely to see so many of you at our EY SENCo Network Clusters last week. If you missed the sessions you can check out the PowerPoint by clicking here.

Early Years SENCO accreditation programme - book now!

The rescheduled dates for the programme are going ahead as planned starting on Thursday 29^th April and running for 12 days across the summer and Autumn terms. The session will be virtual at first but we will move to face to face as soon as we are able to and following the government guidelines. The full schedule is here.

I am letting the accreditors know about numbers booked on shortly so do please book your place now via the training website here: Early Years and Childcare (portsmouth.gov.uk)

The course covers all aspects of the DfE early years SENCO requirements as can be seen on the Foundation Years website here:

https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/L3-EY-SENCO-Qualifications-Specification.pdf

We would love to welcome you, your SENCo or anyone who is L3 qualified and interested in the role to the next programme!

You may want to consider using any DAF payments you are able to claim as the programme would be a fantastic way to enhance your SEND provision across the setting. The cost for the course remains the same - £850 for the full 12 day course

Please do get in touch with us at eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or through eyworkforce@portsmouthcc.gov.uk for more information or details on how to book a place.

Planning for progress with SEND support

We are over half way through our academic year and you are no doubt considering and reviewing the support plans and strategies that have been in place for children with SEND to ensure that children are making the best possible progress. If you have any concerns about their progress then do consider:

• Referring back to the PCC early years SEND pathway and the Assess, plan, do and review process.
• Making time to review the needs of the school cohort children, thinking about the support they need now and when they are transitioning into school.
• Work in partnership with parents to start to plan transitions and ensure they have all the information they need to make starting school a successful and smooth process.
• Don’t forget our transition pack with top tips and guidance plus planning tools to support you in this - See the transition pack on the PCC website - https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SEND-Transition-guidance.pdf
• Highlight the information on the Portsmouth Local Offer for parents. Home > Portsmouth Local Offer
• Support parents in making contact with school SENCos to begin to discuss children's needs and plan how to develop and strengthen your settings own links with school SENCos.
• Making sure that you allow plenty of time to gather all the relevant supporting documents to support transition and use the profile of needs to fully explain the areas of need for the individual child.
• Education Health and Care Needs Assessments - please see below

If you need any support or guidance or if you want to discuss EHC assessment requests contact us at EY inclusion: eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Requests for Education Health and Care needs assessments

Many of you have been extremely busy collating evidence and completing paperwork for EHC assessment requests. This process has presented many additional challenges with the present restrictions and the effects of the pandemic on your setting as well as many other services.  We have been working with the SEN team who receive and process EHC assessment requests and they have produced some further guidance for early years taking this into account. The SEN team are required to follow all statutory guidance and this has not been relaxed at all, but we have tried to address as many of the current difficulties as we can.

Key points

• Submit the EHC needs assessment paperwork request form together with the EHA or toolkit and supporting documents (See Early Help Assessment or Stronger Futures Toolkit) ASAP for school cohort children with as much information as you can – The whole EHC needs assessment takes 20 weeks to complete.
• Reports from other professionals may currently be hard to obtain - if you have been unable to obtain a report please indicate this clearly on the request form including details of attempts made to get a copy.
• Early Help Assessments (EHA)- must be submitted with the paperwork, however if this can’t be done then please give reasons why. Settings can also use the Stronger Futures toolkit instead of an EHA. (See links above)
• Discuss possibilities for schools and specialist provision with parents – their preference should be indicated but this DOES NOT guarantee a place.

Please see the full SEN team guidance updates here

The secure contact email to contact the SEN team and to submit EHC assessment requests is SEN.education@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

(Please note the SEN team is a completely different team and service to our early years inclusion team. Please DO NOT submit EHC assessment requests to eyinclusion unless previously agreed with us)

Cliffdale Early Years (previously Willows nursery)

Do you have a child in your setting with complex SEN, who is making little or no progress despite your best endeavours and individual planning and support?

Are you wondering if a specialist setting might suit their needs better?

When children go to school in September there will be some early year's places available at Cliffdale. The Early Years Panel will be meeting in April and May in order to identify and prioritise which children will be offered place to start in September 2021. If you would like to suggest a child to be considered then please take the following into account and plan a sensitive conversation with parents to discuss the possibility and establish their preference. Places are extremely oversubscribed, not all parents will be offered a place who express a preference.

• Places are extremely oversubscribed, not all parents will be offered a place who express a preference.
• There are 36 early years places for government funded children aged 2 and over at Cliffdale early years nursery. The places are for a maximum of 15 hrs per week and parents will be offered 5 morning sessions or 5 afternoon sessions.
• Children eligible for places must be known to the early years panel and be in receipt of or meet the criteria for early years SEND Inclusion Funding at the complex level of need (SENDIF+)
• There is no funded transport available.
• Parental preference is taken into consideration but does not guarantee a place.

The early year's panel will take into account information from all professionals involved when allocating places and prioritise according to need.

The meetings which will take place in April and May will be to prioritise placement offers for the following September. Places may become available throughout the year which are allocated through EYP. This is for nursery places only - NOT FOR SCHOOL PLACES which are allocated through the EHC assessment process.

Please complete an update to the Early Year Panel with relevant information and details of parents preferences if you would like a child discussed at the Cliffdale placement meetings.

Neurodiversity Assessment Pathway Project

The Project is trialling the new pathway approach to identifying, assessing and supporting children with neurological differences. This pathway emphasises a needs-led approach and focuses on support for children and families taking the emphasis away from diagnosis alone.

Some early years SENCos and practitioners have already attended training and the project would like to recruit more!

To find out more or express your interest in the training on offer Please contact Liz Robinson –Liz.Robinson@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

NASEN Case study - Effective Inclusive practice at Parade Community Pre-school

Have a look at the case study and hear from the manager and SEND Lead at Parade preschool as she describes the setting’s approach and their experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. The case study outlines the provision, describes how they support children with SEND and the strategies and creative ways they supported the children during lockdown and beyond.

https://www.nasen.org.uk/resources/outline-effective-practice-send-provision-portsmouth-pvi-setting

Sue Bowler (Early Years Advisory Teacher) Ella Harbut (Early Years Advisory Teacher) Hannah Povey (Inclusion Outreach Officer)

Getting in touch about your SEND and inclusion concerns:

• If you need guidance and support, you can contact EY inclusion via this email - eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk. Please use this shared inbox and not our personal emails wherever possible.
• Our EY inclusion email is secure, so if you have parental consent and have previously discussed the child with us you can use their name in the email. If the child is not known to EY inclusion, you will be asked initially to complete an EY inclusion enquiries form to provide background information as well detailing what strategies are already in place. You can discuss both named and anonymous children.
• Once the email or enquires form has been returned one of the EY inclusion team will make contact with you and offer support and guidance
• SENDIF emerging funding applications are considered weekly. You will be asked to complete the application form in full and provide relevant information such as a recent summative assessment and SEND plan. You should hear about the outcome within a week in term time.
• The EY inclusion inbox is managed by the EY Inclusion team and monitored every day. Any general enquiries about inclusion processes/procedures will be answered within 48hrs in term time. It may take slightly longer outside of term time but there will still be a response.

Please do get in touch with any concerns or anything you would like to discuss about SEN or inclusion in your setting.

Check out this fabulous illustration for Inclusions ABC's 

Credit: @kwien562