Special educational needs (SEN) advisory service

This team provides an early intervention and advice service for children in Bromley with a wide range of special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) and their families, aged 0 to 4 before they start primary school. Download the Early Years Inclusion Team service leaflet (PDF - 1.19 MB).

The service promotes inclusion. It aims to ensure all young children with SEND reach their potential. This is done through a combination of work with settings to further develop their inclusive practices as well as targeted case level work which is accessed through a referral to the team. They promote a partnership working approach working with other professionals from education, health, social care and the voluntary sector.

Early years identification and notification

As your child grows, you may see many health professionals, including: your GP, hospital doctors, health visitors, paediatricians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, children’s community nursing teams, audiologists, ophthalmologists, speech and language therapists. Your child will see a health visitor who can provide families with advice and support about your child’s development and growth, healthy eating, physical activity, emotional wellbeing and immunisations. For more information visit concerns about your child's development.

Health professionals may advise you that your child might benefit from additional support when they begin preschool, nursery or at a childminders and start the Early Years Foundation stage (EYFS) so they send a notification to Bromley which goes to the Early Years Inclusion Team.

Sometime this may be a full referral which means that the team will contact you to visit your child, or they may contact the setting to tell them about the notification. It’s called a section 23 notification. This is a requirement under the SEND Code of Practice and is there to make sure that your child gets support as early as possible.

If following some targeted support in the setting (as part of what the pre-school setting offer through their quality first practice) there is a need for more advice and support a referral can be made by the pre-school setting.

The majority of young children with special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) can have their needs met in the wide range of inclusive nurseries, pre-schools, child-minders or universal pre-school clubs and activities available in Bromley.

If you are concerned about your children’s development, talk to your child’s key person in the preschool and/or their special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCo). The preschool SENCo may work with you to look at strategies to support your child, this is known as the graduated support which is outlined in the SEND Code of Practice (2015), and continue to discuss your child’s progress.

Home visiting educational service

Portage is part of the Early Years Inclusion Team offer. Following an initial piece of work, Portage may be offered. Portage is a home visiting educational service for preschool children who have Special Educational Needs/Disabilities (SEND). The Portage service liaises with other agencies, such as health service professionals and supports a child’s transition into preschool as needed. The keystone of all Portage practice is partnership placing children and families at the centre and working with parents as the senior partner and lead educators. Children who are in a Bromley preschool setting are supported by the Locality Teams.

Our Bromley Portage service follows the Portage principles and is registered with the National Portage Association (NPA). Read more about the Early Years Portage Service (PDF - 516.78 KB).

For children attending a Bromley Early Years setting

Locality teams are made up of Area SENCo/ Advisory Teachers and early years inclusion practitioners. These teams work in six locality areas aligned to the Children and Family Centre outreach areas.

The role of the area SENCo/ advisory teacher is to support the accurate identification of young children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and provide advice and support to settings and families to help their child make progress and what interventions might be effective.

A key aspect of the EYIP role is to provide advice and model practical support to practitioners in early years settings in the application of quality first inclusive practice and SEN support.

Early Years Inclusion Practitioners (EYIP) leaflet (PDF - 1.35 MB)

Each child referred to the service is allocated a member of the team who is the central point of contact. For some families it may be appropriate, to offer multi-agency meetings, joint assessment, and planning and/or a period of intensive key working. If a child is in a pre-school setting the Early Years Inclusion Team will work through the preschool.

SEN Inclusion Fund (SENIF)

Early years SEN Inclusion funding (SENIF) may be available to support the inclusion of children with SEND to access an early years setting.

SEN Inclusion Funding supports the inclusion of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to access the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Funding can be used as a contribution towards resources that would benefit the child, training that is specific to a child’s area of need or for additional staffing to provide a higher staff ratio at certain times. The SENIF offer may vary between settings and may be offered as a one-off payment or as time limited payments depending on need, setting, and impact of the funding.

Referrals of children for SENIF

The child must be in receipt of Free Early Education (FEE) funding and attend a Bromley preschool or nursery.

Referrals need to be made to Bromley Early Years Inclusion team for consideration. If the referral is accepted, then it will be allocated to a member of the early years SEN advisory team.

They will then observe the child in the setting and gather further information from parents and key professionals to make recommendations about what support may be appropriate, which may include SEN inclusion funding.

Referral forms can be accessed via Early years targeted and specialist services – London Borough of Bromley

Disability access fund (DAF)

Disability access funding can be drawn down by early years settings (including childminders) for any child attending aged 3 to 4 years, in receipt of Disability Living Allowance.

The disability access fund (DAF) is designed to support children with disabilities or special educational needs within their chosen early years setting.

The DAF aids access to early years places by supporting providers in making reasonable adjustments to their settings and helping with building capacity (be that for the child in question or for the benefit of children as a whole attending the setting).

Funding can be used as a contribution towards resources that would benefit the child; training that is specific to a child’s area of need or for additional staffing to provide a higher staff ratio at certain times.

Eligibility

Only three and four year olds will be eligible for the DAF if they meet both of the following criteria:

• The child is in receipt of child disability living allowance (DLA)
• The child receives free early education

Note: Four-year olds in primary school reception classes are not eligible for DAF funding. Children become eligible for free early education at different points in the year depending on when they turn three.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children may help with the extra costs of looking after a child who:

• is under 16
• has difficulties walking or needs much more looking after than a child of the same age who does not have a disability.

Entitlement

• The settings of three- and four-year-olds eligible for the DAF will be entitled to receive a one-off payment of £800 per year. The DAF is not based on an hourly rate and is an additional entitlement.
• Children do not have to take up the full 570 hours of early education they are entitled to in order to receive the DAF. Children in receipt of the DAF will be eligible where they take up any period.

Who is responsible for identifying eligible children?

Early years providers are responsible for identifying eligible children. Providers are encouraged to speak to parents in order to find out who is eligible for the DAF. Parents of children qualifying for Disability Living Allowance will be required to provide documentary evidence of this entitlement, and providers will need to take a copy of this evidence.

How early years providers receive DAF funding

• The local authority will fund all early years settings and childminders providing a place for each child eligible for the DAF in their area at the fixed annual rate of £800 per eligible child.
• The DAF will not be offset against any other funding which the local authority may ordinarily be providing for children eligible for the DAF.
• The DAF is payable as a lump sum once a year per eligible child. If a child eligible for the DAF is splitting their free entitlement across two or more providers, the local authority will ask parents to nominate the main setting. This setting will be where the local authority will pay the DAF for the child.
• If a child receiving DAF moves from one setting to another within a financial year, the new setting is not eligible to receive DAF funding for this child within the same financial year. DAF funding received by the original setting will not be recouped by the local authority.
• Where a child lives in one authority area but attends a provider in a different local authority, the provider’s local authority is responsible for funding the DAF for the child and eligibility checking.
• All early years providers who are eligible to receive funding for the 3 and 4 year old early entitlement education are also eligible to receive the DAF.
• Payment in any further years will not be automatic - the parent must provide evidence on an annual basis and the process will need to be repeated every year.