Inclusion
| Policy 08 | Review Date | March 2009 |
| Inclusion Policy |
| |
Aim
St James Cottage will attempt to offer a place for any child with special needs, provided we can offer a positive experience of learning through play. Our aim is for all children to be included in all activities wherever possible. We aim to have regard to the DFES Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs and also the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended by the Special Educational Needs Act 2001.) We will modify the Curriculum if necessary to take account of the child's needs and this will be decided on an individual basis.
Procedures
a) Access, we will:
· Make every reasonable attempt to provide access for children with special needs.
· Assess each childs needs in terms of access and adapt our facilities as appropriate as far as possible.
· We will discuss each case on an individual basis with parents and relevant professionals.
· Please see our Admissions Policy for further information.
b) Assessment, we will:
· Observe all the children attending in order to identify any special educational needs that they may have.
· We will ask for relevant detail from the Parents/Carers about any special educational needs they have identified in their child on the registration form.
· Talk to the Carer and child about what they want.
· Ascertain the needs of the child, including medical requirements.
· Discuss abilities.
· Analyse our ability to offer positive care, both in the physical environment, as well as staff and their suitability.
c) Support and expertise, we will:
· Contact the relevant professionals with the parent's permission, for advice and support.
· Ensure staff will work together with Parents/main Carers as partners to give day to day care and education for the child and support the Parents/Carers.
· Ensure that all children are treated individually and are encouraged to take part in every aspect of the settings activities.
· Promote positive images of those with special needs.
· Endeavour to appoint staff with experience and knowledge.
· Investigate opportunities for training of staff and volunteers, and encourage the staff team to attend training where appropriate.
· Provide support in following the stages of Early Years Action, Early Years Action Plus and Statementing. (Please see Appendix attached)
· We will pass any records drawn up by us in respect of a child to any Pre-school/school that a child moves on to. Providing that the child's parents have given their consent prior to the records being passed on.
Special Education Needs What does it mean ?
The term 'special educational needs' has a legal definition. Children with special educational needs all have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age.
The law says that children do not have learning difficulties just because their first language is not English. Of course some of these children may have learning difficulties as well.
Children with special educational needs may need extra help because of a range of needs, such as in thinking and understanding, physical or sensory difficulties, emotional and behavioural difficulties, or difficulties with speech and language or how they relate to and behave with other people.
Many children will have special educational needs of some kind at some time during their education. Early Years, schools and other organisations can help most children overcome their difficulties quickly and easily. But a few children will need extra help for some or all of the time.
So special educational needs could mean that a child has difficulties with:
· Reading, writing, number work or understanding information
· Expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying
· Making friends or relating to adults
· Behaving properly.
· Organising themselves
· Some kind of sensory or physical needs which may affect them
What can parents do if they are worried that their child may be having difficulties?
A child's early years are a very important time for their physical, emotional, intellectual and social development. When the health visitor or doctor makes a routine check, they might suggest that there could be a problem. But if parents have any worries of your their own, they should seek advice straightaway.
If a child is not yet at school or not yet going to an early education setting, parents can talk to their doctor or health visitor who will be able to offer advice about the next steps to take.
If parents think a child may have a special educational need that has not been identified by the early education setting, they should talk to the SENCO (the person in the school or pre-school who is responsible for co-ordinating help for children with special educational needs) straightaway. Parents will be able to talk over their concerns and find out what the SENCO thinks and they will be able to explain what happens next.
When parents work together with their setting it often helps sort out worries and problems. The closer parents work with their setting, the more successful any help for a child can be. If parents think their child has severe difficulties but the early years setting or school disagree they can contact their LEA's special educational needs section and ask for their child to be assessed.
Remember parents know their child better than anyone.
Parents might like to ask whether:
· The school thinks their child has difficulties
· The school thinks their child has special educational needs
· Their child is able to work at the same level as other children of a similar age
· Their child is already getting some extra help
· They can help their child.
Appendix
Recording systems
All members of staff will have access to Children's records:
The records will be kept in a locked cabinet for security purposes.
Resources
We have the following resources to help provide for special educational needs:
Computer, toy
..
Other resources are available on loan from the EYDCP and other professional services.
Behaviour management
Please see our standard policy on this. We will discuss with the parents and relevant professionals to what extent each child should be expected to follow the rules of the setting.
Funding
Support for children at Action level is funded by the government through the Nursery Grant for 3 and 4 year olds.
Funding for children at Action plus and those with statements may be available from the Special Education team in Dorset County Council's Education Department for up to 9 hours per week. This might be used to fund a member of staff to observe and support the child, for training, and as laid down in the SEN Code of practice. For children whose parents require additional support in addition to the funded hours, a voluntary contribution to assist with those additional hours would be appropriate.
Funding support for children aged 2 years
Similarly, for children starting pre-school at 2 years with a statement of special needs and who require additional support, a voluntary contribution would also be appropriate as no government funding currently exists.
Complaints
Should a parent or carer feel dissatisfied in any way they should follow the procedure laid down in the group's Complaint's procedure.
Roles and responsibilities of various members of staff
The Team Leader will liase with the parents/carers of the child.
The SENCO is
Carol Potter
The role of the SENCO is to take responsibility for the day- to-day operation of the Group's SEN policy and to co-ordinate provision for children with SEN, particularly through Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus.
A Guide for Parents & Carers
A guide produced for parents and carers by Dfes is available from the Teachernet website at http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/3755/Parents%20Guide.pdf . If you do not have access to the internet it can also be ordered by telephone on 0845 602 2260 quoting reference Dfes 0800/2001.