Special Educational Needs (SEN)

All early years settings are required to appoint a SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator).

Young Risers SENCo is Sarah Leigh

The role of an Early Years SENCO

The SENCO’s fundamental role is to oversee the day to day running of the early years setting’s special educational needs/inclusion policy. More specifically, the early years setting SENCO has responsibility for:

• Supporting colleagues in identifying and meeting the special educational needs/disabilities of children within the setting. 
• Ensuring relevant background information about individual children with special educational needs/disabilities is collected, recorded and updated.
• Overseeing those records are kept and assess, plan do review process is carried out for children with special educational needs in the setting (ensuring support plans are in place.)
• Acting at the first point of contact for outside professionals regarding children with special educational needs/disabilities within the setting.
• Seeking outside advice and support when appropriate for individual children with special educational needs/disabilities.
• Ensuring that liaison and consultation with parents of children with special educational needs/disabilities takes place.

A parent/carer guide to the Early Years Local Inclusion Forum Team

• All children learn in different ways. If your child is struggling to learn, the pre-school may speak with you about how they can help with this
• The Pre-school will work with you and your child to put the right educational support in place but sometimes they need help from other people to be able to do this.
• LIFT is a meeting that pre-schools attend to talk about the needs of the children they are concerned about. A teacher leads the discussion to see how to support you and your child at Pre-school if they are making very little progress.
• To talk about your child’s needs at the LIFT meeting the Pre-school will need: • your written agreement to engage • your email address or phone number
• At the LIFT meeting different ways of helping your child to make progress could be suggested, including a visit from a Specialist Teacher.
• If it is decided that a Specialist Teacher might be able to help, they will visit the pre-school and meet with you and the SENCo and talk about how you and the pre-school can support your child.

Please find below a link to a LIFT booklet which gives more information.

Ifield Smile

Ifield Smile offer parent courses to support parents with Autism, Behaviour, Makaton signing and family support groups, please look at the document below for more information

Useful Websites

We are Beams - support disabled children, young people and their families.

The POD Gravesend - Speech and Language Therapy and other children therapies

KCC SEN Information Hub - Special educational needs and disabilities hub giving information for all ages and support for parents.