Special Education Needs in the Pre School Sector Executive Summary

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Providing Inspection Services for

Department of Education

Department for Employment and Learning

Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

A Survey by the Education and Training Inspectorate

Special Educational Needs

in the

Pre-School Sector

Special Educational Needs

in the

Pre-School Sector

THE BEST FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYEXECUTIVE SUMMARY


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CONTENTS

Page

SECTION 1

1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

SECTION 2

3. KEY THEMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.1 The Survey Evidence - Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.2 Legislation and Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.3 Data on Children with

Special Educational Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.4 Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.5 Staff Expertise and

Training and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.6 Access to Diagnosis and Support . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.7 Joined-up Working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4. CONCLUSION AND KEY PRIORITIES

FOR ACTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7


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Quantitative Terms Used

Almost /nearly all - more than 90%

Most - 75%- 90%

A majority - 50% - 74%

A significant minority - 30% - 49%

A minority - 10% - 29%

Very few/a small number - less than 10%

Glossary of Terms

Statutory - includes Nursery schools and Nursery

classes/units within a primary school. Attended

by children aged between 3-4 years of age.

Voluntary and Private - Playgroups and funded provision within Day

Nurseries. Attended by children in their pre-

school year prior to starting year 1 in primary

school.

Overall - Statutory and Voluntary and Private groups

together

Qualitative Terms Used

Where the overall quality was judged to be good or very good, there were

major strengths in that aspect of the provision. The childrens needs were

being met effectively.

Where the overall quality was judged to be satisfactory, there were strengths in

that aspect of the provision and also some shortcomings; on balance, the

strengths outweighed the shortcomings.


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Where the quality was judged to be less than satisfactory, there were important

shortcomings in that aspect of the provision; while there were some strengths

on which the staff could build, on balance, these strengths were outweighed by

the shortcomings.

Where the overall quality was judged to be poor, there were major

shortcomings in that aspect of the provision. The pre-school centre was not

meeting adequately the childrens needs.

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1

SECTION 1

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Since 2002, the Education and Training Inspectorate (Inspectorate) has

reported to the Department of Education (DE), and to the other

stakeholders in the pre-school sector, the many strengths of pre-school

education in Northern Ireland (NI) and the rising standards of provision

overall. Although the picture has been mainly a positive one, the

Inspectorate also drew attention to shortcomings in the provision madefor children with special educational needs. The evaluation of special

needs in the Chief Inspectors Report 20041 stated that key areas for

improvement continue to be the poor links with, and support from,

health and education professionals; the lack of training available to

staff in relation to special needs; and the liaison with primary schools to

which the children transfer in year 1. The provision for special needs in

pre-school education in NI remains inconsistent, fragmentary and

overly dependent on one-off funding initiatives or projects. There is not

yet a coherent and appropriately funded approach to meet effectivelythe childrens needs involving the relevant Departments and statutory

and voluntary agencies.

1.2 One of the major features of the pre-school sector is the complexity

both of the arrangements for funding, support and training and of the

statutory responsibilities of the various agencies and Government

Departments. In bringing together the statutory nursery sector and the

voluntary/private pre-school sector as providers of pre-school

education, many of these complexities have not been addressed well

enough to ensure consistency in the quality of provision for special

educational needs.

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2.1 This report, Special Educational Needs in the Pre-school Sector,

presents the findings of a survey undertaken by the Education and

1 Chief Inspectors Report 2002-2004.


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SECTION 2

3. KEY THEMES

3.1 The Survey Evidence

Findings

The inspections which took place during 2004-05 and 2005-06 found

that the provision for special educational needs was mostly satisfactory,

good or very good. The main findings were as follows:

in 80% of pre-school education centres, the quality of provision

was satisfactory, good or very good; in 20%, it was less than

satisfactory;

the provision was improving in the statutory nursery sector but not

in the voluntary/private sector;

there were strengths in both sectors in the care and concern

shown by staff for the well-being of children with special

educational needs, and also in the involvement of parents;

improvements were needed in both sectors in the planning and

assessment methods;

major variations in quality between the two sectors were evident

in the expertise and confidence of staff, particularly in their

understanding of the Code of Practice3 and the Education and

Library Boards (ELBs) referral process, and in the quality of their

training and in the support they received from health and

educational professionals; these factors affected the quality of the

support that the children received;

although a small number of children presented severe difficulties

for the staff, behaviour was not a major concern overall;

3 Code of Practice for the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs,Department of Education Northern Ireland (1998).


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the majority of centres in both sectors used effective methods to

involve and inform the parents of these children, encouraging

them to contribute to, and participate in, decisions about their

childrens education and additional support; and

links between primary schools and voluntary/private pre-school

centres were underdeveloped.

3.2 Legislation and Policy

The legislation on SEN, and the Code of Practice, have not been

revised to take account of the partnership arrangements for expanding

pre-school education. In addition, DE has not yet developed a strategy

to ensure equitable access to special educational needs provision for

all children in funded pre-school education. It has, however, recently

established a review of special education and inclusion in order to

develop a comprehensive, costed policy, and stated its commitment,

following the Review of Pre-School Education, to playing its part in

developing better provision across pre-school education.

The Department of Education has emphasised to the Inspectorate that

the ELBs have discretion to use their funding to provide services,

related to special educational needs, for the voluntary/private sector.

They have not, however, been required to do so. Some (ELBs) had,

within the constraints of their finances, offered advice and support to

the voluntary/private sector, recognising the overarching priority of

intervening early to address special needs. Education and Library

Boards need to do more to ensure that they have common policies and

strategies for the identification and assessment of special needs in alltypes of pre-school education.

3.3 Data on Children with Special Educational Needs

There were inadequate data on the numbers of pre-school children

with special educational needs both within DE and across the ELBs.

There was evidence from the survey that many more children had

special needs than were being recorded by the annual school census

which was carried out in October. This was in contrast to theresponses received from the questionnaires sent to all pre-school

centres as part of this survey. By far the highest percentage of

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reported need was in relation to speech and language, or emotional

and behavioural difficulties. Since 2004, as a result of allocated

funding autism had been a priority for recent in-service training.

3.4 Funding

Most contributors to the survey reported as a key issue the difference

in the level of the funding and support for special educational needs

provided to the statutory, and to the voluntary/private sectors.

The Department of Education enhanced the schools budgets in the

statutory nursery sector to reflect disadvantage, and funded ELB

advisory and educational psychology services. School principals had

discretion to use the additional funding to support special educational

needs. In the voluntary/private sector, places were funded at a flat rate

with no additional allowance for deprivation. Although DE stated that

ELBs also had discretion to extend their services to the

voluntary/private sector, only one ELB had done so extensively. In

most cases, the staff of voluntary/private centres were unable to avail

of professional support.

Although one half of centres felt they had inadequate support, there

was much better provision of additional assistants to meet childrens

needs within statutory nurseries than in voluntary/private centres. The

additional staff costs were often met from allocated budgets and

sometimes through fund-raising.

Some funding was occasionally available from Childcare Partnerships

(CPs) and Health and Social Services Trusts (HSSTs) for additionalassistants in voluntary/private centres. Procedures were inconsistent,

even where children had a statement of special educational needs.

3.5 Staff Expertise and Training and Development

As staffs initial training courses rarely included in-depth study of

special educational needs matters, in-service training for pre-school

staff is was of great importance. Yet over half of pre-school centres

reported insufficient opportunities for staff training to meet the specificneeds of children in any given year. The wide range of childrens


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needs and the relatively short period of pre-school placements adds to

the difficulties of obtaining relevant training.

Almost all of the centres were positive about the value of the in-service

training they had attended and stated that it had helped them to make

better provision for the children.

Education and Library Boards were funded to provide training and

advice to statutory nurseries. The view of DE that ELBs had discretion

to extend these services to include the voluntary/private sector, was not

shared by most ELBs. One example of ELB staff working innovatively

and collaboratively within both the voluntary/private sector was in a

training and development project to promote good practice outdoors.

With the exception of a one-off allocation of funding to the ELBs to

provide training for autism, DE has not specifically funded training for

the voluntary/private sector. While the ELBs welcomed the funding

made available for specific training, a number reported disappointment

in the uptake of places available.

The Health and Social Services Trusts and Childcare Partnerships

provided some training for the voluntary/private sector depending on

the funding available and their other priorities. NIPPA, The Early Years

Organisation, was commissioned to provide most of the training. There

had been little or no consultation between NIPPA and ELBs about the

content of the courses. In one quarter of the voluntary/private centres,

the staff had not attended any recent in-service training.

3.6 Access to Diagnosis and Support

There was inequitable access across the pre-school sector to diagnosis

and support for special educational needs. There was a clear pathway

for the identification, assessment and provision for children in statutory

pre-schools. This clarity did not extend to voluntary/private providers,

most of whom indicated that they had not accessed support from the

ELBs Educational Psychology Service.

Overall, ELBs placed a heavy emphasis on completing the

statementing process and gave less attention to providing promptsupport for the children during their pre-school year.

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KEY PRIORITIES FOR ACTION

These include:

a clear commitment from DE to ensuring that there is effective

provision for all children with special educational needs in funded

pre-school education;

the development by DE of a comprehensive policy, and funded

strategy, to address the variations and inconsistencies in funding,

training, and access to specialist advice and support across the

statutory and voluntary/private sectors and to give priority to

raising the standards of special educational needs provision,particularly, but not exclusively, in the voluntary/private sector;

joint action from DE and DHSSPS that leads to effective inter-

agency collaboration and improved accountability arrangements;

a greater effort by all responsible agencies to work together to

provide the services that children need and to implement best

practice;

the collection of better data to inform early intervention policy

across all the relevant agencies, linked to more effective strategic

planning;

a shift in emphasis away from the bureaucracy of identifying and

assessing special educational needs and towards the provision of

appropriate, timely and effective intervention and support that

helps young children make progress;

more consistent policies and strategies within and across ELBs

for addressing special educational needs within pre-school

education, including the provision of information to all sectorsabout their procedures;

better strategies within ELBs to ensure that the placement of

children with special educational needs does not result in

inappropriate pressure on individual nursery schools;

effective collaboration among training providers on the content

and nature of in-service training; and

action by the Inspectorate to follow-up the issues identified by the

survey, including the sharing of inspection findings with those who

have responsibilities for special educational needs provision.

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CROWN COPYRIGHT 2007

This report may be reproduced in whole or in part, except for commercial purposes or in

connection with a prospectus or advertisement, provided that the source and date thereof

are stated.

Copies of this report are available on the DE website: www.deni.gov.uk or may be

obtained from the Inspection Services Branch, Department of Education, Rathgael House,

43 Balloo Road, Bangor, Co Down BT19 7PR.

Documents

Special Education Needs in the Pre School Sector Executive Summary