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The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment in response to the publication of the Children Commissioner for England's response to the government's SEND review.

In her response, the Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, called for there to be increased training for the early years workforce so they can provide early intervention for children failing to meet key development benchmarks..

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: 

"We welcome recognition from the Children’s Commissioner that any reform of SEND support needs to include the early years, but additional training for the early years workforce alone will not solve the multitude of challenges the sector is facing when it comes to providing quality care and education for young children with SEND.     

“As our own research from earlier this year shows, early educators have to deal with a complicated, inconsistent and painfully slow SEND funding system that fails to meet the needs of providers and families. As it stands, even if a child is identified as having additional needs at nursery, pre-school or their childminding setting, all too often financial support to help meet these needs only becomes available once they reach school age.  

“Quality care and education costs, and this is particularly true when it comes to supporting children with SEND. If we are truly committed to supporting early intervention and giving every child the best possible start in life, then we must ensure that early years settings are able to access the SEND funding they need when they need it."