Early intervention in SEND 

Early intervention means identifying and providing effective early support to children who are at risk of poor outcomes. Effective early intervention works to prevent problems occurring, or to tackle them immediately when they do - before problems get worse.  It is particularly important in Early Years that there is no delay in providing any necessary additional provision. Delay at this stage can increase the level of learning difficulty and, subsequently, a loss of self-esteem and frustration in learning. These frustrations can then lead to behavioural difficulties.  

Points to remember when considering learners requiring early intervention are:

• Parents’ and carers' reports of early observations of their children are crucial. 
• Children with more complex developmental, physical and sensory needs may be identified at birth and therefore arrive in your setting already known as having a special educational need. 
• Some children may have not have previously been in an education setting and their additional needs not yet identified. These children may subsequently be identified as needing additional support in your setting. 
• In Early Years, children will have started your setting with normal variations of childhood development, and this does not necessarily mean they have a special educational need. These differences may resolve themselves over time.
• Information will be gathered regarding a child’s progress from the ‘Check Together’ assessments and continuous observational assessments that are made throughout the year. This will support the identification of children requiring additional support.

Identifying needs for children who are non-English speakers If there is cause for concern for a child where English is a second language, additional care needs to be taken to look at all aspects of their learning and development to establish whether any delay is related to learning another language, or if it arises from a special educational need or disability. Difficulties solely related to learning English are not a special educational need.

Levels of additional support

Some children require additional adult support for a short period of time and then are able to access the curriculum, or class environment, without ongoing additional support. This may be due to a mild delay, or due to an environmental reason which has caused a child to not progress or behave as expected. The additional support can be stopped because the child now meets the level of their peers and their needs are now met through class differentiation.

Other children may need long-term additional adult support throughout their education because they have a special educational need or disability. If a child has SEND, personalised measures should be put in place, so they are able to access, participate and progress in the education setting.