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Inclusion in EY setting

Inclusive practice must sit at the heart of all that we do in early years.  We must strive to value and celebrate the diversity that our children and families bring to us.  We must actively challenge discrimination and prejudice and ensure that all children are given the support that they need to have equal life chances and to be the very best version of themselves.

We have gathered some useful tools and resources in this section to help you to meet the needs of children who may be vulnerable to poorer outcomes or who may need additional support to have equity with their peers.

North Somerset Early Years team also support the sector by acting as Area SENCo’s for settings to offer information, advice, and guidance around supporting children with SEND.  Providers in North Somerset can make applications for Early Years Top Up Funding as part of their graduated response to children with SEND. 

We support children into school through our Inclusion Link Programme.

Inclusion link programme

The purpose of the programme is to support pre-school children with SEND into school and to give them the best possible start to school life through:

  • parents, early years setting and school working together to plan a transfer programme that meets individual children’s needs.
  • sharing knowledge and information
  • ensuring a smooth and effective transfer to school

Funding for inclusion link programme is allocated on a year by year basis.

MAISEY

What is MAISEY?

If a child has some additional needs it is helpful if they can be discussed at MAISEY (Multi-agency information and support in the early years).

In North Somerset there are many services available to children with additional needs. Monthly MAISEY meetings ensure that the services and provision are looked at as a whole by the professionals involved and are coordinated around individual needs. 

It is the place where one service can discuss the involvement of another service. Parents do not attend.

MAISEY supports provision planning from early identification of need until school entry, ensuring where possible that transfers to pre-school and school are successful for every child.

For more information download our leaflet

Guidance for making an online MAISEY referal 

Making a referal to MAISEY using the online form

MAISEY parent/carer consent form for online referal pdf

MAISEY parent/carer consent form for online referal word

The MAISEY privacy notice can be found on the North Somerset Council website.

You can contact us by email on ey.send@n-somerset.gov.uk

Top up Funding and Inclusion Support

All early years providers have access to support, advice and guidance from the North Somerset Early Years Area Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs). The Graduated response document outlines how early years providers can access this support as part of their graduated response.

To request additional support and advice from the Area SENCO Team as part of the graduated response for a particular child, early years providers will need to complete an early years inclusion support request form together with the parents/carers. This form can be found within the Early years inclusion support and early years SEND top-up funding key documents.

If you are applying for the early years SEND Top-up funding (TUF), please refer to the Early Years SEND top-up funding criteria, follow the Top-up funding guidance which outlines the early years SEND top-up funding process and complete the relevant top-up funding application form.

Online Inclusion Support form

Online Top Up Funding form (PILOT GROUP ONLY)

The current early years SEND TUF hourly rates can be downloaded from the early years funding page.

Transfer into primary school from EY settings

 The aim of the EYFS Transfer document is to support the Early Years sector in sharing key information about children as they transition to school. In addition, please refer to the developmental milestones document (if you wish to do so) when completing the relevant section within the EYFS Transfer document.

Two Year Old Progress Check

When a child is aged between two and three, settings must review their progress and provide parents/carers a short summary of their development in the prime areas. The summary must identify the child's strengths and identify where progress is less than expected. Where there are concerns, or the child has an identified special educational need or disability, the setting must involve parents/carers in putting together a plan to support the child’s learning and development.

An example format you may wish to choose for your two year old progress check

Two year old progress check

Education Health Care plans (EHCP)

recorded workshop on how to contribute to the EHCP annual review

EAL

Resources that settings and parents might find useful

The Better Bilingual website has a range of EYFS resources to support EAL provision

The Early Years Team has commisioned Better Bilingual to create a series of vlogs, designed to support providers promote outcomes for their EAL learners, you can watch these by clicking on the links below;

Part 1 Induction

Part 2 Registration

Part 3 Phonics

Part 4 Continuous Provision

Other useful documents

North Somerset Occupational Therapy Sensory processing videos

A set of informative and practical videos led by Occupational Therapist Debbie Meintjes

Sirona care and health

YouTube video tips to support children who stammer

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