The SEND Code of Practice in Early Years: What It Requires of You
The graduated approach, the SENCO role, EHC needs assessments and the records that back you up — the SEND Code of Practice translated into nursery reality.
The SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years is statutory guidance that every early years provider must have regard to. Chapter 5 is the one that applies to you, and it is more specific than most managers realise.
Your four hard duties
Under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Code, every group setting must:
- **Have a designated SENCO.** In a group setting this must be a qualified practitioner with defined, protected responsibility. Childminders are encouraged to identify a person to fulfil the role.
- **Publish a SEN information report / local offer contribution** setting out how you identify, assess and support children with SEND.
- **Use your best endeavours** to make sure children with SEN get the support they need — an active duty, not a passive one.
- **Inform parents** when you make special educational provision for their child. Not after three terms of quiet concern. When you start.
The graduated approach: assess, plan, do, review
This is the engine of early years SEND, and it is a cycle, not a form.
**Assess.** What exactly are you seeing? Not "he's behind" — "he uses fewer than ten single words at 30 months, does not respond to his name consistently, and plays alone for the full session." Gather the key person's observations, the two-year progress check, parent views and, where relevant, health visitor information.
**Plan.** Agree with parents what you will do differently, who will do it, how often, and what success would look like. Two or three specific outcomes. Not twelve.
**Do.** The key person delivers the plan, supported by the SENCO. This is the step most often skipped when staffing is thin — and skipping it invalidates the whole cycle.
**Review.** Agreed date, usually within a term. Did it work? Continue, change, or escalate?
Two or three completed cycles with dated evidence are exactly what a local authority needs when you request an EHC needs assessment. Settings that request assessments without them get refused and lose months.
Early identification: what to notice, and when
By age two, be curious (not alarmed) about a child who:
- Uses very few words or no word combinations
- Does not respond to their name or follow simple instructions
- Shows no pretend play or shared attention
- Is not walking or has markedly unusual movement patterns
- Has extreme, prolonged distress at transitions or sensory input
- Makes no eye contact and does not point to share interest
Curiosity means observe, discuss with the SENCO, talk to parents, and start a cycle. It does not mean diagnose. It never means wait and see.
The SENCO role in practice
Give your SENCO three things or the role will fail:
- **Protected non-contact time.** A minimum of half a day a fortnight in a small setting.
- **Authority.** They lead SEND decisions; they do not route everything through you.
- **A budget line.** Even a small one, for resources and external advice.
Their job is to coordinate provision, support key persons to run cycles, liaise with parents and outside professionals, and maintain the SEND record — not to be a second pair of hands in the room.
Requesting an EHC needs assessment
Anyone can request one, including the setting with parental consent and the parent directly. A strong request includes:
- At least two completed graduated approach cycles with dates and outcomes
- Evidence of what you have already provided from your own resources
- External professional input where available (SaLT, portage, area SENCO, paediatrician)
- Parent views in their own words
- Clear statement of why provision beyond what you can ordinarily provide is needed
The local authority has six weeks to decide whether to assess, and twenty weeks in total to issue a plan.
Funding you should be claiming
- **Disability Access Fund** for any three- or four-year-old on DLA — an annual lump sum per child
- **SEN Inclusion Fund** from your local authority — rates and criteria vary, ask directly
- **EYPP** where the child also meets those criteria
Claim all three separately. They are not alternatives.
Records that protect the child and the setting
Keep, for every child on SEN Support: the concern log with dates, each cycle's plan and review, parent meeting notes with signatures, external professional reports, and a summary transition document for school.
That last one matters enormously. A child moving into Reception with a clear, honest one-page profile from you starts school understood.
Early Years Circle members get the full SEND & SENDCO pack range — graduated approach templates, early identification checklists, EHC request evidence builder, parent meeting scripts and transition profiles.
