Bolton Start Well

The role of the SENCO in early years’ settings is clearly stated in the SEND Code of Practice (DfE 2014).

The SENCO has responsibility for:

• Ensuring liaison with parents and other professionals regarding a child with special educational needs or disability once concerns have been raised.
• Making referrals to other professionals/services following LA and agency procedures.
• Liaison with the child’s Lead Professional within the Early Help Assessment process.
• Ensuring that an appropriate cycle of action is in place for children with SEND, the aim being to meet the needs of the child so that progress is made in the most appropriate and individual way. The SENCO is not solely responsible for delivering Individual Education Plan (IEP)s.
• Ensuring that relevant information about individual children with SEND is collected, recorded and updated. This may include observations, targeted plans, or reports from other agencies.
• Planning future support for the child after discussions with colleagues and other professionals.
• Keeping records of children with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.
• Monitoring and reviewing at each stage throughout the graduated approach.
• Transferring information to the relevant nursery or school when the child moves on (parental permission required).
• Advising and supporting other practitioners in the setting and disseminating information from training they have attended.

Childminders are encouraged to identify a person to act as SENCo and childminders who are registered with a childminder agency or network may wish to share that role between them.

New guidance (18th January 2022)

The Department for Education has published new guidance documents to support early years SENCos.

The guidance describes the role of the early years SENCo and set out the level 3 SENCo qualification specification. The link to these documents is: Early years level 3 SENCo - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).