Early Years

Arrange to visit some settings and have a chat to the staff about your child’s individual needs. Every setting has a Special Education Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), they have knowledge and experience of supporting children with SEND. Click here to find childcare.

Your health visitor can help you to understand what your child might need before they start at a nursery, childminder or pre-school. Health visiting service – telephone 0300 123 6629.

There is also an Early Years outreach team that can support parents to find the right childcare for their child and signpost to help with childcare costs.

Contact 2yroldfunding@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

There are various offers of childcare support available to families depending on the age of your child and your individual circumstances.

Find out more on the Best Start In Life Parent Hub and check what support you could be eligible for by using the eligibility checker under ‘Find the options available to you’ on the Best Start In Life Parent Hub.

The Disability Access Fund (DAF) supports children with disabilities or special educational needs (SEND).

All children will be eligible for the DAF if they meet the following criteria:

• The child is in receipt of child Disability Living Allowance (DLA), and
• The child is eligible for early education funding and are taking up a funded childcare place.

Your childcare provider will be eligible to receive disability access funding, which is £975 per child per year, to help them make reasonable adjustments to their setting to support your child. Speak to your childcare provider for more information on how to apply for the funding.

Once your child is taking their free early education funding at a setting the setting may be able to apply for Special Educational Needs and Disability Inclusion Funding (SENDIF). It is the setting who applies for SENDIF+ and they request how they want the additional funding to be used. This can be for purchase of resources, access to specialist training or to enhance staff ratios but it is not for continuous one-to-one funding. Speak to your childcare provider for further information on how they apply for this funding.

Find childcare in Portsmouth here.

Pre-Schools tend to be open between 8am-4pm term time only. Some open for less hours or some for half-days each week. Pre-Schools are Ofsted registered and inspected regularly.

Nurseries tend to be open between 8am-6pm all year round. Nurseries are Ofsted registered and inspected regularly.

Childminders offer flexible care in their own home for up to 3 children under the age of 5. Some also care for older children before and after school. Childminders are Ofsted registered and work to the same standards and are inspected regularly in the same way as nurseries and pre-schools. Childminders often offer additional services such as earlier care, later care, weekend care and school pickups/drop-offs which can be invaluable to families.

Your choice of childcare depends on the hours you work, your transport options and other commitments you may have such as school-runs for older children or studying. You can place your child with more than one childcarer. Some parents use a combination of a childminder and a pre-school/nursery to suit their requirements.

There are very limited number of specialist places at Mary Rose Academy provided by Solent Academies Trust for nursery age children. The Portsmouth Early Years Panel allocate places and a child must be known to panel and have significant and complex needs. Contact your Health Visitor for more information

You can find out more here. Have a chat to your child’s health visitor and early years setting. If you feel your child may need an EHCP once they are in school, it is recommended that request is made in the year before they are due to start school.

You will probably have lots of questions when choosing a new childcare provider – here are a few to get you started:

• Are the children happy, safe and playing together?
• Are the adults friendly and joining in with what the children are doing?
• Are there lots of activities on offer to help children learn and play?
• Are the premises and resources clean, well-kept and safe for children?
• Is there a fun outside play area (or will children go to parks and other places regularly)?
• Are the premises accessible for wheelchair use and do they have resources to support a child with a disability or special educational needs?

Before a child moves into another setting or school, their support should include lots of activities that plan and prepare them for the move – this is often called transition planning.

If your child has an education Health and Care Plan, this should also include information on the things that will be put in place to help them move from their old setting to the new one.

The types of support activities that may be used are:

• Extra visits for your child to their new education setting.
• Visual supports – such as photographs, books or even short video clips of their new setting.
• Lots of information sharing between the old setting, the new setting and parents and carers.

Each transition plan of support will be different and developed around the individual child’s needs.

We have developed a list of  top 10 tips you should try and do in plenty of time to make this transition as easy as possible.