Research School Network: Why are children with special needs falling so far behind in the early years? Lack of funding and poor quality assessment are hampering the progress of young children with SEND

Children with SEND are, on average, 15 months behind other children by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), according to the Education Policy Institute’s annual report. That’s a staggering gap, when you consider that the children are only 5 years old. It needs urgent attention.

SEND is a very broad term. In the nursery school that I lead, we have a few children with complex medical syndromes and many children with a short-term language delay. They are all very different, yet they are all ​“children with SEND”. In total, 44 per cent of children are described as having a special educational need at some point in their schooling, according to the Education Endowment Foundation (although only around 15 per cent of pupils are considered to have had SEND at any one time). That’s why we need to focus on helping every child to access a broad early years curriculum.

Read on in the Times Educational Supplement