DfEE Green Paper - Early identification and early intervention

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1 Policies for excellence

Early identification and early intervention

Very young children
5.The best way to tackle educational disadvantage is to get in early. When educational failure becomes entrenched, pupils can move from demoralisation to disruptive behaviour and truancy. But early diagnosis and appropriate intervention improve the prospects of children with special educational needs, and reduce the need for expensive intervention later on. For some children, giving more effective attention to early signs of difficulties can prevent the development of SEN.

6. The majority of children with the most severe disabilities will be identified well before they start school; but health and social services professionals should also look for other factors which may lead to educational disadvantage. District Health Authorities and NHS Trusts are under a duty to bring to the LEA's attention any child under five who they think has SEN. An integrated approach by child health professionals, social services and education staff is needed right from the start, making full use of the children's services planning process.

7. To widen the options available, we want to encourage innovative partnerships between statutory and voluntary agencies. Multi-agency support for children with SEN will be a priority in our new pilot programme for early excellence centres.

Case study - Multi-agency support for young children with SEN

STAR (St. Helens Advice and Resource) Children's Centre provides support for children with special needs and their families, from birth until the child starts school.

The Centre's steering group is made up of parents, representatives from the LEA, local NHS Trusts, social services and voluntary organisations. The staff team includes teachers, specialists in hearing and visual impairment, medical staff, therapists, an educational psychologist, a Portage and outreach support service, a nursery nurse and a social worker.

Parental involvement is an essential element of STAR's many activities, which include:

an assessment nursery
a 'Starlight' parent and toddler group
a Star communication group (supported by the local branch of the Association for all Speech Impaired Children - Afasic)
STARBEAM (Behaviour Education and Management) group
STARDUST - a group for children with Down's Syndrome and their parents.

Local hospitals provide information about the Centre to all families of children born with disabilities. As children's special needs emerge, the Centre provides assessment and support. A developmental assessment of each child is made, and if necessary the child is referred to the LEA for statutory assessment. Each child takes a Record of Achievement on to school.

Pre-school education
8. In each LEA area, an early years development partnership will be established. Each will be fully representative of provider s of early years services, including those with expertise in SEN, and will take into account the views of parents. Each partnership will draw up an Early Years Development Plan, which must show that appropriate provision will be available for children with SEN and that all providers, with support where necessary, are able to identify and assess special educational needs.

9. The new emphasis we are placing on early identification will mean that many children's special educational needs are identified before they reach compulsory school age. However, some children may slip through the net; others' special needs may not emerge until after they have started school.

Baseline assessment
10. From September 1998, all children will be assessed as they begin their primary education. Baseline assessment will not on its own establish whether individual pupils have special educational needs. But it will be crucial in helping to show where a child has problems which need attention - whether these arise from special needs, or from family or emotional difficulties. It should show teachers those pupils who need a targeted teaching strategy or further classroom based assessment, perhaps leading to specific support from the school or from other agencies.

Literacy and numeracy
11. Literacy and numeracy are central building blocks for educational progress. The longer a child's basic skill deficiencies are left unaddressed, the less likely the child is to succeed at school or in later life. As a result, many children eventually receive statements of SEN and expensive additional provision. 40% of appeals to the SEN Tribunal concern literacy and numeracy difficulties of one sort or another.

12. We have set the target that 80% of all 11-year-olds should reach the standards expected for their age in English by the year 2002, with a corresponding figure of 75% for maths. We expect many children with SEN to reach these targets. These are ambitious targets, and we are putting in place initiatives to help pupils reach them. These include:

reduced class sizes for our youngest pupils; introduction of a literacy hour in primary schools from September 1998; and introduction of a new National Curriculum for initial teacher training with greater focus on literacy and numeracy at primary level.

13 The Literacy Task Force has recommended:

specific references to literacy in the SEN Code of Practice and in the individual education plans of children with SEN; attention to the implications of the national literacy target for children with special needs in programmes of professional development; and developing strategies to enable parents and schools to work together in supporting the literacy achievements of children with SEN.

We will build on these recommendations, and on those of the Numeracy Task Force, in our action programme for SEN.

14. As teachers become increasingly adept at tackling reading difficulties, children with specific learning difficulties (such as dyslexia) should in all but exceptional circumstances be catered for in mainstream schools without a statement. What is more, class-based strategies which help children with specific learning difficulties can help children with literacy difficulties caused by other factors.

Case study - Strategies for children with specific learning difficulties
The DfEE is funding two research projects, based at the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre and Manchester Metropolitan U niversity (MMU). These aim to assist teachers without specialist training to identify and help children with dyslexia in the course of their normal teaching. In both projects there are positive early findings about the effectiveness of some teaching strategies for all pupils, not just those with dyslexia.

There already exist a number of packages, some IT-based, which can help teachers and learning support assistants assess and help pupils with dyslexia.

15. The National Year of Reading in 1998/99 will focus on literacy skills: we need to make sure that children struggling with reading - for whatever reason - are encouraged to see themselves as improving readers. Consultations about the programme of events for the year will involve those with expertise in special educational needs.

QUESTION: How can we identify children's special educational needs earlier, and ensure that appropriate intervention addresses those needs?

31/08/2000