POLICY
Fair access for all?
Jo Evans, head of communications and public affairs at Dingley’s Promise, makes the case for reviewing and reforming the eligibility criteria for disability access funding
Families of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are finding it increasingly difficult to access early entitlement places. One in five parents who took part in Dingley’s Promise research at the end of last year said they had been turned away by an early years provider, and the situation is worsening. Meanwhile, settings say that they are struggling to meet the needs of children without the right funding and support.
Disability access funding
For children with SEND to be able to access a provision, it is vital that funding is made more accessible, so that it gets to the setting as soon as a child is given a place and is, where possible, in place when they attend for the first time. Disability access funding (DAF) was introduced for this specific purpose: to reach settings quickly to support the children who need it most. However, to access DAF currently, settings are reliant on families being in a position to go through the detailed and stressful Disability Living Allowance (DLA) application process. Without this, providers cannot access the money they need to enable the reasonable adjustments required to support the child effectively.
For families, the earliest years of a child with emerging SEND can be stressful and isolating. They are coming to terms with the fact that their child’s life may look very different to the one they had envisaged. Parents and carers are often trying to understand a range of unfamiliar systems and information. Many must attend a wide range of medical appointments and are already having to tell their story repeatedly to a variety of different professionals. The stresses of dealing with day-to-day life supporting their child and the sleep deprivation often experienced as a result of their child’s complex condition leave little time, energy and focus to complete a lengthy DLA form.
Some families are simply not ready to face the form, while others don’t feel confident to complete the form or gathering the evidence needed to capture their child’s needs. Due to these barriers, in many local authority areas, DLA is underspent and is therefore not reaching the children who need it most. Some local authorities have invested in additional support for those families with the application process; however, we must address the issues and barriers to the application process rather than allocating additional resource to it.
The way forward
In the Dingley’s Promise Manifesto for Early Years Inclusion, one of our key priorities is the delinking of DAF and DLA. If the setting could ask the family when they apply for a place whether they are supported by a SEND professional, this could be used instead as the proxy for releasing DAF funding to the setting. This would enable the setting to access the funds to support the child when the place is confirmed, and make any adjustments needed. This would in turn improve the family’s confidence that the service was supporting them and increase their trust in the system as well as alleviating pressure.
This small change could make a big difference to a settings ability to welcome more children with SEND and ensure they are getting the best start in their educational journey by fully utilising their entitlements.
How can you help?
We are encouraging families and early years professionals impacted by these issues to lobby their local MP, pressing for further debate and action to deliver positive change in the accessibility of funding for children with SEND in the early years.
Visit https://bit.ly/DPmanifesto for more information.
What is disability access funding?
Disability access funding, which was introduced in April 2017, is funding from central government aimed at supporting children with disabilities to access the funded entitlement offers.
Early years providers delivering care and education to eligible children receive a one-off payment of £910 per child per year from the government and can use the funding to, for example, make adjustments to their setting.
Families of disabled children must be in receipt of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for settings to be eligible for disability access funding.
About Dingley’s Promise
Dingley’s Promise is a specialist early years SEND provider who champion inclusion for under-fives. The children they work with have a wide range of additional needs including cognitive delay, autism, physical disabilities, genetic conditions and life-limiting conditions.
As well as their six early years settings, they support families via an outreach programme and are delivering SEND inclusion training to those working in early years across England.
Their mission is to create a more inclusive early years sector which ensures that every child gets the best start in life.
Find out more at: www.dingley.org.uk.