SEND support before school
Long before an EHCP, and without any diagnosis at all, your child’s setting can and should be doing something. This is what that looks like, what you are entitled to see, and what to do when nothing is happening.
In short
- You do not need a diagnosis. SEN Support is based on need, not on a label. “We can’t do anything until they’re assessed” is wrong.
- SEN Support means help that is additional to, or different from, what is given to most children of the same age.
- The method has a name — the graduated approach, a repeating cycle of assess, plan, do, review.
- Group settings must have a SENCo. With a childminder, it is usually the childminder themselves.
- Every council must publish a Local Offer setting out what support exists in your area.
- SEN Support is not a lesser version of an EHCP. It is the stage before, and for most children it is enough.
- You should be involved at every turn. A plan written about your child without you is not the graduated approach.
The diagnosis myth
This is the single most common thing parents are told that is not true, so it goes first.
“We can’t put support in until there’s a diagnosis”
There is no such rule. Support in early years is based on identified need, not on a diagnostic label. A child who is not talking much at two needs help with talking — whether or not anyone ever names a condition, and whether or not they are on a waiting list. Waiting lists for assessment are long, and a child who waits two years for a label has lost two years of support they were entitled to all along.
If you are told this, it is worth saying calmly: “I understand we’re waiting on an assessment. What can we put in place now, based on what you’re seeing?” That question is much harder to deflect, and it is the right question.
What SEN Support actually is
SEN Support is the formal name for help given to a child with special educational needs in an ordinary early years setting or school. The definition that matters is this: it is provision that is additional to, or different from, what is generally given to other children of the same age.
That is deliberately broad, and it is meant to be. In practice, in a nursery or a childminder’s home, it can look like:
- Extra one-to-one time on something specific, planned rather than incidental
- Visual timetables, now-and-next boards, or picture cards to support communication
- A quieter space, or a changed routine around the parts of the day that go wrong
- Adapted activities so a child can join in rather than watch
- Advice brought in from an outside specialist, such as a speech and language therapist or an area SEND team
Most of it is not expensive or dramatic. Much of it is a practitioner deciding to do something differently, on purpose, and then checking whether it worked.
The graduated approach
The SEND Code of Practice sets out a four-part cycle that settings are expected to use, repeatedly. Knowing its four words gives you a vocabulary for asking exactly where things have got to.
Work out what is actually going on — what your child can do, what they find hard, and when. This should draw on your view as well as the setting’s.
Agree what will be done, by whom, how often, and what you are all hoping to see change. Agreed with you, not announced to you.
Actually put it in place. The person working with your child day to day is responsible for this, with the SENCo supporting them.
On an agreed date, look at whether it worked. If it did, keep going or aim higher. If it did not, change it. Then the cycle starts again.
Why the cycle matters more than any single plan
The point is not that the first plan is right. It is that something is tried, checked, and changed. A setting that put a plan in place a year ago and has never reviewed it is not doing the graduated approach, however good the plan was. “When is the review?” is the most useful question you can ask.
The SENCo
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator is the person responsible for co-ordinating support. In a nursery or preschool there must be an identified SENCo. With a childminder, in practice it is usually the childminder themselves, wearing that hat alongside every other one.
What they should be doing: making sure needs are identified, that the graduated approach is actually followed, that staff know what they are meant to be doing differently, and that you are properly involved.
It is entirely reasonable to ask “who is the SENCo, and can we have a conversation with them?” — and to expect a name in reply.
The Local Offer
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, every local authority must publish a Local Offer: information about the provision available in the area for children and young people with SEND.
It is worth finding early, because it tells you what actually exists near you rather than what exists in theory — specialist services, support groups, how to request help, and who to contact.
How to find it in one minute
Search for your council’s name plus “local offer”. Quality varies enormously between areas, so if yours is thin, ring the number on it and ask directly — the people staffing SEND information lines are often far more useful than the website.
What you should expect to see
- A conversation with you early, not after months of quietly worrying
- Something written down — what is being tried, by whom, and what everyone hopes to see
- A review date, agreed rather than vague
- Your knowledge treated as evidence. You have seen your child in far more situations than the setting has
- Honesty about what they cannot do alone, and a willingness to seek outside advice
Keep your own record as you go: dates, who said what, what was agreed. Not because anyone is against you, but because staff change, memories differ, and a simple dated note is worth a great deal if you later need to show the pattern over time.
If nothing is happening
Sometimes you raise it and nothing changes. A sequence that tends to work, in order:
Ask for a meeting with the SENCo specifically, rather than a doorstep conversation at pick-up. Say what you have noticed and ask what they have noticed.
Put it in writing. Short, factual, dated, and ending with a clear request — a plan, a review date, or outside advice. Our letter templates cover this.
Ask for the setting’s SEND information report or policy, and for the support to be recorded formally as SEN Support.
Contact your council’s SEND team or area early years SEND service through the Local Offer. You do not have to wait for the setting to do this.
Every area has a free, independent SENDIASS service for exactly this. Find it via your Local Offer. It is impartial and it costs nothing.
When SEN Support is not enough
For most children it is enough. Where a child needs more than the setting can reasonably provide from its own resources, the next step is to request an EHC needs assessment from the local authority.
Two things worth knowing now. You do not have to finish the graduated approach before you can request one — the legal test is about whether the child may need support that can only be delivered through a plan. And a parent can request an assessment themselves; you do not need the setting to do it for you.
Our EHC needs assessment guide covers the whole process step by step, and there is a paid course if you want the longer version with the letters and timelines.
Where to go next
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