Meeting Recordings from the EYSEND Seminar - Early Years Education Entitlements and SEN and Disabilities that took place virtually on Tuesday 12th March 9:45-12.00
Central to a child’s development is the opportunity for them to access quality early education and childcare from a young age. However, research shows that disabled children and those with special educational needs (SEN) are much less likely than their peers to access these entitlements, particularly the 30-hour entitlement. Free Early Education Entitlement is a key feature of Government policy aiming at ensuring quality of early childhood education for all children, especially with their recent announcement of expansion of these entitlements for 9 month to 3-year-olds by the next academic year.
In this two-part seminar recording, we drilled into the data to better understand which cohorts are less likely to access their entitlement, discussed the reasons behind this, and identified the practice barriers the Early Years system faces in ensuring young children get the quality education they deserve.
We were delighted to be joined by two exciting guest speakers, Ivana La Valle from UCL and Louise Woodruff from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who gave the perspective from both a research and policy angle.