Response to Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy

The Government’s Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy has the potential to be a gamechanger for achieving inclusive early years education and the family support desperately needed to reach babies and toddlers with SEND – identifying and meeting their needs – when it matters most.

Best Start Family Hubs

Families with disabled children value input from different professionals and meeting other families who understand their journey so the roll out of Best Start Family Hubs in every local area is very welcome. Revitalising and extending services ‘under one roof’ is a move that could greatly support early identification and prevent the devastating long-term impacts of unmet need.

Kids SEND Navigator model

We’ve long advocated for our Kids SEND Navigator model and warmly welcome the announcement of a children and family services professional specifically trained to support parents of children with additional needs in each Best Start Family Hub. If these work in the same way as Kids’ community navigators, they have the power to connect, convene and signpost families to the people and services they need earlier, improving outcomes.

We know that where Family Hub pilots have made SEND a focus, for example from our first-hand experience in Wakefield, there have been fantastic results, providing shining examples to build on in the rollout.

This Strategy commits to making inclusive nurseries standard practice across the early years, and we know that skilled, experienced practitioners make a real difference to 0-5s with SEND. The commitment to recruit more early years practitioners at level 3 will make it more likely that nurseries of all types can open their doors to children whose needs currently can’t be met.

Strengthen SEND expertise in early years training

While we welcome the Strategy’s investment in training and development of the early years workforce, it must go further in detailing how the workforce’s knowledge and understanding of SEND will be increased across the board, to measurably make nurseries and childminding more inclusive.

Hands-on experience matters and must be integral to training and continuing professional development. Core training for the workforce must include a requirement to work directly with children with SEND to equip practitioners with real-world skills and experience.

Unlock access for every child

Additional funding in 2026/27 for local authorities to distribute to early years settings alongside their existing Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding (SENIF) is a welcome short-term measure. Too many settings cannot care with confidence for children with SEND, so these funds must be used to increase nurseries’ readiness to welcome every child and meet their needs.

However, the thousands of babies and toddlers with SEND who are locked out of early years education entirely, remains the biggest issue which must be acknowledged and tackled through any new measures. Coram’s most recent childcare survey showed less than a third of local authorities say they have enough places for at least 75% of children with SEND, and more than half could not say either way. Children with SEND are not counted or recorded in any consistent way in the early years and there is no statutory duty to do so, which makes it difficult to accurately plan for how many childcare places may be needed and how much resource each local area will need to ensure settings are properly equipped to support children.

Better data collection must be mandated so that local authorities can better plan for SEND children and improvements can be measured month on month, until every parent with a baby or toddler with SEND truly knows there is an accessible early education place for them.

Tackling the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF) is absolutely the right place to start and we welcome the Strategy’s commitment to review this. Funding for children with SEND is insufficient, convoluted and difficult to apply for, and this is where the problems are firmly rooted.

Bridge the GLD gap

We welcome the Government’s acknowledgement of the gap between children with SEND and those without any additional needs reaching the Good Level of Development (GLD). The Strategy highlights that only 19.7% of children with SEND reach the GLD target by age 5, compared with 67.7% of their peers.

Whilst the Strategy commits to providing extra support to Reception teachers through training, data and more intensive help through English and Maths Hubs, it does not say how it will specifically support and consider the specific needs of children with SEND.

Recognise every child’s unique journey

Every child is unique, and will learn, develop and achieve key milestones differently. A fair approach to a GLD would reflect this and include criteria designed to accurately portray each child’s starting point, learning journey and achievements.

Many children with SEND are disadvantaged compared to their peers when they start in Reception, due to the insufficiency of appropriate pre-school places. Whatever their formal level of attainment, every child’s individual needs and starting point must be taken into account so they receive quality support to be ready for a flying start at primary school.

Work together to build a bright future

We welcome the Government’s strong commitment to work with children, families and professionals to improve the early years system. Parents of young children with SEND often feel unheard, yet their insights unlock practical solutions to benefit all families.

We look forward to working together to achieve a breakthrough in access to a great early education and holistic family support for every baby and toddler with SEND.