SEN, Disability, Inclusion and internet safety Information

Every child is allocated a main key person who is primarily the member of staff who will forge positive relationships with the child and their family. They will be responsible for making ongoing observations and will use these to assess and then plan for the individual child. The key person will be responsible for monitoring progress and completing termly overviews relating the to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which will show where a child is currently at.

If a child is not where it is thought they should be developmentally discussions will initially be held between the key person and the SENCO. These concerns will then be raised in a sympathetic manner with the family and a decision will be made as to what the next step to take would be. Permission will always be sought to be able to seek outside assistance. The SENCO would liaise with other professionals to seek advice and support, and if necessary, make a referral for someone to come and observe the child and offer further advice.

We start making relationships with our families the moment an enquiry is made and hope that positive relationships will become the norm. To prepare your child to come to Honeybees we offer visits into the setting for both the child and family to start to understand routines and get to know other children and staff.  Settling plans will be devised on an individual basis and some will take longer than others.

Reports from health care professionals or others working with the child and family will be used to plan support within Honeybees. The area SENCO or the Early Years Advisory Teacher or other professionals working with our SENCO will support the decision-making process linked to planned targets on the setting-based support plan. The setting-based support plan will be written with parents and will include how parents can support their child at home. Staff meetings within the setting will ensure all staff working with the child knows the child’s need and how to support them.

Parent partnership is paramount at Honeybees and we pride ourselves on the relationship we have we parents. We always encourage families to let us know of any changes at home, so they can be discussed with your child’s key person. However, families are also encouraged to speak to any other member of staff, at any point with any queries or concerns they may have regarding their child’s learning and development. Laura Johnson is Honeybees’ special educational needs coordinator (SENCO). She is fully trained and receives on-going training to keep her knowledge up to date and then she cascades this information to the rest of the team as well as offering advice and support to the key person and room practitioners.

When joining Honeybees we work alongside the families in helping the child to feel safe and secure. During this process we also gain as much information as possible from the parents as we understand and recognise that they are the experts at knowing their child. The key person assigned to the child will be an integral part of this process and will also explain to each family her role.

Reports from health care professionals such as health visitors, speech and language therapists identify children’s individual needs. The setting welcomes parents and professionals sharing these reports with them in order to plan appropriately to meet individual needs.

Through these processes the child’s individual needs will be identified and this will allow us to plan for their next steps, also ensuring that the provision they are receiving is relevant and appropriate.

When the child starts at Honeybees we gain lots of useful information from their families and then their key worker will observe them over the first few weeks as they are settling in. Their key worker will then complete a base line assessment, asking parents what the child can do at home to get a more holistic picture.  This is then shared with the families and ideas for home learning are also suggested.

These are linked to the EYFS and are the marked as the child’s starting points. The tracking sheets allow activities, experiences, routines, resources and provision to be planned for each individual child’s ‘next steps’.

The tracking sheets which are used at Honeybees are directly linked to the EYFS ages and stages of development and these are an on-going form of assessment. Where appropriate Integrated Progress Review (IPR) will also be done by the key worker, a health visitor (supported by the SENCO if necessary).

Here at Honeybees we have two parents evening a year where the parents come and talk to their key worker and the SENCO is also available. Each child has an electronic learning journey file which is available to parents at the parents evening but also at any time the parent requests.

We ask parents to contribute to their own child’s learning Journal, Tapestry, and parents are encouraged to take an interest in their child’s learning and development at all times. If your child has identified needs Honeybees will work in partnership with the team supporting your child and will explain to parents how we are acting on the advice from the support of the professionals.

Here at Honeybees we are very proud of our strong links with families and encourage parents to share with us what they have been doing at home with their child. We actively involve parents by asking them to share their home observations on Tapestry and we include these on their progress reviews and ‘next steps’. All of our key workers or SENCO will always be happy to give advice or support wherever needed.

At Honeybees we are inclusive, positive and welcoming to all and our policies are shared with parents when their child joins, these will include our policies related to safeguarding and SEND code of practice.

If a child comes to us with an ongoing medical need it is likely we would need to complete a care plan with the family before the child started with us. We have policies and procedures in place to do with the giving of medication and personal care and these will be shared with the family. Where needed, parents are invited in to talk to the staff about their child’s medical needs and this can be done during a staff meeting.


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How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child/young person will receive? There may be times that we can apply for additional funding to go towards a child being included in the setting or having a one to one assistance.  This might be for health and safety reasons or it might be for an educational reason. Delegated budget will be used to provide additional resources or to adapt existing resources.


Decisions made about how much support a child will receive is monitored through observations made by the key person then discussed with parents, SENCO and Manager. Observational assessment linked to the EYFS and knowledge of child development will be used to identify what support is required. Extra support will be put in place if necessary with the aim of enabling the child to become independent within the environment.

On-going partnership working with parents by the setting and other professionals involved with the child/family will support the decision-making process. The SENCO will advise on the process of applying for extra support. The inclusion funding process will identify the level of need based on the evidence submitted to the panel from the setting and other professionals working with the child/family

There may be times that we can apply for additional funding to go towards a child being included in the setting or having a one to one assistance. This might be for health and safety reasons or it might be for an educational reason. Delegated budget will be used to provide additional resources or to adapt existing resources.

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Decisions made about how much support a child will receive is monitored through observations made by the key person then discussed with parents, SENCO and Manager. Observational assessment linked to the EYFS and knowledge of child development will be used to identify what support is required. Extra support will be put in place if necessary with the aim of enabling the child to become independent within the environment.

On-going partnership working with parents by the setting and other professionals involved with the child/family will support the decision-making process. The SENCO will advise on the process of applying for extra support. The inclusion funding process will identify the level of need based on the evidence submitted to the panel from the setting and other professionals working with the child/family.

Each key person will establish a good relationship with your child and then through observations, listening, assessments and evaluations will update and their ‘Next steps’ and setting-based support plan. Families are also encouraged to contribute to these.

Our SENCO will also meet with the families to explain how Honeybees can meet your child’s needs by planning support using their setting-based-support-plan and also obtaining further support, when necessary from our area SENCO. She will also explain who will be involved with your child’s development, who they are and how they will be helping.

If a child attends another setting then we share termly reports to ensure a full and rounded picture of the child’s development. If a child is moving to another setting or starting a new one, our key workers are happy to share their information and attend necessary meetings to ensure a smooth and informed transition.

We have a wellbeing coach who works alongside the children to help them feel good about themselves. The wellbeing coach also teaches the children yoga to allow children to regulate their emotions in a calm way.

We provide a flexible approach to routine and environment which are based around the needs of the children. Adults act as good role models for positive behaviour and a continual positive approach to behaviour management is maintained. The key person builds relationships with the child and family and they provide personal care respectfully to all children. The staff are trained to administer medicine and all staff are paediatric first aid trained.

Here at Honeybees we involve all our parents at all times and understand that they have the best and most knowledge about their child.  We consult with parents and ask them to contribute to, their child’s on-going assessment and progress reviews. We keep our families updated by sending our weekly update emails, have a website, organise social and fund-raising events regularly.

We are also committee run and actively encourage parents to join so they can express their views and be an integral part of how Honeybees is run and led. If any parent wants to find out how to be more involved within Honeybees they just need to ask any member of the staff, their key worker or member of the committee (their names, job roles, responsibilities and photos are displayed on the door in the entrance hall).

Within Honeybees all staff have accessed child development training and have experience of working with children within the Early Years age range. All staff have completed SENCO training and our SENCO, Laura Johnson, attends termly network meetings to keep up to date. There is also an Area SENCO who is available to give support if needed. What training are the staff supporting children with SEND had or are having?

Our SENCO has completed all of the relevant training and is regularly updating this. We also have a further member of staff who has attended the training and is there for support if the SENCO is unavailable. When the SENCO receives new information through her termly meetings or other training courses, she then shares this with the other staff through meetings. Further courses such as behaviour training, equality, diversity and inclusion and communication and language training have been attended by other staff members. Staff have also received training linked to specific individual needs on a child’s medical condition and action/responses required.

Honeybees staff have experience of working with children with Autism, ADHD, Sensory processing disorders and children with limb-loss. We pride ourselves on our commitment to working closely with families to ensure that each child is included. This can be achieved by using Picture Exchange Cards (PEC), Makaton and altering the structure of a session for a particular child.

We will work with any organisations who have dealings with your child and the family such as the Child Development Centre (CDC), health visitors, child psychologists and speech and language therapists etc.

We will do our upmost to make sure that all children can access the curriculum putting into place what we can where we can, at Honeybees we are inclusive. Before taking children out on visits and walks we would carry out an extensive risk assessment and this is shared and if necessary, discussed, with families first.

Our building is accessible with the inclusion of ramps and either wide single or double doors throughout. We benefit from a disabled toilet and the adjoining play area is accessible for all and also includes features specifically to allow everyone to access it. We use signs, posters and pictures throughout the setting and a visual timetable adds further support. We provide multi-sensory experiences as part of our core provision.

At Honeybees we have very strong links with the local primary school and the children visit throughout the year for example to watch the Christmas nativity play etc. During the summer term teachers from the school will visit Honeybees to get to know the children within an environment the children are safe and secure in. This will then progress with the children going up to visit the school on a very regular basis. We use role play with school uniform, book bags, getting changed for P.E. and lunch time practice as a good way to help the children become familiar with some of the new routines they are about to encounter. Special medical arrangements will be made with the school Senco and class teacher in advance of a child starting school.

Alongside this the key workers, and SENCO where appropriate, share information and assessment regarding the children with the relevant teachers and SENCO of the primary school the children are going to. Their tracking sheets and setting based support plan are passed on to their next settings but we allow the children to take their learning journeys home to share with their families. However, the local primary school is aware of this and often encouraged the children to bring them into school when they start so they can share them with their new teachers too.Special consideration is given to children going to schools for those with additional needs and staff have experience of contributing information to EHCP’s.

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