Admission

The Early Years SEN Panel


Information for parents/carers of children who may have special educational needs.  A child’s special educational needs can be identified at any time from birth and all professionals who work with young children should follow the guidelines set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2001).

What is the Early Years SEN Panel?

  • The Early Years SEN Panel is made up of a group of professionals from different services (Education, Health, Social Services).
  • The Early Years SEN Panel meets every fortnight to discuss information sent in about children who may need additional support with their development and learning at Early Years Action Plus.

Who can ask for additional support?

  • Parents/carers.
  • Staff in early years settings (e.g. Childminders, Playgroups, Day Care Nurseries, Children’s Centres.
  • Health professionals (e.g. Health Visitors, Paediatricians, Speech and Language Therapists)
  • Social Services (Social Workers, Family Support Workers).
  • Education professionals (e.g. Portage Workers, Advisory Teachers, SENCOs, Educational Psychologists)

How can you ask for additional support?

  • Talk with people who know and work with your child.  They may suggest asking the Local Authority to consider additional support.
  • Fill in Form SEN/EY1 (‘the green form’).  This can be completed by anyone, but it must always be with the parent/carer. It can be completed by the parent alone.
  • Include supporting information from all services that are involved with your child.
  • Send all the information including the form to the address on page 4 of Form SEN/EY1 /li>

What happens next?

  • When Form SEN/EY1 and supporting information are received your child will be discussed at the next Early Years SEN Panel.
  • From the information received, the Panel decides the most appropriate course of action.
  • The Chair of the Panel contacts parents/carers by letter.

The decision may be:

  • To forward Form SEN/EY1 and additional information to one of the following services:
    • Portage Service.
    • A Special School for an assessment placement
    • A Children’s Centre for an assessment placement
    • Educational Psychology Service (EPS)
    • Advisory Teaching Service (ATS)
  • To request further information from parents/carers or a service involved with the child

m_wainwright.jpgNext Steps

You will be contacted by a member of the service that has been allocated to support your child.  Any future action will then be decided in consultation with you. If you have any queries or want further information regarding the Early Years SEN Panel please contact:

Madeleine Wainwright, Early Years Special Educational Needs Consultant and Chair of the Early Years SEN Panel:

Tel: 01453 873587 or e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Download the green form.