Support available if my child attends a nursery

All children with SEND are different and will need different levels of support.

In this section:

Support available if my child attends a nursery

There are different services for different SEND needs, and it can feel difficult to navigate when you are new to the SEND process. If your child attends a nursery, there is always a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) at every nursery who can help and advise you.

There are a variety of pathways to support a child. It is important to have the advice of professionals as to which pathway may be appropriate for your child. Some examples of the type of support that may be available are provided on this page.

If your child is in a nursery setting, the first stage of the Early Years Graduated Approach to SEND is to be supported by staff in the nursery.

You can raise any concerns you have and ask if the nursery is seeing similar things, as children sometimes behave differently in different places.

If the nursery shares your concerns, the nursery’s Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) may need to follow the Graduated Approach.

The Graduated Approach involves 

  • assessing your child's level of need
  • making a plan of action for the support that might help
  • all staff and parents working together to put the strategies in place.
  • the nursery staff will review whether the support is working — is the child making progress? 

We call this the assess, plan, do, review cycle.

If your child does not make progress with the Graduated Approach, your nursery could refer your child to other Solihull teams for advice. The nursery SENCo is responsible for making these referrals. They must have consent from a parent before making any referrals.

The links in the box above will take you to information about Solihull support your child could be referred to, depending on your child’s level and type of need.

For some children with SEND needs, the setting may be able to apply for extra funding to help support your child. Children will need to meet specific criteria to access extra funding.

Additional advice and support

Information on how to access free or funded nursery places

The law and guidance around SEND

Further information

More information is available on the parent toolkit

Support if my child does not attend a nursery or attends a childminder