Dingley’s Promise has been commissioned to deliver Early Years SEND CPD courses designed to provide practical support to develop inclusive practice across the sector. Dingley’s Promise have been delivering specialist support to children with SEND in the early years across England for over 40 years and have trained over 35,000 educators in inclusive practice over the past 5 years.
Recent research has reflected that practitioner knowledge and skills are among the strongest drivers of quality in early childhood education, and the growing numbers of children with SEND over recent years have increased pressure on the early years workforce. SEND inclusion has a direct impact on the quality of provision, staff morale and engagement, parental collaboration and crucially children’s sense of belonging and developmental progress and therefore this training is crucial to the sector in many ways.
There is broad recognition of the vital importance of early identification and tailored support to give every child the best start in life and improve long term outcomes. The government recognised this and has committed to investing £200 million over the next 3 years in a national training package to support children with SEND across all stages of the education system, from ages 0-25. The first phase of the new programme of training for early years practitioners will be delivered by Dingley’s Promise with input from sector specialists Contact, Speech and Language UK, Coram PACEY, Nasen and the National Children's Bureau (NCB).
Three purposely designed courses have been developed, providing practical information, strategies, and reflective tools to improve the inclusive approach within early years settings. The online courses can be accessed in a flexible way and contain practical tools to apply to everyday practice as an educator. Courses are suitable for educators of all levels and in all types of provision including childminders.
The training programme builds on the success of a Comic Relief funded programme which saw Dingley’s Promise train over 35,000 educators across England, with 97% of learners feeling more confident to support children with SEND as a result of the training.
Catherine Mole, CEO of Dingley’s Promise shared these thoughts on the launch of the project:
“We are delighted to have been selected to lead on this vital training programme. This programme offers early years educators the opportunity to upskill and gain more confidence to support children with SEND at no cost to themselves or the setting and shows the increasing value being placed on early years education and its impact. This government investment is a key step towards ensuring that every child has access to the right support at the earliest point possible to give many more children the best start in life. We would encourage all early years settings to access this training and take a whole setting approach to inclusion as we know first-hand how transformational this can be.”
Course topics include The Foundations of Inclusive Practice, Embedding Inclusive Practice and Parent Partnership
Minister for Early Education, Paul Waugh said:
"The earliest years of a child's life shape everything that follows, which is why it's so important that early years staff feel confident spotting and supporting additional needs from the very start.
" This new training will give practitioners practical, everyday tools, whether that's providing quiet zones separate to spaces for noisy play or making an activity accessible at different heights, so that every child can feel included, understood, and ready to learn.
"Getting this right early means fewer children falling through the gaps later on, and a stronger foundation for every child to thrive."
Training will be freely available from the end of September across England. For more information, please visit www.dingley.org.uk/training
About Dingley’s Promise
The Dingley’s Promise team bring with them over 40 years of experience working with children with SEND. The charity provides tailored specialist support to children under 5 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The children they work with have a wide range of additional needs including cognitive delay, autism, physical disabilities, genetic conditions, and life-limiting conditions.
As well as their current 12 early years settings, they support families via an outreach programme and are delivering SEND inclusion training to those working in the early years across England. They are also lobbying the government for vital improvement to funding, access, sufficiency, and workforce development in the early years.
Their mission is to create a more inclusive early years sector which ensures that every child gets the best start in life. www.dingley.org.uk
Dingley’s Promise Training courses - to improve skills and confidence to work with children who have SEND: www.dingley.org.uk/training
For more information about the work of Dingley’s Promise or media opportunities, please contact Jo Evans – Head of Communications
