Overview

During November 2022 Worcestershire Children First asked providers and parent/carers for their feedback on what was working well and what could be improved to support pre-school age children with Special Educational Needs.

The feedback received through these discussions and questionnaires provided us with feedback about what was going well and where and how experiences and provision could be better. This feedback has informed recommendations for improvement, and we would like to thank all those involved.

• The Outcome of Nursery Assessment Unit Review (PDF) details the key purpose of the review, and the findings identified to take forward including:  a redesign of practice to ensure effective multi-agency working and co-production with families is in place when additional needs are identified for our youngest children. The Early Years Inclusion Process was developed and launched
• Sufficiency of provision and places where children with complex needs can access their full Nursery Education Funding (NEF) Entitlement

For the North of the County (Redditch / Bromsgrove / Wyre Forest), Wyre Forest Special School and Batchley First School continue to operate provision that supports children with identified complex needs.

Chadsgrove Special School operates a nursery for pre-school age children with complex physical and medical needs.

Enhanced Early Years provision

We are developing our Enhanced Early Years provision, delivered by an early years provider or school to meet the needs of children whose identified complex needs make it difficult for them to attend or receive their full Nursery Education Funding (NEF) entitlement in an early years setting.

In June 2023 we held information events for potential providers to hear about the Enhanced Early Years provision and ask any questions.

In September / October 2023 WCF started the process to secure this provision from the market for Enhanced Early Years provision in the South of Worcestershire (Worcester / Malvern / Wychavon).  To complete this we must make the offer, give time for providers to reply, evaluate their responses and make a fair offer.  We have accommodation for the services to be run from.

What happens next

For the south of the County, including Worcester we are finalising negotiations this month including suitable accommodation for operational delivery to be planned for delivery as soon as practical.  

For the north of the County, both Batchley First School and Wyre Forest Special School have requested to review their model of support. We intend to ask the market including these schools to work with us to develop any new provision identified. We will do this in 2024/25. 

There are no proposed changes to the nursery provision at Chadsgrove Special School for pre-school age children with complex physical and medical needs.