Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 8 September 2016 to Questions 44446 and 44447, what steps she plans to take to ensure that specific language and communication, including sign language, guidelines are in place to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing pre-school children benefit from the financial investment and the early years workforce strategy referred to in those Answers.

As part of our recent consultation on early years funding, the government is proposing to introduce a new targeted Disability Access Fund, which will support early years providers to make initial reasonable adjustments and build the capacity of their settings to support disabled children. The government is also proposing that all local authorities should set up an early years SEN inclusion fund. Such a structure will help settings and local authorities to work together to identify children with SEN in the early years, and to ensure that the appropriate support is in place to best support child development. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and are planning to publish the government’s response in the autumn.

The workforce strategy will set out how government will support early years staff to access training that equips them with the knowledge and skills to support the development of all children including those with special educational needs and disabilities. This will build on the work of the SEND champions programme which is funded through government and delivered by the National Day Nurseries Association. The programme identifies and trains SEND specialists to support other staff to provide appropriate learning opportunities for children with SEND.