Childcare for Children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND)

Information on childcare for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Using a childcare provider is something that many families will do at one point or another. You may be returning to work, taking up the government’s funded childcare offer or simply want your child to have fun, make friends and mix with other children. Regardless of the reason, using childcare for the first time can often make parents feel nervous and this is especially true when children have special educational needs and/or a disability (SEND). Parents often worry about whether the provision can effectively meet children’s individual needs.

All childcare provisions should offer a safe, welcoming, inclusive environment which stimulates children and enables them to thrive. Most, if not all, childcare provisions will have experience caring for children with some degree of special educational need or disability, and whilst all children are different, the provision should be able to adapt and plan to meet your child’s needs.

Group provisions (such as day nurseries and pre-schools), and school nurseries, are expected to identify a SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator). It is the SENCO’s responsibility, along with your child’s key worker, to coordinate your child’s SEN support and communicate with the relevant professionals to ensure that your child is fully supported in the provision. Childminders aren’t required to identify a SENCO, this is because most childminders work alone so it’s the childminder’s responsibility to communicate with the relevant professionals to ensure that your child is fully supported in their setting.

All childcare provisions should have arrangements in place for identifying children with SEN and all of the practitioners working in the provision should be aware of these arrangements. You can speak to the provision if you’d like to find out more about these arrangement and you can also read about what is expected of settings on our Childcare and Early Education page.

Training is available to help nursery practitioners and childminders to meet the needs of children with SEND. In addition, all practitioners must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND and work with others professionals if a child requires specialist support. They also have to provide information to parents and carers about how the setting supports children with special educational needs and disabilities. Meeting the needs of children with SEND is part of the inspection process and Ofsted or the Childminder Agency will make judgements about this area of provision.

Doncaster Council has four Early Years’ Area SENCOs (one per area). The role of the Early Years’ Area SENCO is to support childcare providers by giving advice and practical support

Finding a childcare provider

You can use the Families Information Service Childcare Finder to search for a childcare provider in Doncaster. We also offer a free brokerage service (opens in a new window) which can support you to find a suitable childcare provider for your child.

Childcare Finder

Enhanced Provisions

There are four enhanced provisions in Doncaster. An enhanced provision is a childcare provision that has demonstrated that they meet the essential criteria for selection, this included having an Ofsted judgement of ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ and having an experienced SENCO, amongst other things.

Having an enhanced provision status means the childcare provision is allocated extra funding to enable them to provide specialist support for children with SEND.

The four enhanced provisions in Doncaster are:

Fledglings Day Nursery - Station Road, Dunscroft
Little Learners Day Nursery - Leger Way, Bennetthorpe
Little Einsteins Day Nursery - Beverley Road, Wheatley
Little Einsteins Day Nursery - School Walk, Denaby Main

Your child doesn’t have to attend an enhanced provision to receive suitable support. We would recommend speaking to, and visiting, several childcare providers before you decide which provision is the right fit for your family.

It’s always best to speak with the childminder or the setting’s SENCO about your child’s needs to see if they can meet your child’s needs. Lots of provisions also offer taster sessions so it’s worth asking about these too.

There is funding available to all childcare provisions for children who have been assessed as needing extra support to enable them to thrive. If your childcare provider feels that your child would benefit from the additional funding then they will speak to you about it.

Cura-Care Babysitting Service

One of Doncaster's quality assured Short Breaks providers, Cura-Care, are operating a babysitting and childcare service for children with disabilities and special needs. Their support staff have enhanced DBS checks and the team is trained and experienced in caring for children with disabilities.

For more information, you can contact Cura-Care by emailing admin@cura-care.co.uk or phoning 01302 887222.

Curacare Babysitting Service Poster: Download (479KB - PDF)

Please note - this service is not Ofsted registered so you will be unable to claim any of your childcare costs back.

Useful information

The Family and Childcare Trust have produced a fantastic guide to childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities in England.

Need to speak to somebody?

If you’d like to speak to somebody about getting your child support in their provision, you can contact the SENDIAS service (opens in a new window) on 01302 737290 or email sendias@doncaster.gov.uk

If you’d like to speak to somebody about finding a suitable provision for your child, you can contact Families Information Service (opens in a new window) on 01302 735237 or email fis@doncaster.gov.uk

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