CEY1541

Written evidence submitted by Contact (charity for families with disabled children)

Section 1: Summary

1.1 Contact is a UK charity which provides a range of advice and support to families with seriously ill and disabled children. Last year, we helped 196,000 families navigate the education, social care and health system. Our specialist family finances team helped families increase their income on average by more than £5000 per year.

1.2 Contact very much welcomes the Committee’s Inquiry into support for childcare and early years. We are pleased the Committee is asking specific questions about improving support for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) .

1.3 While many parents with disabled children juggle paid employment with complex care arrangements, too often they are forced to cut hours or give up careers due to childcare problems. While local authorities have a duty to provide childcare for all, a third of local authorities admit that there is not enough childcare for disabled children in their area. They say there is not the funding available to cover the costs.

1.4 Affordability, suitability of provision and parental confidence in the early years and childcare workforce mean disabled children are more likely than others of the same age to live in disadvantaged circumstances in terms of household income and their parents’ employment status.

1.5 Our Counting the Costs 2021 research [1] showed that nearly two thirds (61%) of the parent carers who responded to our survey said that caring responsibilities meant they or their partner had given up paid work, on average losing £21,270 from their family income. Families with disabled children pay 8 times more towards childcare costs than other families.

1.6 We recently asked parents calling our helpline why they were not accessing the full free early years entitlement for their disabled child. 66% said that the 1:1 care or additional support was not available for their child.

1.7 The main barrier is parental trust in the early years provider – parents need to feel confident that the early years provider can meet their child’s needs, not just the ones that exist when the child starts but things that may emerge as the child develops.

1.8Contact have been delivering parental confidence session to increase take up of funded nursery places and improving early years practitioner confidence in working with families of disabled children. Through this work - together with our own research - we have learned that there are some key barriers to accessing early years provision for families of disabled children.

1.9 For this trust to exist the parent or carer needs to experience the following 4 things:

That communication between parent and practitioners working with them and their child is open, honest and two way
Welcomed and cared for when they interact with any staff working with them and their child
That their views, ideas and opinions are valued and included in strategies to support their child
That there is a genuine willingness to work in partnership with them to achieve the best for their child

1.10 Government policy recognises that the best route out of poverty is paid employment. At the same time it’s widely acknowledged that disabled children are more likely to fall behind their peers and experience social exclusion. Therefore much more needs to be done to improve childcare and early years support for children with SEND.

Section 2. Recommendations for improving early years and childcare provision and workforce

2.1 Better funding for local authorities and providers to improve the quality and number of childcare places for disabled children especially those with the most complex needs. This includes building inclusive nurseries, and giving settings the correct one to one support. This needs to be audited, as once funding is given to a setting it can’t be transferred to another one. Ensure the child is getting the full entitlement and not 2 to 3 hours a week.

2.2 There must be improved data collection about the number of disabled children accessing early years education, particularly the number of children refused a place or only being able to access limited hours. Without accurate data, it is impossible to plan the funding and workforce required.

2.3 Home learning is also important. Children with SEND must have the right to home-based education if setting-based provision is not accessible due to a child’s health needs. Home learning needs to be offered to all children under 5 with SEND not in early years education alongside support with transition into an early years setting or school.

2.4 Learning and approaches from the NHSE Autism in Schools programme being implemented in early years provision too.

2.5 The early years and childcare workforce must have a better understanding of inclusion requirements, reasonable adjustments and disability discrimination. Including

All early years and childcare staff should have understanding of learning disability, autism, developmental delay.
Staff that’s show empathy and understanding towards the experiences and feelings of families trying to care for a disabled child.
A willingness of staff and providers to work co-productively with families to find solutions.

2.6 Parents need to be offered support to navigate the systems and entitlements so that they can get the right support for their children put in place. The burden is often with the parent carer at a time when they are feeling overwhelmed with new information, changes in expectations for their child.

2.7 Toileting needs being understood and strategies to improve this co-produced between the provider and the parents/ carers

2.8 An Oliver McGowan like mandatory training programme for all early years practitioners

Section 3: Affordability

3.1 Increase the child disability and childcare addition under Universal Credit

3.2 There needs to be more support for parent carers to make choices about returning to work and their childcare options via specialist helplines like Contact’s.

January 2023