SEND Under 5

The purpose of SEND Under 5 is to identify the best support for a child now and in the future. Discussion meetings happen monthly in each area or locality of West Sussex. Practitioners of many different professions attend the meetings. These may include:

• Healthy child programme representatives, such as health visitors and school nurses
• Early Years and Childcare Advisors (EYCAs)
• Early Years Inclusion Service
• Early Years SEND and Inclusion Mentors
• Early Years specialist teachers for transition
• Speech and Language Therapy service
• Child Development Centre
• Portage Coordinators
• other medical professionals
• West Sussex Parent Carer Forum

The aim of the group is to identify and provide support to children under 5 with SEND and their families, to improve their outcomes and identify the support they will need throughout their early years and into school.

It is important to note that SEND Under 5 is not a route for settings to obtain additional funding for a child with additional needs.

Referrals to SEND Under 5 can only be made by professionals such as:

• your child’s early years and childcare setting
• the Child Development Centre (CDC)
• paediatricians
• speech and language therapists
• sensory support team
• health visitors

Professionals will need to have consent from parents or carers before they make a referral to SEND Under 5.

Once a referral is made, parents or carers will receive an email to confirm that the referral has been received by SEND Under 5.

There are 5 SEND Under 5 meetings held each month - 1 in each Child Development Centre area. The areas are:

• Mid Sussex
• Crawley
• Horsham
• Adur and Worthing
• Chichester

Your child’s referral will be placed on the agenda of the Child Development Centre in your area.

It is important to note that these agendas are arranged based on referral dates, and some children may be waiting up to 4 months before they are discussed at SEND Under 5.

Some children may be prioritised by health services for discussion sooner if there is a greater need for support identified.

The SEND Under 5 team needs enough information to have a meaningful discussion about a child. If a child hasn’t seen any health professionals yet, or has only just started at their early years setting, they might not be discussed straight away. This is because the setting may still be observing and collecting information.

These children might wait longer before being discussed. If you're worried about how long you've been waiting, talk to your child’s early years setting or email sendunderfives@westsussex.gov.uk.

The possible outcomes of SEND Under 5 are:

• information about local services - this could be support groups in the local area that would be beneficial for the child to attend
• referral to Portage - our West Sussex home visiting educational service
• support to access early years provision, if the child is not already in a setting
• support for the early years setting - this could be that an Early Years SEND mentor will go out and visit the setting and provide support strategies
• transition support for children moving to a new setting or school - this could be a referral to our Early Years Advisory teachers for transition
• reviewing and gathering evidence to inform next steps - this may include a decision to move towards formal assessment, but this does not guarantee a formal assessment will be made - that decision is made by our Special Needs Assessment Team (SENAT)
• sometimes the SEND Under 5 team will decide to 'bring back' a child for discussion at a later meeting which usually happens when there isn’t enough information about the child’s needs or development, or if professionals don’t yet know the child - if this happens, the team will share the outcome with you and let you know the date of the next discussion

SEND Under 5 discussions do not make decisions on whether a child is agreed for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). These decisions are the responsibility of our SENAT team.

SEND Under 5 can only recommend that information is gathered for a child and presented by SENAT at the considerations panel. It is at this panel that a decision will be made whether to progress with an EHCNA.

Following an EHCNA, a decision will be made as to whether a child is eligible for an EHCP.

Your child’s early years setting will receive the outcome of the SEND Under 5 discussion and will share it with you. They’ll give you a letter that explains what the outcome means and what happens next.

If your child isn’t in an early years setting, a health professional or an Early Years SEND and Inclusion Mentor will usually share the outcome with you.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s referral to SEND Under 5, email sendunderfives@westsussex.gov.uk. This mailbox is not monitored daily and replies can take up to 10 working days.