The Department for Education has awarded us the contract to deliver a new training programme for up to 5,000 Early Years SENCOs from September. The Early Years SENCO qualification will be targeted at Level 3 practitioners in private, voluntary or independent settings and will also be appropriate for childminders.

Speaking on behalf of Best Practice Network, Sian Marsh, our Director for Early Years said "We are pleased to be playing a key role in efforts to ensure that the best possible educational outcomes are achieved for children with special educational needs and disabilities. This qualification comes at a critical time when the pandemic significantly reduced opportunities to identify and address SEND amongst children not yet of compulsory school age. The programme will build specialist expertise in SEND by increasing the number of Level 3 qualified SENCOs in group-based settings and childminder settings."

Check out our Early years SENCO page

Delivery of the programme will start in Autumn 2022. Participants on the four-month long programme can expect a rich mix of online facilitated training, mentoring, online study and enrichment, including a group discussion forum and communities of good practice. Participants will build up an e-portfolio of learning for final assessment.

We are extremely proud to be able to be awarded the contract for Early Years SENCO. Will Quince, MP and Minister for School Standards was similarly full of praise for Best Practice Network as well as noting the importance of offering this programme in order to directly help children who have special educational needs. 

"It’s great to be working with Best Practice Network on the delivery of Level 3 SENCO training for early years staff. This is a crucial programme within our early years education recovery package, addressing the impact of the pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.

It’s also a key part of our SEND Green Paper commitment to improve outcomes for all children, regardless of need. The early years sector has worked incredibly hard to support families over the past few years and we want to continue working with them to support all early years children. This upscale in the number of qualified SENCOs will directly help children who have special educational needs."

Whilst currently providing EYITT and level 2, 3 and 5 qualifications along with the NPQ suite of professional development programmes for school leaders, we will deliver the qualification with a wide range of partners: Elklan, Kids Planet Day Nurseries, Snapdragons, London Early Years Foundation Nursery Chains, Bristol City Council, Derbyshire LA, Durham CC and Telford and Wrekin LA, and the National Day Nurseries Association. We also took this opportunity to gather the thoughts of two of our delivery partners who will be helping us offer this important programme in their areas. 

"We are excited to work with BPN and the other delivery partners in the delivery of this award. We jumped at the opportunity to provide this professional development opportunity to early years SENCOs, acknowledging the critical role they play in early identification and intervention."

"The new training programme for early years SENCOs will make a huge difference to the lives of many children living with special educational needs and disabilities across the country. We are delighted to be a part of this wonderful initiative to support Best Practice Network in the delivery of this new training programme."

Get started with EY SENCO

Click Here