How do we identify SEND in the early years?

Identify early-years SEND through ongoing observation and the two-year progress check: where progress concerns you, your SENCO leads an assess-plan-do-review cycle with parents, adding specialist support as needed. SENCO is the special educational needs coordinator. SEND means special educational needs and disabilities. You do not need a diagnosis to start.

First: observe carefully and listen to parents

The starting point is accurate, sustained observation of the child against the development you would expect for their age, alongside the concerns of the people who know them best. The SEND Code of Practice is clear that everyone working with young children should be alert to emerging difficulties and respond early, and must listen to and act on what parents tell them (para 5.5). Note what you see over time and across the day, not a single off morning. The Code is just as clear that delay in development or behaviour that worries you does not by itself mean a child has SEND. You are looking for a need that is real and lasting against expected development, not a label.

Then: the SENCO leads the graduated approach

Where progress gives cause for concern, your setting follows the assess-plan-do-review cycle (the graduated approach), coordinated by the SENCO and worked through with parents. Two routine moments anchor identification:

• The progress check at age two. Under the EYFS statutory framework in force from 1 September 2025, when a child is between two and three you must review their progress and give parents a short written summary of development in the three prime areas. It is a key chance to spot an emerging need early.
• The four broad areas of need. When you describe a concern, frame it against the four areas the Code uses (para 5.32): communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health; and sensory and/or physical needs.

Who holds the SENCO role depends on the provider. A maintained nursery school must ensure a qualified teacher acts as SENCO; other group providers (such as private and voluntary nurseries) are expected to identify a SENCO; childminders are encouraged to (paras 5.52 to 5.53). That work is part of the early years SENCO's role.

Escalate when in-setting support is not enough

If a child needs more than your usual practice provides, involve outside help. The health visitor and the council's early years SEND or area SENCO team can advise, and you may draw in speech and language therapy or other specialists with parents' agreement. Where a child's needs are likely to be greater than the setting can meet through SEN Support, you or the parents can ask the council for an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. None of this requires a diagnosis first; it runs on observed, evidenced need. See also a setting's wider duties under the SEND Code.

Looking ahead, the 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill propose a statutory Individual Support Plan duty that would reach every nursery, with EHCPs narrowing over time. That is a live consultation proposal, not current law, and no changes take effect before September 2030. For now, the EYFS framework and the SEND Code duties above stand unchanged.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.