Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that teachers are able to identify young children who require visual impairment support in early years education.

Early Years Teacher Status is awarded to graduates who have met all of the Teachers’ Standards (Early Years) which are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211646/Early_Years_Teachers__Standards.pdf. These standards set out the minimum knowledge, understanding and skills that an Early Years Teacher must demonstrate. Early Years Teachers are required to:

• Have a secure understanding of how a range of factors can inhibit children’s learning and development and how best to address these.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the physical, emotional, social, intellectual development and communication needs of babies and children, and know how to adapt education and care to support children at different stages of development.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the needs of all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and be able to use and evaluate distinctive approaches to engage and support them.
• Know when a child is in need of additional support and how this can be accessed, working in partnership with parents and/or carers and other professionals.

The Early Years Foundation Stage framework requires providers to have arrangements in place to support children with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities and to identify a member of staff to act as SEN Co-ordinator. This framework can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/596629/EYFS_STATUTORY_FRAMEWORK_2017.pdf.

Where it is identified that a child may have SEN, the setting should adopt the graduated approach that is outlined in the SEND Code of Practice – assessing the child’s needs, planning suitable support, implementing that support and reviewing it regularly to ensure it remains appropriate to the child’s needs. This document can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.