Early Years Scotland Policy & Engagement Manager, Lorna Kettles, writes about the difficulties ELC settings face in being able to support children with additional support needs (ASN).

How many times have you said ‘I’m really sorry, I’d love to help, but I can’t’? Sometimes, we say we can’t help because we either don’t really want to, we feel like we’re being asked too much or because perhaps the person asking for help is perfectly able to do the thing themselves (I’m looking at you, my 14-year-old, when you say you’re hungry and look pointedly at me when you’re perfectly capable of making toast or noodles or a bowl of cereal yourself). Other times, however, we say it because it’s something we struggle with ourselves, we have little understanding of what’s being asked – while we are willing to try to do our best, we are not going to be able to give the level of support needed in order to help the person achieve what they need to. In the first instance there is an unwillingness, but in the second there’s an inability.

This concept of willingness vs capacity is very much aligned with what’s happening in the sector in terms of properly supporting children with additional support needs (ASN). Settings are seeing more and more children presenting with a range of different needs, all of which require dedicated, focused levels of support. In the Private, Voluntary, and Independent (PVI) sector in particular, providers are finding it extremely difficult to do this – not because they don’t want to, because they absolutely have the best interests, needs and rights of their children at the heart of what they do, but because more often than not, they do not have the capacity to fully support the specific and increasing needs of the children in their care, who may also need more specialist support from other professionals.

In September last year, Early Years Scotland surveyed our members to ascertain their experiences and needs around children with additional support needs, and the findings make for interesting but stark reading. 66% of settings have a child with a diagnosis, with many more stating they have children who are undergoing the referral process to obtain one, and so we come back to the concept of willingness versus capacity.

Settings are committed to supporting, caring for, and educating every child in their care, inclusive of all needs. While they are more than willing to do so, they are struggling due to factors beyond their control. A significant concern is the increasing number of children with additional support needs (ASN) and the necessity for a more individualised 1:1 approach. This challenge is compounded by the need to maintain staff-to-child ratios and the ongoing issues of sustainable funding and disparities between local authority and PVI settings.

The root of the issue is not merely maintaining minimum ratios but the financial burden of exceeding these ratios to meet the needs of children with ASN. The funding received is calculated based on cost per child, and these ratios are aligned with those cost exercises. Members are advocating for an increased ratio that supports the individual needs of children with ASN, like the support worker model in schools or the eligible two-year-old funding rate for specific children to ensure their needs are being met.

There’s also a requirement for specialist training for staff, but it’s either not available, or staff can’t be taken off the floor because there’s not enough cover to keep to ratio. Our members have also spoken about the importance of ensuring the safety of all children in their care and the need for enough staff to be able to do this, as well as a recognition of the needs of families as a whole and how settings are able to support this effectively.

So we have settings reporting a need for increased adult to children ratios and more training for staff to provide adequate support around additional needs. We have (as it ever was) a gulf between levels of provision between areas of the sector, despite being guided and governed by all of the same policies, practices and legislation. We have families crying out for assistance, and at the heart if it all, we have children who are entitled to access ELC that best suits them and their families, who are unable to do so. Children whose rights are not being met, because there isn’t enough investment in those who educate and care for them. Children who are missing opportunities to thrive and learn and grow. For their sake, there needs to be a shift from ‘sorry, I’d love to help but I can’t’, to ‘how best can we support you and your child’s needs, regardless of what they are?’ through investment in training and development, in staff and across all areas of the sector. We’re all willing – it’s about time we had the opportunity to be able.