Is this an illegal exclusion? Nursery

[MumTeach88]

My 3.5 year old son was kicked out his nursery. We have been working closely with the nursery throughout and he has additional needs. We have a SEND support arrangement in place as well.

We were called in for a meeting and they informed me they don't feel they can meet his needs and that he isnt coping and is "impacting the other children". My hand was metaphorically twisted and I said "is this you saying I need to find another setting?" Long story short, yes, this was what they were doing. I agreed i would and they agreed they were happy to have him until I found one.

2 weeks later (him having only been back a day and a half as we were on holiday), they called me. They were beating around the busy and I said "so you're kicking him out?" They tried to say words around it and that it wasn't they were kicking him out, I asked "So he can come in next week then?" They said no. My husband then called them later and they confirmed they were terminating his place immediately.

I have documents with that they have done (or not as the case was) against the Support Plan. Their main issue is he was impulsive and where he has SAL issues, he can grab and hit. Now, I totally understand that's difficult, but having received rhe behaviour logs under an SAR and shared with someone working in another nursery, they feel that it is actually fairly standard 3 year old behaviour to snatch a toy or hit a child when you can't communicate. Obviously I understand this is an issue, and would never want to have my son hurt someone, but we were working with them (so we thought) on this with social stories, support plan etc. Among other things, they have issues that he cant sit still for 20mins, can't use cutlery proficiently and needs his suncream applied 1st due to allergies. They also take issue that he is not potty trained (despite us trying twice and working with them on this).

The long and short of it, is this a legal exclusion? As far as I am aware they have not submitted to LA. The nursery is independent but under OFSTED. Thanks

Look at the website for your local council. In the education section there will be something called Local Offer and it details SEND provision and support. Also reach out to your Health Visitor. Unfortunately children seem to be place in mainstream settings, fail and then fight for specialist provision. This is exhausting for children and their families.

Op
I think you'll view this as a positive in the future. Being excluded from a nursery despite some additional support will help smooth the road ahead for his support plan.
A close friend of mine works in a settling with sen kids and with parents permission, on the day they are being assessed they purposely do minor things they know deregulates the kids so the assessor sees them at their 'worst' and grants maximum support.
Id mail other providers asking for a place for him outlining his 'issues' and filing all the replies you will get refusing him. You want the system to believe he is far more severe than he actually is to get him the correct amount of support he needs.

It might help you going forward to start to get clear on the distinction between what a child needs and is entitled to, vs what is actually a parental preference, or need, or a child nice to have.

That’s generally where your legal requirement for provision comes in.

eg. For pre school, the eligibility is just for funded hours if the criteria is met. It’s not that tgeres a requirement for state provision. It’s legally just a cost assistance function. Whereas education from mandatory age has a requirement on councils to make suitable provision for. Wrap around care in a parental preference rather than a statutory provision. Access to healthcare is in theory a required provision. Same for assessment for EHCP.

Thank you. Yes, that is good advice to make sure I have a list of which comes under each heading.

Shocking that some people are saying the OP should be funding 1 to 1 herself if her child needs it!

The OP's child is entitled to a nursery education as much as any other. It's not the OP's fault or her child's fault they have SEN. The nursery can't afford to fund it but the LA/government should be. They're paying towards all the other children getting a nursery education afterall.

If people are saying 'yes but the country can't afford it' then maybe we should stop funding for non SEN children and up it for SEN children. That would save the country money because the funded number would be much lower.

But when it doesn't suit them, I'm sure people won't be nearly so keen on saving the country money.

Good advice. Ironically, the "make it seem more severe" is what the nursery originally told me they were doing in their paper work to get him the support. Apparently they didn't actually think that

Sorry, that was replying to the wrong post

They were in breach of eyfs guidelines

No child is entitled to nursery.

Who was?

The nursery

You don't have to send them to school. You can choose to homeschool your child and many parents do if they feel the state school system isn't capable of supporting their child in the way they would like. As you say @Differentforgirls this is even more relevant to nursery age when it's completely parental choice. I personally withdrew my eldest dc from nursery many years ago as I didn't feel they provided adequate care. I adjusted my working life and found a supportive childminder. I should imagine nursery is very overwhelming for a lot of SEND children and they may well behave differently there to more secure environments or with their parent(s). I don't feel it's society role or private nurseries to take responsibility for that. Why would you want your child to be in an environment that they are unhappy in or is not suitable?

Which ones?

Sorry, I realised that after posting. What I meant was that Education is compulsory for all children from the first intake after their fifth birthday, that includes home education.

The nursery the child in question attended

Which rules?

The Early years foundation stages guidelines. If the provision hasnt made reasonable adjustments to suit the childs needs and havnt used specialist teaching services from the LA it constitues a.breach of the eyfs guidelines.

Only if they are in partership with the LA surely?

Private forest school sounds worth a look, and I would strongly encourage you to look into private SALT.

Your now-ex nursery may still be able to help with building evidence for his EHCP. The fact they have excluded him might actually be quite helpful especially if they are framing it in writing that they cannot meet his needs. It'll be a fight and it's exhausting but this IS a step towards getting his needs better met.

Until you find a setting would it be possible to keep him on roll but not attending his nursery? Evidence for next steps would be much better coming from them than from a brand new setting that is still getting to know him. Especially if it has bigger groups and is a more school-like environment than the next setting you find him.

Only if it's a funded place. I think you may be confusing maintained nursery schools with private ones.

No all nurseries follow eyfs guidelines. If a learning need is identified its up to the provision to allow specialist teacher service or inclusion service depending on your LA to assess the child learning needs as they provide the nursery setting different ways the child can learn.

Surely the wellbeing and safety of the other children that your childs behavior is affecting is paramount to waiting until a place elsewhere is lined up for him whilst keeping them exposed to possible repeat violence. Understandable of course that its inconvenient to you.

You need to find a more welcoming setting possibly a SEN nursery or unit
Direct ypur energy to finding that
not to fighting this one

Yes, if they are in partnership with the LA. The LA also would need to agree extra funding to that nursery for them to be able to include the child.

The EYFS says settings must make arrangements to support children with SEND and they must have a named member of staff to act as SENCO.
The Equality Act says they must make reasonable adjustments.
Neither of those documents says nurseries have to offer places to all children even if they can't meet their needs.