Specialist Nursery/Pre-school funding

[Eloise73]

Hi

Our DD 2.10 is starting a couple of sessions a week at a specialist nursery in Surrey called the Little Group which we are having to fund privately.

Has anyone her applied for independent/ specialist funding at the pre-school/nursery level and received it? If so how long did it take?

We had a diagnosis mid August and got the CAS report three weeks later and 2 weeks ago the paediatrician sent out the notification of special educational needs letter and the report to the education department and we will be assigned a case officer (was told her name already) and an educational psychologist is meant to be coming to visit in the next 6-8 weeks too. I have no idea how far into this whole process we have to go until we can apply/receive funding and would be grateful to hear from those of you who have gone through this process - we want DD to have as many sessions as possible at this nursery - her CAS report stated she needed to be in this environment and we know it will be a huge help.

Thanks in advance...am off now to check EuroMillions ticket...if I win i'm going to open these specialist nurseries all of the UK and make them free!!! LOL!

Bumping...has no one here really applied for specialist nursery funding???

Hi I tried with DS who is now 3 and didnt get anywhere but I've since heard that having a CAF can help in my LEA. My son probably has different issues and i'm fairly new to SEN myself.
Wishing you all the best.

I managed to get the LA to fund an SN placement at an independent nursery (mainstream nursery SN group within it). It took nine months and the threat of tribunal before they caved in. We got full time funding; the nursery was only open for morning sessions so this equated to 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. DS received weekly OT and SALT. It took a lot of hard work and a brilliant advocate but it can be done so don?t give up. Good Luck!