Supporting a disabled child

The issue

In Hampshire, a network coordinator was approached by a children’s centre in Andover with a request to find a childminder to support a specific family and child.

 

The boy was 3 and had recently been diagnosed as having severe autism. The family were a forces family and had just moved to the area. They could access four mornings per week of free nursery education at the children’s centre specialising in SEN support, but no provision was available on a Thursday, and the family would benefit from having access to the full entitlement to enable the child’s learning to develop, the mother to gain some respite and to give her the chance to spend time with her younger son.

 

The solution

The network coordinator identified a childminder who had been a member of the network since September 2004 and who became accredited to deliver nursery education grant in 2009.

 

An active member of the network, when inspected by Ofsted the childminder was justifiably graded as "outstanding". The coordinator knew that the childminder had a vacancy on a Thursday and that not only did she live close to the family, but also was very experienced and especially interested in working with disabled children. She was happy to meet the family and see how they felt about her as a childminder.

 

The contract was signed and the childminder started to work with the family. The child had no speech whatsoever and took a very long time to settle at the setting. The childminder worked hard with the mother in identifying what support systems needed to be in place, such as pictorial prompts.

 

For example, in addition to the most common picture symbols, they added one for the local indoor play centre, the library and the local tumble club, which were all places the childminder went to with the children and she wanted to be able to include him in these outings. For about the first six weeks he would just observe, but very slowly he began to interact with the childminder and the other children, especially one other little boy.                                       

 

The impact of NCMA

After five weeks the child said his first two words together to his mother; they were “(childminder’s name) play”. Delighted, the mother immediately rang the childminder and they were both in tears. From January he was old enough for the childminder to claim the nursery education grant for the hours she was providing.

 

During the spring term one of the regular activities they did together was to take one of the other children to pre-school in the afternoon. He started to show a real interest in what was happening and which toys were available. It became clear that he wanted to stay and play. The childminder spoke to the mother and the pre-school supervisor and eventually a place was found for him for Thursday afternoons.

 

The childminder continued to work with the pre-school supervisor in terms of how the child settled in. She was able to reassure them that his observing behaviour rather than participating was ‘normal’ and that in time he would join in - which is exactly what happened. The childminder was using NCMA’s learning development journey for recording his developmental progress and was sharing this with his parents and his pre school supervisor. In March 2009 the childminder attended an evening training session the network ran on transitions which helped reinforce how she approached things with this child.

 

In May it became apparent that the child was not enjoying going to the special needs nursery. Transport was provided by the county to get him there, and the taxi driver was reporting that he was becoming seriously distressed on the journey and refusing to get out of the car. Given that he had been making such tremendous progress in his speech and his interaction with other children it was vital that he was happy where he was going, the child’s parents asked the childminder if there was any way she could have him for a few more hours in the week so that they could stop him attending the children’s centre. With the support of the network coordinator an letter was drafted to Ofsted, requesting a variation to care for four children under 5 years old on Tuesdays to accommodate this request. Thankfully the variation request was granted.

 

Achieving Every Child Matters outcomes

Without question the main benefit has been in terms of helping this child Enjoy and Achieve. His speech development and interaction with other children was well beyond what was anticipated. As a result of his development in the childminder’s environment and mainstream pre-school, the child will go on to attend a mainstream Infant school (which has a specialist speech department), a transitional choice that reflects where he currently feels most comfortable and therefore better able to learn.

 

With which agencies did NCMA work to achieve the desired outcomes?

  • The Early Education and Childcare Unit, to claim the nursery education grant
  • Ofsted, to organise the variation to the childminder’s registered numbers
  • The childminder also worked with the pre-school and special needs pre-school at the children’s centre.

 

On reflection

By working with the other settings and parents, NCMA was able to support the rearrangement of his week so that the child remained happy and continues to thrive in his development.