Best Practice Network (BPN) has won an exclusive government contract to train early years Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos).

BPN will train 5,000 Early Years practitioners in how to arrange support for under-sixes with special educational needs.

The Early Years SENCo – Level 3 course will be funded in full by the DfE, as part of its early years education recovery package. This programme seeks to mend the harms done to young children’s development by the pandemic.

The four-month course will build practitioners’ understanding of a SENCo’s core competencies. Participants will learn how to identify SEN conditions and how to support children and their families.

The role of a SENCo is crucial to the policies set out in the DfE’s recent SEN Green Paper. SENCos enact strategies that help SEN children thrive in mainstream schools. 

BPN has delivered the National Award for SEN Coordination (NASENCO) since 2009 This is the statutory requirement for all new SENCos. The quality of BPN’s training has seen it rated as an ‘exceptional’ provider by the DfE.

A recent Ofsted report provides more detail on the ‘high standard’ of training that BPN provides. The inspector praises BPN and its leaders for the commitment to responsiveness, inclusion and strong governance.

Minister for Schools Standards, Will Quince, commented:

“It’s great to be working with Best Practice Network on the delivery of Level 3 SENCo training for early years staff.

“This is a crucial programme within our early years education recovery package, addressing the impact of the pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.”

We are proud to see an SEG company chosen to deliver this specialist new qualification.

Aspring early years SENCOs can apply for the course here