Nursery Plus aims to:

• Increase the number of children who start school achieving expected levels of development

• Support children who have significant barriers to learning to help them achieve their potential

• Enable settings to include children with social and emotional difficulties

• Ensure children who have not already been identified have appropriate interventions and referrals in place prior to starting school

Nursery Plus achieves this by supporting Early Years settings to provide high-quality early learning through:

• Implementing a graduated approach to meeting a child’s needs

• Effective assessment of needs, appropriate target setting and focussed planning to enable a child to make progress

• Providing advice and guidance on appropriate strategies and interventions to enable settings to improve outcomes

• Modelling good practice to settings to support effective inclusion of all children

• Promoting child centred approaches 

Nursery Plus Admissions Criteria

All children must meet these criteria:

• The child is attending an Early Years setting

• The child is in receipt of Early Years 3 and 4 year old Education Funding (EYEF) on commencement of Nursery Plus intervention.  Priority will be given to children who are due to start Reception in the coming academic year/September after their 4th birthday.

In addition to the above, children will meet either Group A or Group B criteria below:

Group A - The child meets all these criteria: 

1.    The Child is less than 12 months delayed in more than one aspect of the Prime Areas of the EYFS

2.    There is evidence that the child is making progress but this is currently not sufficient to catch up with their peers 

3.    The child does not need a multi-disciplinary assessment 

Group B 

All Group B Children MUST meet the Essential criteria and at least one other criteria listed below: 

Essential

1. The child should be no more than 2 years delayed in any prime area; the child will be less than 2 years delayed in more than one aspect of the prime areas of the EYFS   (Children who are 2 years or more delayed may be supported through specialist services – please contact your EYC if you feel a child is more than 2 years delayed and no other services are involved) 

2. Is likely to attend a mainstream school 

In addition to the Essential criteria identify at least one from this list:

1.    Has been referred to the ICS single point of access for a multi-disciplinary assessment and is waiting for assessment.  

2.    Has had a multi-disciplinary assessment at the children’s assessment centre and has been discharged without further specialist intervention involved but continues to require support to make progress within the setting and ensure that their needs can be met

3.    Has emotional and social difficulties which are impacting on the child’s ability to engage in learning 

4.    The setting has significant concerns regarding the child’s development but no other services have been involved prior to starting with the provider

NB: Nursery Plus is a service that is designed to have a significant impact on children’s outcomes.  All the children must meet the criteria as set out above and all referrals will be considered based on

• The referral criteria

• The current case load  

• Whether a clear impact on outcomes can be identified

The criteria are to help settings identify children who may benefit from support for Nursery Plus and to enable Nursery Plus to provide an effective service that makes a difference to children based on the service aims.   

If you feel that a child would benefit from Nursery Plus but you are uncertain that the child meets the criteria then please discuss this with the Early Years Consultant.