SEND Conference for Childminders: Supporting SEND in the Early Years

Face to Face on Saturday 10 May 2025, Small Hall, Kensington Town Hall, Horton Street, London W8 7NX.

Bi-borough Early Education and Childcare Service would like to invite you to the Early Years Conference for Childminders, but open to all early years settings, schools and other professionals who work within early years.

Cost: £35 per place (not available to purchase within the training membership)

We have brought together a range of Early Years experts and professionals to create an EXCITING PROGRAMME for you covering a number of key topics as reflected in the Conference agenda below:

10am: Welcome/Introductions

10.10 – 11am:

Key note speaker 1: Hannah McCormack; The voices of our youngest children with SEND

11-11.15am: Break

11.15 – 12.05pm:

Key note speaker 2: Penny Tassoni; Importance of two year olds’ development

12.05 – 12.25pm: Break

12.25 – 1.15pm:

Key note speaker 3: Dr Abigail Miranda; Supporting children with SEND through joined up, early intervention

1.20pm: Final remarks/Plenary

Please see below short bios of our presenters:

The voices of our youngest children with SEND by Hannah McCormack

Enshrined within government policy and practice, it is recognised that all children have the right to freely express their thoughts, feelings and wishes (UNCRC, 1989, DfE, 2021). Furthermore, all children’s views should be listened to and taken seriously. These rights apply to all children from birth, including children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND) and children who are non/pre-verbal. These rights apply to all aspects of a child’s life, including when they are in attendance of educational and/or care settings.

However, despite there being a strong political stance to ensure that children’s voices are listened to and meaningfully represented within educational and/or care settings, there remains a significant lack of a clear working definition of the concept of voice and limited practice guidance to support practitioners in enabling young children to enact their rights surrounding it. These leaves the big question; how do we support our youngest children with SEND to enact their right to have a voice? The aim of this keynote presentation is to attempt to answer that question and provide some effective practice guidance on how you can strive to ensure that our youngest children with SEND can freely express their views, are listened to and are heard.

Importance of two year olds development by Penny Tassoni

Two year olds are special and their unique development needs to be celebrated. It is an exciting year as most two year olds become increasingly skilled, but also determined. In this presentation, we look at the developmental changes that makes two year olds special and how this development influences not just their play but also responses.

Supporting children with SEND through joined up, early intervention by Dr Abigail Miranda

In this session you will hear about why early intervention is important and what practitioners can do to support identification and intervention for children with emerging or identified SEND through relationships with families and professionals.