Early years – universal support

There are different levels of support for children and their families during their early years, which vary depending on your child’s needs.

Support for all children under five

The support available for all children is sometime called ‘universal support’. This can come from a range of sources, for example, midwives, health visitors, GPs, family hubs, or early years education settings.

Midwives and Health Visitors

Midwives provide support during pregnancy, and for you and your child for a short time after giving birth.

Health visitors are there to support you and your child through their early years, until they turn five years old. They are qualified nurses or midwives with specialist public health training.

They provide a child-focused service, are trained in child development and carry out screening and developmental reviews. They can also suggest services that may be able to help if you have any concerns about your child.

Best Start Family Hubs

Early years education settings

Early years settings include nurseries, childminders, pre-schools and other organisations which enable children to develop a variety of skills.

Early years settings use the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to support planning activities for your child’s development including supporting social skills, independence, confidence and self-esteem, communication and language skills, as well as your child’s physical and cognitive development.

They can support you with activities to do with your child, parenting advice, play sessions, meeting other parents, universal and targeted support for your child and links to specialist support services for SEND.

All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities, and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage framework.

The Early Years Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)

All early years providers in the maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors that are funded by the local authority must have regard to the Special educational needs and disability code of practice which provides statutory guidance on duties, policies and procedures. They are expected to identify a SENCO.

Maintained nursery schools must identify a member of staff (with Qualified Teacher Status) to act as SENCO. Childminders are encouraged to identify a person to act as SENCO.

Advice and support for parents

Health for Under 5’s website

EasyPeasy app

Children and Family Health Devon

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) is part of the NHS and provides care and treatment across physical and mental health for children, young people and their families in Devon. Their focus is on prevention and early help.

See the self help tools and resources library on the CFHD website to help you get the right help and support. 

If you have concerns about your child’s development

It can be difficult to know whether very young children need additional support. The first five years of a child’s life is when their brain develops faster than at any other time, but it’s important to remember that all children are different, and can reach age-related expectations at different times.

• The Foundation Years website offers a useful guide about ‘what to expect, when?’ that provides guidance on what to expect as your child develops.
• Our Health for Under 5s website also contains loads of really useful information about children’s health and development in their early years.

A child under school age is considered to have SEN if they are likely to have a learning difficulty or disability that will need special educational provision when they reach compulsory school age.

If you’re worried about your child’s development, speak to your health visitor. If your child attends an early years setting you could also speak to your child’s key worker or Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO).