Early Years

You can check if your child is eligible and apply for funding using the Walsall Family Information Service, or check eligibility for free education for 2 year olds on gov.uk.

You can access these free places in 20 schools, 48 private nursery providers, 7 local authority nurseries and nearly 100 childminders across Walsall. 

Providers are specifically trained to care for and teach this age group and can help to identify any area of learning where a child might need extra support.

Parents can get support too and can learn more about child development and address any concerns.

This early start is an excellent opportunity for children to build their communication and social skills.

All children can have free early learning the term after their third birthday.

Walsall has over 70 infant or primary schools, 8 nursery schools, 48 private nurseries and 100 childminders that deliver nursery-aged early learning.

All Early Years providers are able to plan learning for every child. By law, they also follow The Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs and are inclusive of children with additional needs. In most cases the children will be included within the class or group, sometimes with additional support. 

There are two levels of funding that the school or setting can access to meet the needs of the child:

1. The Inclusion Fund is a smaller amount of money used to resource the provision for individual children with low or emerging needs. 
2. A larger amount of money that can also fund resources or pay for some additional one-to-one adult time to deliver an individual programme of learning for the child. 

There are also two specialist school providers that can support children with more complex needs.

You can find out more information and search for a suitable childcare provider via the Walsall Family Information Service.

Reception-aged children can start school at 4 years old in the academic year that they become 5. You can find more information about applying for a primary school place in Walsall.

The reception class teacher will assess all children and plan learning so that every child will make progress.

It is important that parents work in partnership with the school to ensure children reach their age-related milestones before they start the national curriculum in Year 1.

They should make good progress in the seven areas of learning:

1. communication and language (prime area of learning)
2. physical development (prime area of learning)
3. personal, social and emotional development (prime area of learning)
4. literacy
5. maths
6. understanding the world
7. expressive arts and design

Some children may have individual learning plans, but will still be making progress across all seven areas. In particular, the first three are the building blocks to further learning.

Walsall Child Development Service is a multi-agency team of professionals from health, education and social care.

For children in the Walsall borough between 0 and 19 years, this service aims to:

• assess children with disabilities and complex needs
• provide appropriate and timely support for children with disabilities and complex needs
• monitor the progress of children with disabilities and complex needs

Walsall’s Child Development Service's team around the child (TAC) provides an individual and evolving collaborative team.

This team will include the few key practitioners who see the child and family on a regular basis to provide practical support.

They provide a service for babies and young children with a:

• disability
• potentially-disabling condition
• significant developmental delay

TAC will become involved when 3 or more services need to be involved and the child is aged from birth to 5 years. 

The Early Years SEN team is made up of SEN teachers and learning support practitioners who teach, advise and support children with SEND.

There are a range of specialist provisions in Walsall. For more information see our SEN support in education page.