“We’ve seen huge progress in the children. A couple weren’t really walking when they first came; suddenly, they’re developing their physical skills as well as their cognitive skills,” says Lisa Clarke, headteacher of Comet Nursery School and Children’s Centre in the east London borough of Hackney.

It has not even been two terms since the nursery opened the borough’s first early years additional resource provision (ARP) - a specialist provision for children with complex needs - but Clarke is already seeing the impact.

Last month, government proposals to reform a special educational needs and disabilities system that is widely understood to be failing children, families and schools while bankrupting local authorities, placed more focus on both early intervention and setting up specialist support bases within mainstream schools.

However, local authorities across the country have long been trying to meet the challenge of the increasing number of children requiring specialist support.

In Hackney, there was a 49 per cent increase in the number of children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) in the five years to 2022. In response, the council set itself the target of creating 300 additional specialist places, made possible by capital funding from central government.

As well as extending pre-existing special schools, many of these places are being created by opening ARPs on the sites of mainstream settings, such as Comet Nursery School, a mainstream provision for two-, three- and four-year-olds in the south of the borough.

So, as the government moves to support more such developments nationwide, what lessons can we learn from provisions that have already opened?

Increasing need

Clarke says she has seen first-hand the increase in need for more specialist support.

When she started in 2011, the nursery offered three assessment places - allocated places for children with SEND or emerging needs who do not have an EHCP. These children are supported with small-group work or one-to-one supervision, made possible with additional local authority funding of £10,000 per place.

Now, “we have 10 [assessment] places”, Clarke says. “This shows the level of increasing need over the years.”

So when, a couple of years ago, Hackney Council put out a call for settings that were interested in developing specialist provisions, Comet responded.

The bid was successful, and Sky Room, for three- and four-year-olds with complex needs including autism spectrum disorder, opened on Comet’s site in September 2025.

‘On a pathway to getting an EHCP’

Space for the provision - a single classroom joined to the main nursery building - was made possible by renovation work that extended the building into what was previously a car park.

Sky Room has capacity for 12 full-time equivalent places. It currently has about 20 children on roll, with most on part-time timetables. Because Comet is term time-only, running from 8.30am to 2.30pm, all its children are covered by the 30-hour free nursery entitlement.

Sky Room could be named on an EHCP, but at the moment only one of the children on roll has an EHCP - partly because it is relatively rare to have one as early as age three, says Clarke. In practice, an early years panel - made up of Comet representatives and professionals from Hackney’s SEND team - considers referrals for the provision.

Meanwhile, assessment places are still available in the mainstream nursery.

All the other children in Sky Room are “on a pathway to getting an EHCP”, says Clarke, and are likely to have one “by the time they leave”, giving them a better chance of accessing appropriate provision for Reception and beyond.

And, explains Clarke, because the review cycles and admin involved mean “it’s quite hard for us to get an EHCP through in a year”, they have “worked with the local authority to devise a new way of how the children get EHCPs”, so that the paperwork comes through with enough time for the children to secure a specialist primary place, usually for the year after they start at Sky Room.

Whether there are indeed enough local specialist places - be those in ARPs in mainstream schools, or separate specialist settings - is another question. But Clarke says she and her team are “working with the local authority to think about place-planning and increasing the number of places available”.

Developing independence

Sky Room has six full-time members of staff - a qualified teacher, a senior learning support assistant (LSA) and another four LSAs - giving a ratio of one adult to every two children.

Previously, children with similar needs who had assessment places in the mainstream nursery “had to have a lot of one-to-one, because it’s a big space and we needed to make sure we were keeping the children safe, and supporting their learning and development”, Clarke says.

However, because Sky Room “is a much more structured room; a smaller space” and a “calm, almost serene environment”, with relaxing white walls and minimal displays, the children tend not to need as much one-on-one support, allowing them to develop independence.

“That seems counterintuitive,” Clarke says - you might expect a specialist provision to have more staff - but “the children are more independent because they haven’t got that one-to-one with them the whole time. They’re able to choose some of the pathways. They’ve developed real likes and dislikes”.

An equitable curriculum

For Sky Room, the Comet team has adapted its mainstream curriculum, which itself is based on the statutory guidelines for the EYFS and is made up of eight key goals.

“Inclusion runs through everything,” she adds. “So it’s not about everybody getting the same - it’s about equity. We’ve taken those eight goals and adapted them to meet the needs of the children in Sky Room.”

For example, Comet’s first goal - “settle in and become a confident learner” - exists across the mainstream and specialist provisions, while “to write my name” becomes “make marks in a range of ways” for Sky Room, and “ride a bike or trike” becomes “explore a range of physical equipment”.

The benefit of the ARP being on the site of a mainstream provision is that the children can make the most of the large mainstream classroom and outdoor space.

While all Sky Room children start and end their days in the specialist classroom, each LSA takes two children into the mainstream provision for about 45 minutes a day, allowing them time in a different environment - and to get used to being around children who attend the mainstream nursery.

That scheduling is “really flexible”, Clarke says. “Some children found it difficult to start with, so they only spent 10 minutes there. Other children would thrive there and might spend longer.”

It’s the moving around that can be most challenging, she adds. “For many of our children, transitions are one of the hardest things to do.”

Easing transition

To ease this, staff use objects of reference and transitional songs. The class teacher and LSAs keep a number of small objects in their pockets, which they show the children before they move to a different activity, as well as singing a familiar, corresponding tune.

“If it’s time to go outside, they’ve got a little bit of astroturf in their pockets, which they show, and they’ll sing the song, and the children know where they’re going,” Clarke explains. “And if they see the little wooden house, then it’s home time.”

Alongside the full-time staff team, Sky Room makes use of professionals from Hackney’s multi-disciplinary team - including speech and language therapists, an educational psychologist and a specialist teacher - who visit the provision regularly.

The impact of the provision is obvious to staff, not only in how content the children are, but in how much visible progress they are making, Clark explains.

Now, she hopes to replicate Sky Room’s success and work with the council to open another ARP in the north of the borough, giving more children with SEND access to this essential nursery space.

“I wish there were more provisions like ours,” she says.

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