Dingley's Promise opens new SEND nursery with BCP Council

The centre, opened by charity Dingley’s Promise in partnership with BCP Council, is located in Moore Avenue in West Howe and is hoping to start taking children at the end of April.

Amy Treglown, Dingley’s Promise centre manager, said it was 'fantastic' to open.

She described the services that will be provided there.

“There’s two strains to it,” Amy said.

“We’ve got the nursery element, where we’re going to have children coming in who can’t access mainstream provision, because there’s not space and their needs are too high, so we’ll put in a lot of work with them to ensure that they can access provision.

“Then we’ll hand that back over to the mainstream and support them in that transition.

“The second strain is our family outreach.

“Our workers will be going out into the community, out into families, setting up stay and play sessions here to invite parents in so that they’ve got a safe space to come and explore, meet the team and familiarise themselves with Dingley’s Promise with what we offer and how we can support their children.”

Early years operations manager for BCP Council, Jeanette Yorke, said the council had been involved with Dingley’s Promise for a number of years through their free SEND training for practitioners.

“Within the Early Years, we went to visit one of their centres and thought that that’s something that would really benefit the families in BCP, supporting those children and families with individual needs,” she said.

“This centre was specifically wanted to be a centre where children can come and stay for a short while, and really support them in finding places in nurseries and then going on into school.”

It is hoped the centre will increase SEND placement capacity across the area, allowing the authority to give the ‘right support at the right time, to meet individual needs’, Jeanette said.

She added: “We’re just hoping that this support can give all those children the best start in life for them.”

Portage service manager for the council, Helen Jones, said the centre would add to the breadth of options available for children for early intervention.

“Through the portage child visiting service we support the parents of children with additional needs with their home learning but also being able to link with Dingley’s Promise centre and the family support workers, just to be able to dovetail in and work in partnership with Dingley’s Promise,” Helen said.

“We’re really excited to be able to offer that extended offer to our children and families in the BCP area.

“So very excited for the future and what that will bring for our children to enhance their learning and development and to support their families.”

Heather Carling is the senior area SEND coordinator for BCP Council.

She said the centre would help support mainstream early providers.

“The children who might come here will then come to the nurseries that we support so we’re working really closely for that really seamless transition to make sure it’s really effective,” she said.

“The opportunities that they have had and having those early experiences of being in a group setting and that can then translate into a mainstream nursery.”

Cathi Hadley, corporate director for Children’s Services at BCP Council, said: “We are delighted to be working with Dingley’s Promise to increase the capacity of placements for young children with SEND needs as well provide needed support to families.

"This excellent provision will provide 20 places for local families and will help children have the best possible start at nursery by providing the specialist support required to meet their individual needs.”

Dingley’s Promise provides tailored nursery support to children under five with SEND, and the Bournemouth centre is its sixth across the south.

For more information, visit its website.