The idea for the Nursery Inclusion Project for All (NIPA) was born in 2017 out of what the founding headteacher called ‘a passion, slight frustration and a commitment to provide an early years inclusive education for all children.’ It sought to address the gap in access to expert support for inclusion for early years settings, and sought to improve outcomes for children, parents and carers and early years settings. NIPA works by pooling resources and using these to provide a combined multi-disciplinary offer to settings, which includes access to speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, educational psychology, and support for parents.
The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework considers that the “strength of evidence” of this case study is promising – the project has been evaluated internally, but sustained and scaled up since its inception in 2019. The “breadth of impact” of this case study is good – there is evidence of improved lived experiences for parents and carers, positive feedback from practitioners, and evidence of improved outcomes for children (including the transition to school).1
[1]The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework uses two “signal strength” indicators to present the strength of evidence and the breadth of impact of a case study. Each indicator has four bars – emerging, promising, good and robust. The “strength of evidence” indicator is based on how the project has been evaluated and the length of time it has been sustained. The “breadth of impact” indicator is based on whether the case study can demonstrate impact in four broad areas – the more areas of impact, the higher the signal strength indicator.