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Your childcare rights: Wales

All children have the right to attend childcare and to have their needs met. This includes children with all types and levels of deafness. Understanding your legal rights can help you make sure that your child gets the support they need.

Knowing your rights and being able to voice them when you need to can be very empowering for you as a parent and can give you confidence that you're doing everything you can for your deaf child.

On this page

Equality Act 2010 

The Equality Act 2010 provides disabled children with a number of rights and protections. The Act protects those who have a ‘protected characteristic’ which includes those who meet the legal definition of disability. All permanently deaf children, and those with temporary deafness that is expected to last for a least a year, are protected by the Equality Act. In some circumstances, glue ear that returns or continues may meet the definition. 

The Equality Act 2010 means that public bodies, including local authorities and childcare providers: 

  • must make reasonable adjustments 
  • must promote equality of opportunity for disabled children  
  • can’t discriminate against your child, for example, a childcare provider can’t refuse to accept your child simply because they’re deaf. They also can’t treat your child less favourably than other children by, for example, not allowing them to do certain activities that other children can do. 

Reasonable adjustments 

If your child is disadvantaged by something within an education or childcare setting, which could be physical, a policy, a practise or a criteria, this is called discrimination. Once the setting is aware of your child’s hearing loss or deafness, they have a duty to consider all potential reasonable adjustments and make the adjustments they can to make sure your child is not disadvantaged. These may be simple or inexpensive things that a setting can do or changes they can make to help your child access learning and stay safe in a childcare setting. The provider must cover the cost of any adjustments and cannot ask you to pay. 

Reasonable adjustments can include: 

  • staff receiving training on how to use a radio aid 
  • staff completing deaf awareness training 
  • moving the reading corner to an area with good acoustics and lighting 
  • a quiet room or space for your child and a friend to play if needed 
  • adding soft pads or covers to table and chair legs to avoid scraping sounds 
  • adding curtains or soft fabrics and cushions to very open areas to reduce sound reverberation  
  • whole setting training around deaf awareness and early communication for deaf children 
  • using provided ‘auxiliary aids’, including radio aids. 

Most reasonable adjustments cost little or nothing and are relatively easy to put in place. You have an important role to play in letting the childcare facility know:  

  • what your child’s needs are 
  • any disadvantages they face 
  • steps they can take to support your child  
  • suggestions about what would help. 

If your child has a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD), you can ask them for some recommendations of reasonable adjustments that may help your child. 

What is reasonable will depend on the facility’s size and financial resources. It may be easier for a local authority or a large nursery to make a reasonable adjustment than it is for a small childminder.  

Additional learning needs (ALN) 

The Additional Learning Needs and Educational Tribunal (Wales) Act aims to make sure that children with additional learning needs (ALN) can achieve the best possible outcomes. 

Your child has ALN if they have a learning difficulty or disability that makes it harder for them to learn if they are not given extra support that is not normally given to other learners their age. There is guidance to suggest that deafness can be considered ALN in Welsh Government guidance on the new ALN system. Most, but not all, deaf children may be viewed as having ALN and be eligible for a support plan or an Individual Development Plan (IDP). 

If your baby or child has been identified as deaf, you can contact your local authority (council) and ask to speak to the Early Years Additional Learning Needs Lead Officer (EYALNLO). The EYALNLO is your local authority’s key contact for ALN in early years and can talk to you about your child’s development and learning needs. 

You can get support whether your child is looked after at home, goes to nursery, spends time with a childminder or uses any other kind of early years education or childcare. If you feel that having a plan stating your child’s needs, and how these will be supported, would help your child you can request a support plan. 

All nurseries, playgroups, pre-schools and registered childminders that are funded by the local authority must follow the laws set out in the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act. They must also follow guidance called the Additional Learning Needs Code. 

Childcare legislation and guidance

Local authorities must make sure there’s enough or ‘sufficient’ childcare in the area for parents of disabled children under the Child Minding and Day Care (Wales) Regulations 2010. Government guidance says that local authorities should produce a report on how they’re making sure there’s enough childcare to meet the needs of disabled children. This should be available on your local authority website, or you can ask them to send you a copy. 

Local authorities must provide information to parents about childcare available in the area. This information is on the Early Years Wales website. You can also find registered childminders with the Care Inspectorate Wales (childcare.co.uk). 

Medical conditions 

Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders must take steps to ensure children with medical conditions get support to meet their medical needs. If your child has glue ear or another form of temporary hearing loss, this can be regarded as a medical condition. 

Read the guidance on Supporting learners with healthcare needs. This guidance requires schools and early years settings to make sure that: 

  • children with medical conditions are supported so that they have full access to education, including to physical education and school trips 
  • staff receive appropriate training 
  • there is someone in charge of how the setting supports children with medical conditions 
  • they have a policy that sets out how they will support children with medical conditions (this should be readily available). 

Funding 

You may be entitled to help with the costs of childcare. You can find information about the different ways you can get help to fund childcare. There is also an easy read version of this information. 

This includes the:  

Contact your local Family Information Service (FIS) to find out if you’re eligible for funding for childcare. 

Making a complaint 

If you have any concerns, try discussing it with the manager of the childcare facility. In most cases, you should be able to resolve any problems with them directly. If you do need to escalate matters, depending on the type of childcare, they may have a complaints policy. If you do make a complaint, keep a copy of your communication with them and a note of conversations for your records.  

If this doesn’t address your concern or your concern is urgent, you can contact Estyn directly. If you’re using a registered childminder, contact the childminder agency directly. You can also get free and independent advice from your local Information, Advice and Support Service (SNAP Cymru). 

If your complaint is about the range of childcare services available in your area, you can complain to your local authority. Your local authority website should have information about how you can do this. 

Contact, Every Disabled Child Matters, Family and Childcare Trust and Irwin Mitchell Solicitors have published the Childcare for Families with Disabled Children: How to access free childcare for two to four-year-olds guide. Use the template letters in the guide to challenge a childcare provider or a local authority that is refusing to provide support.