Dingley's Promise

Who we are

Dingley’s Promise is the largest provider of specialist early years provision in the UK, and are now known as the voice of children with SEND and their families in the early years. With over 40 years of experience, we operate 9 Ofsted-registered Early Years Specialist SEND nurseries, offering hands-on expertise in supporting children with SEND. As a result of our targeted early interventions, on average 70% of children successfully transition into mainstream education. We support local settings to improve their inclusive practice as well as supporting local authorities to drive early years inclusion in their areas. In addition to our direct interventions, we are increasingly creating tools and resources for the whole sector that enable wider inclusion.

In 2024 we developed the Early Years Assessment Guidance for the Department for Education. This evidence-based framework offers a standardised approach to early SEND identification, helping educators give children timely, targeted support. Over 1,000 professionals have already used the guidance, and early feedback indicates a significant improvement in early intervention and support.

In 2025, Ofsted praised Dingley’s Promise for its “ambitious curriculum, collaboratively planned by leaders and staff and enriched with sensory experiences to meet each child’s developmental needs”. We continue to support Ofsted to ensure their work drives inclusion of children with SEND.

We are the key delivery partner on the DfE-funded Childcare Works programme providing resources and guidance on working inclusively. This includes practical papers and videos for both leaders and educators in settings, and papers for local authorities to help them build early years inclusion at a strategic level. We are also a partner in the DfE-funded Early Years SEND Partnership Programme providing training and guidance to local authorities.

We are active in a range of coalitions and advisory groups in the charity, academic and public sectors, and are driving systemic change through these partnerships, and through direct advice to the Government.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Dingley’s Promise is passionate about inclusion - not just for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in the Early Years – but for all kinds of people who differ in age, race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and disability.

In our society, many groups of people experience discrimination and we believe it is our responsibility to stand with them. We are committed to making sure they feel equally safe and welcomed as staff, volunteers, Trustees, advisors and service users.

We will continue to review our staff and family surveys to capture data on equity, diversity and inclusion, review our website and materials to ensure they represent diverse groups, undertake staff training, and establish targets on equity, diversity and inclusion for the organisation. At a leadership level we have actively worked to increase diversity on our Board, and our Trustee Marwa Farouk is an EDI specialist who is working to ensure we have EDI practice at our core. Our CEO is part of a group of charity CEOs coming together on a year long programme to improve anti racist practice in the sector, and on our Advisory Board we are proud to have Liz Pemberton who is an active trainer and influencer around anti racism in the early years.

If you would like to know more about this, please see our website where you will find our EDI Action Plan and our Diversity Statement.