Spotlight on safeguarding
This month the spotlight on safeguarding focuses on:
Prevention and Early Help
Are all staff, Childminding assistants, students, volunteers aware of Bradford District Safeguarding Children Partnership key messages and documentation to support them to make a referral?
Overview Of Prevention and Early Help | Bradford Families and Young Persons
Continuum of need and risk identification tool
For those staff that have attended Bradford’s Early Education and Childcare Quality Officer's Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) training you will have received information on the Bradford messages, for those that have accessed training from elsewhere you may not. It is really important that staff are familiar with the process for making a referral in Bradford and this is reflected in your safeguarding policy & procedure.
‘Prevention’ and ‘Early Help’ is the way families are supported in Bradford. ‘Prevention’ is about stopping problems and ‘Early Help’ is about preventing problems.
‘Early Help’ is not a specific service. It is a way of ‘thinking’ and ‘working’ through a collaborative approach between services with families. It is about providing support to families (with consent) when a need is identified or as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life. This can be from the point of conception through childhood and into adolescence (0 to 19 yrs. and 24yrs SEND) to prevent or reduce the need for statutory services. These services are provided by the Family Hubs.
Family Hubs are designed to bring services together to work with families to deliver an Integrated Local Offer. Think about any service that families may need, and the Family Hubs are designed to provide information and access to these. This could include a wide range of services ranging from day care and early learning; schools and alternative education; midwifery and health visiting services; mental health support; and advice on parenting; family support; adult learning and employment opportunities.
Bradford East familyhubeast@bradford.gov.uk - 01274 437523
Bradford West familyhubwest@bradford.gov.uk - 01274 436700
Bradford South familyhubsouth@bradford.gov.uk - 01274 434940
Keighley and Shipley keighleyshipley@bradford.gov.uk - 01535 618005
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Ofsted updated the following guidance documents in April:
Deferring Ofsted inspections - Updated to combine deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence policies into a single policy.
Early years and childcare: Ofsted's enforcement policy - Added clarification on the opportunities for providers to discuss and/or provide information on potential equalities duties, including reasonable adjustments for individuals.
Carrying out Childcare Register compliance inspections - Additional wording under ‘Contacting the provider’ around when inspectors will provide the opportunity to discuss reasonable adjustments, amended wording under ‘Pausing an inspection’ for clarification and updated text under ‘After the inspection’ to outline Ofsted’s new complaints process.
Early Years inspection handbook - Clarifications to paragraphs relating to the above amendments.
Complain about Ofsted – new guidance . There are 2 processes to submit a complaint about an inspection, regulatory event or incident based on the date of the event:
- if the event happened before or on 4 April 2024
- if the event happened after 4 April 2024
Please take part in the Big Listen by visiting: www.gov.uk/ofstedbiglisten the closing date for this consultation is 31 May 2024
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Early years leadership national professional qualification
This course is for leaders qualified to at least level 3 with a full and relevant qualification who are, or want to be:
- managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries
- childminders with leadership responsibilities
For further information - Early years leadership national professional qualification
Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners
The Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) has been updated in April 24 to include more clarity on the use of consent and the legal frameworks needed to support the sharing of information. This advice is for individuals who are directly involved in safeguarding children, including frontline practitioners, managers and senior leaders. We recommend updating your policy and procedures where appropriate.
Webinar on measles
On the 4 March, the DfE hosted a webinar on measles, with speakers from the UK Health Security Agency, the NHS and Inspire Education Trust. Watch a recording of the webinar here. You can also see the updated section of the DfE measles blog for schools, nurseries and other education settings to answer some of the questions raised in the webinar.
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Bitesize learning sessions for early years practitioners
Better Start Bradford has teamed up with partner organisations across the district to deliver more virtual live learning sessions, aimed at anyone working, studying or volunteering within early years.
Topics range from an introduction to autism and neurodiversity, infant mental health, and supporting mums with language needs, plus a session from the Better Start Bradford communications team about how to approach your marketing if you're short on time and budget. Sessions start on Thursday 8 May through to Thursday 10 July, all starting at 10.00am. They’re free to attend and all take place online.
Find out more and bookings here
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) have published advice regarding raw flour
The advice contains examples of products that contain raw flour and instruction on how to heat-treat flour to mitigate these risks in baking and crafts, for example home made playdough, along with general hygiene advice to support avoiding cross-contamination.
This advice is aimed particularly at consumers with compromised immune systems and children under 5 years of age, as they may be at more risk of foodborne illness.
Read more: Raw flour | Food Standards Agency
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Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) launches new research trials of promising programmes for Early Years settings
Early Years settings can use the EEF’s search function to find out which projects are available in them and register their interest. All settings who sign up to take part in one of these projects will make a valuable contribution to the education evidence base.
Find out more about accessing evidence informed trials and programmes in their latest leaflet Take part in an EEF-funded project.
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Keep yourself well informed
There are lots of sources for information guidance and support available online. This is not an exhaustive list and please note we are not endorsing any specific organisations.
Tiny Happy People is a BBC website full of advice and activities that is useful for early years practitioners, both for use in settings and for sharing with parents and colleagues. They cover a range of topics linked to children's development from 0-4. Resources and activity ideas for EYFS practitioners
Child Accident Prevention Trust - For child safety week in June, you can discover further ways to reduce the risks and keep children safe with Free resources on poisoning prevention | Child Accident Prevention (capt.org.uk) Also available is Dogs and Children | Top tips to keep them safe and happy together (capt.org.uk)
Famly - You can visit Famly's blog, for discussions of communication, inclusion, and developmental matters (lin add).
Teach Early Years explains how practitioners' observations can be used to support professionals involved in the diagnosis and assessment process in this article.
The National College has a selection of free resources for early years settings including short videos on topics such as “When to apply for an EHCP” and “Top tips for supporting children with SEND.” You can find more information here: National College Library - top tips
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