Welcome to August 2025 Newsfeed for the Early Years and Childcare Sector

The Early Years and Childcare Sector Newsfeed for August 2025

Welcome to the Early Education and Childcare Quality Officer (EECQO) team's Newsfeed. At the end of every month, the team share key information, and important updates collated during the month which they hope you find useful in your setting.

This month the spotlight on safeguarding focuses on:

Sharing information

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidance on data protection as part of the safeguarding process

This is a 10-step guide on data protection considerations when sharing personal information for child safeguarding purposes. It aims to help you feel confident about sharing information when you need to safeguard a child or young person at risk of harm.

Data protection law allows you to share information when required to identify children at risk of harm and to safeguard them from harm. Data protection law doesn’t prevent you from doing this. It simply helps you to share information in a fair, proportionate and lawful way.

It can be more harmful not to share information that is needed to protect a child or young person.

Appropriate information sharing is central to effectively safeguarding children from harm and promoting their wellbeing. There have been many reviews of cases where children have died or been seriously harmed through abuse or neglect. The case reviews frequently identify gaps in information sharing as a factor contributing to failures to protect the children involved.

Additionally consider:Safer Bradford - Information Sharing and view the Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners

Online safety

The NSPCC has designed a series of webinars in partnership with Vodafone covering the potential harms children and young people face online. Starting in September, the eight-part series will provide an overview of online safety for children, focusing on key topics such as: navigating social media; online grooming; online scams; and managing digital footprints. This training is aimed at schools but should be useful for settings providing out of school childcare too Sign up for the free webinars: Online safety webinars

A science Activity - Borax Crystals – Want to have a go at growing borax crystals with the children? Follow this DIY borax crystals recipe to explore supersaturation and crystallization and see the aww and wonder on the children’s faces.

Newsletters

Are you signed up to receive different newsletters and do you share the information with your practitioners and families?

Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) - sign up to this newsletter and join the Bradford Local Offer Facebook page.

Family Hubs and Start For Life - sign up to this newsletter here. Please spread the word to families in your setting.

DfE updates

Ch ildcare choices/provider-guidance-and-resources Sign up for the latest announcements, guidance, and news from the Department for Education on early years education reforms and childcare expansion.

New Disability Guidance and Training for Early Years Providers the Council for Disabled Children has published guidance and tr aining to help early years practitioners, governors and trustees understand their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 in relation to disabled children.  

Early years leadership national professional qualification - GOV.UK a course to help current or aspiring managers of nurseries develop expertise in leading early years education and staff and organisational management.

Recruitment Support Available the Do Something Big campaign offers free recruitment support. The campaign's current advertising wave runs until 14 September 2025 and there’s now new content specifically encouraging men to consider early years roles.

Advertising Your Vacancies the campaign website also directs thousands of potential applicants every month to ‘Find A Job’, where you can advertise vacancies at no cost. Video tutorials are available to assist with job postings.

Dingley’s Promise has worked with the Department for Education to develop Assessment Guidance for early years educators. This guidance promotes a child-centred, strengths-based approach to assessing needs. Help for early years providers : Setting targets and long-term goals explore more inclusive resources at Dingley’s Promise

The launch of a new animated series, Activate, co-created by fitness coach, Joe Wicks MBE, and Studio AKA, the team behind ‘Hey Duggee’, is backed by the government as part of a new partnership to reach schools and families across the country. The Body Coach YouTube channel

Allergy and anaphylaxis news for the first time in the UK, a needle-free adrenaline nasal spray has been approved to treat anaphylaxis a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction. Read more here: MHRA approves adrenaline nasal spray - the first needle-free emergency treatment for anaphylaxis in the UK - GOV.UK

Allergy School, created by Natasha’s Foundation is now officially endorsed by the Department for Education (DfE) government endorsement means Allergy School is recognised as a trusted, credible, and vital educational resource that schools across the country can rely on.

Free Toilet Training Posters and Handouts for Early Years Settings and Parents these downloadable posters and handouts aim to help parents with toilet training and help educators prepare children for using the toilet when they get to school.

Protecting against measles in early years settings - the MMR vaccine is the safest and most effective way to protect children and staff against measles, mumps and rubella. You can help by encouraging parents and carers to take up the offer of vaccines for their children when they are due. Where there are suspected cases of measles in education settings, you should notify your local health protection team (HPT).

Guidance for education settings is available here: Health protection in children and young people settings, including education - GOV.UK

For more information on measles and vaccines you can visit this blog What is measles?

Measles - Google Drive toolkit contains materials and resources settings may wish to share with parents or carers:

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:

NSPCC Learning has published a CASPAR briefing summarising the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) updated Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework for England. Read here: Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework 2025: summary of requirements

Supporting Providers to have Courageous Conversations in Early Childhood Education are essential for maintaining a healthy and transparent environment in childcare settings. Childcare Works - supporting providers to have courageous conversations this recording discusses how providers can conduct difficult discussions openly and constructively.

Free early years well being activities for children aged 3-5 years old Download the free early years activity cards today and enhance your approach to social-emotional learning.Partnership for children - free wellbeing activities

Early Education offers a range of publications, journals and resources delivered by early years experts - This blog, by Cathy Gunning, provides pointers for healthy settling and highlights key questions to ask as the key person.