The new version of the EYFS statutory framework came into force on 4 September 2023. All revisions made to the EYFS are statutory and must be implemented into practice. This will result in changes to daily practice, policies, and procedures. Therefore, it is imperative that you understand the revisions made to the framework and what it means for you in your practice.
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Ratios
The first and most significant update to come of the 2023 revised EYFS surrounds the staff:child ratio for two-year olds. The revised framework has confirmed that the statutory minimum staff to child ratio for Early Years providers (other than childminders):
- there must be at least one member of staff for every five children
- at least one member of staff must hold an approved level 3 qualification
- at least half of all other staff must hold an approved level 2 qualification
Childminder ratios
The second key update brings clarity on how many children childminders can care for, adding flexibility around caring for their own children and the siblings of other children they already care for. Currently, childminder ratios state that each adult can care for a maximum of six children under the age of eight years old, with a maximum of three children under the age of five, with no more than one child being under the age of one. A child is a young child up until 1st September following his or her fifth birthday.
The childminder: child ratio can have exceptions including:
- when childminders are caring for siblings, or
- when caring for their own child, or
- to maintain continuity of care, or
- if children aged three to five only attend the childminding setting before and/or after a normal school day, and/or during school holidays, they may be cared for at the same time as three other young children.
However, the revision comes with a stipulation that a childminder needs to be able to demonstrate to parents/carers and Ofsted inspectors that the use of the increased ratio does not have a detrimental impact upon the individual needs of the children within their care. This stipulation can be open to interpretation, and caution needs to be given to the changing needs of children and how ratios should be adapted on a needs-basis at any given time.
'Adequate supervision' while children are eating
The third change clarifies that 'adequate supervision' while children are eating means that children must be within sight and hearing of an adult.
The EYFS Statutory Framework can be found here:
Statutory guidance Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework
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3 reasons to join Confident Communicators in 2023-24
1. Community
Be part of a growing community dedicated to improving communication friendly practices in Early Years. Included in both packages are the opportunities to enhance practice by accessing networks, Derbyshire Toy Library, and live virtual guest speakers:
Fiona Holiday - Play and Creative Therapist, spoke at the June communication and language practice event, The power of play: play for connecting and healing. Fiona said…” When life is hard and we get really scared, we lose our ability to communicate, and we lose our words …. PLAY creates that sense of safety in which it is possible for us to reconnect to our words. Play and storytelling is about getting that back, it is finding out how to language what has happened for us. One of the key things to understand is that if we can imagine the other, imagine the world in a different way, then this sense of possibility means that we can imagine life being different. We can invent new things. If we give the gift of imagination to children in play, it will enable their futures to be different to their past.” The initial impact? The most common action by practitioners was to identify the essential role of adults to voice the children’s stories through valuing play and story-times in a more purposeful way.
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News Flash! Dr. Julie Fisher will be the live virtual guest on 28th and 30th November 2023
Tickets available:
Interaction or Interfering - what does a quality interaction feel like? Tue 28 Nov 1pm – 2.30pm | Eventbrite
Interaction or Interfering - what does a quality interaction feel like? Thu 30 Nov 6pm | Eventbrite
or for schools, via S4S: Interaction or Interfering - what does a quality interaction feel like? Tue 28 Nov 1pm - 2.30pm (Eventbrite Event) | Derbyshire Services for Schools
2. Sharing and Support
Sequential staff development opportunities with leadership support from Early Years Improvement Officers, access to staff-staff cascade, and monitoring resources.
3. Fine tuning
Add to current ‘toolbox’ for communication and language interventions, in-provision support and working with parents.
For more details please view the information page Confident Communicators and Readers | Derbyshire Services for Schools or email Ruth ruth.crofts@derbyshire.gov.uk
 Being physically active has countless benefits, it maintains health and weight, develops muscles and bones, encourages movement and coordination, improves sleep, builds relationships and social skills, and contributes to brain development and learning (Physical Activity Guidelines for the Early Years).
Movement skill development in early childhood is also a significant predictor of achievement in reading and mathematics in primary school. So, the more a child moves the more the brain is stimulated and the more they will learn!
To ensure children are physically ready, eager and able to learn, Derbyshire Early Years Service offers several opportunities to support EYFS providers in meeting children’s physical development through the ‘Every Child a Mover’ (ECaM) programme. The programme consists of a number of elements and complimentary support tools, including a variety of training courses and the ECaM Assessment Tool (which helps to give a more detailed assessment of a child's needs).
Introductory and follow-on training sessions (An Introduction to ECaM & Movement: How it develops) are available to guide you through the use and implementation of the ECaM Assessment Tool documents and the ECaM Package. ECaM documents are available to download from the Prime areas of learning page on Schoolsnet.
If you would like to get to know and understand children’s movements better and improve outcomes for children then please contact Derbyshire Early Years Service on CS.EYS@derbyshire.gov.uk.
If you see a bear out in Derbyshire today, it will not be a big surprise!
The Early Years Relationship Aware Programme helps schools and settings ensure children feel safe, secure, happy and ready to learn. Building on the Derbyshire 'Teddy Bear Project', it has a focus on attachment-led practice and parental engagement through the use of a transitional object.
Thanks to a Public Health grant, Derbyshire Early Years Service was able to introduce the Relationship Aware Programme in Autumn 2021 free of charge. The programme is organised in community clusters supporting schools and private early years providers to come together and further enhance transition arrangements to benefit children and families in their local community.
So far we’ve had 20 clusters involved in the programme consisting of 34 schools, 40 private day nurseries and preschools, and 9 childminders from all parts of Derbyshire. Our next and possibly final round of the programme based on current funding will be starting this autumn – applications are now open.
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“Our long-term vision is to create happy and healthy learners. We need to work in partnership with parents in order to achieve this.”
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We were delighted to be accepted on the Relationship Aware scheme. As the lead setting for the Cluster we were able to form greater links with our feeder settings to support the transition of our children. We already had strong links with the pre-school in our village but the scheme allowed us to create greater links with the many other settings that we receive children from. Prior to COVID we have always visited the settings of the children who are starting with us but the scheme allowed for this to have a greater impact.
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Our existing class bear is Aston Bear and he enlisted lots of his friends to become personal bears for each child to have a transitional toy. The class teacher delivered each bear personally to each child in a pack that contained information for the parents, a book and some activities to do with their bear. Our Bears were purchased from a local small business as we felt we wanted to support a local business rather than a large impersonal one.
The children were invited along to ‘Aston Bear club’ one afternoon in June and they attended with their bear and adult/s. During the session they were able to undertake activities available in school, make something for their bear to take home, meet other children and adults and sample some of the amazing food made in our kitchen. This session also allowed any parents to voice any concerns they had.
Once the term started the bears started school with each child but very soon many were left at home or stayed in bags in class. Aston Bear likes children to make journals of their adventures and each child has begun (when selected) to make a journal of their adventures at the weekend.
(Personalised bears with the school logo.)
This cohort has settled really well and we really feel that the transition programme we followed has helped them to settle so well. As our current Year 1 pupils have struggled with their transition, we have already put plans in place to ensure that the current Reception cohort has a smoother, more supported transition at the end of this year.
We look forward to working with the transition scheme again next year.
Angie Donaldson, Aston-on-Trent Primary School
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We are thrilled to be holding an Early Years face-to-face event this term to showcase great practice taking place in Derbyshire.
Friday 10th November
Casa hotel, Chesterfield
9.30am - 4.00pm
The celebration will include workshops run by internationally renowned experts, Derbyshire case studies, lunch and an opportunity to chat with the experts, our team and amazing early years professionals like you 😊.
Special guests include:
Alice Sharp (Adventures with Alice)
Anne O’Connor (consultant, writer, trainer)
Ben Kingston Hughes (Inspired Children, author, award-winning trainer)
Dr Karen Young (Hey Sigmund, author, psychologist)
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This event is suitable for people working across the 0–5-year age range, who want to come meet in-person, illuminate your practice of the 3 prime areas, and challenge assumptions.
This event is now sold out - we look forward to seeing those of you that have booked on.
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One of the great ways to look after your own well-being is to engage with nature:
How often do you take time to?
- Notice what is growing
- Listen to the birds singing
- Go for a short walk. What can you see, hear, smell?
- Take a photo of something beautiful and share it
- Watch the breeze in the trees
- Wonder at a spider’s web
Moments matter more than minutes
How connecting with nature benefits our mental health
Further support and advice are available from Derbyshire County Council via the links below:
Talking about mental health – Derbyshire.gov.uk
Derbyshire mental health support line tel: 0800 028 0077. Mental health support line for Derbyshire people of all ages. Open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
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Good sleep is important for our health and wellbeing. It has a direct impact upon our happiness, our mood, our learning and development.
Meeting the Statutory Framework Guidance for sleep
Safe Sleep has also been raised by Ofsted at several recent Ofsted inspections, especially around children sleeping in buggies and pushchairs, etc.
How do you know you meet the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework safeguarding and welfare requirements especially in relation to safe sleep?
Why not take a look at the ‘Meeting the EYFS safeguarding and welfare requirements support materials’ on Schoolsnet: EYFS statutory framework (derbyshire.gov.uk) where Document P: ‘Premises’ contains information, links and questions to reflect on sleeping practice.
You may also find it useful to have a look at the product guide available on ‘The Lullaby Trust’ website which offers advice on safe sleep products How to choose baby sleeping products: our evidence-based advice – The Lullaby Trust.
Images courtesy of The Lullaby Trust
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The Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (DDSCP) Website provides a wealth of information for the public, children, young people, parents, carers, and professionals, to improve local safeguarding arrangements and hold each other to account as to how they are keeping children safe.
The website has links for staff and volunteers, parents and carers, children and young people as well as online training opportunities, serious case reviews and links to polices and procedure.
https://www.ddscp.org.uk/
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A message from the Department for Education
Measles can be very serious and spreads easily. Children and adults who contract measles can end up in hospital or suffer long term health consequences. In rare cases, it can be fatal.
Measles is completely preventable with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first dose is offered to children at 1 year of age and the second dose at 3 years and 4 months. Measles outbreaks happen when not enough children have been vaccinated and can be very disruptive in educational settings.
We are grateful for the support of early years settings, encouraging families to take up the vaccine.
Schools are also encouraged to remind parents to check that their children’s vaccines are up to date. You can catch up on your MMR vaccine through your GP whatever your age.
Information resources (including in different languages) are available to download and share, including:
NEW course:
From Tiny to 2 – High Quality Provision for Babies
Thu 9 Nov & Thu 23 Nov 6.30pm – 8.00pm (both sessions must be attended)
Explore amazing baby brain development and how an understanding of recent neuroscience can better support high quality practice when working
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On Eventbrite
Working in the EYFS - basic principles of supporting young children Mon 13 Nov 6.30pm – 8.45pm
Get Ready, Get Set, Write! 3 and 4 year olds Wed 15 Nov, Wed 22 Nov, Wed 29 Nov 6.30pm – 7.45pm (all 3 sessions must be attended)
A FREE briefing on ‘Universally Speaking 0-5 years’ Tue 21 Nov 9.30am – 10.30am
Interaction or Interfering - what does a quality interaction feel like? Tue 28 Nov 1pm – 2.30pm or Thu 30 Nov 6pm – 7.30pm
On S4S
Assessment in the Reception Year Wed 8 Nov, Wed 17 Jan, Wed 17 Apr, Wed 5 Jun 1.15pm – 2.30pm (all sessions must be attended)
Get Ready, Get Set, Write! 4-5 year olds-Reception Wed 15 Nov, Wed 22 Nov & Wed 29 Nov 1.15pm – 2.30pm (all sessions must be attended)
Interaction or Interfering - what does a quality interaction feel like? Tue 28 Nov 1pm – 2.30pm
Introduction to the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Wed 6 Dec 1.15pm - 2.45pm
The courses above and others can be delivered bespoke for your team or cluster - please email us with your training needs for more information:
CS.EYS@derbyshire.gov.uk
Details of other courses can be found on Eventbrite or S4S.
Derbyshire Early Years on Eventbrite
'Follow us' to be the first to hear when courses become available to book.
Derbyshire S4S Early Years Improvement Service
Derbyshire S4S/Training (Filter using 'Early Years' as the key word)
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Come join the first Derbyshire Early Years Designated Teacher Network Meeting. This will be an on-line event on 13 Nov 2023 1.00pm – 3.30pm.
To find out more and register a place please email virtual.school@derbyshire.gov.uk
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'Enabling potential and celebrating success; together we help children learn.'
The EYSEN Panel referral form has been updated to make it more straightforward for you to evidence your graduated response at a targeted level to meet children’s needs. Please go to the Derbyshire Local Offer website to access the form: Early Years SEN Panel - Derbyshire Local Offer. It will have the date September 2023 at the bottom. If your computer brings up a cached copy of an old form, press ‘control and F5’ and the form will refresh to the new one. There is an example there as well to help.
The SEND team will no longer be monitoring the SEN Central Admin email address which referral forms are sent into. Please bear with us while we set up a new email inbox to receive and process the forms. If you send the form to the SEN Central Admin email address you get an automated response which will give you the email address to use instead in the meantime.
Early Years Inclusion Funding (EYIF) applications
These are now online applications from September. All the links are on the Local Offer: Early Years SEN Inclusion Fund - Derbyshire Local Offer. Register for an account and then access the form and complete and submit it online. Guidance notes were also sent out and they are available on the Local Offer website on the Early Years SEN Inclusion Funding page.
Evaluations still should be completed on the forms on the Local Offer page and emailed in to this NEW EYIF email address: CS.EYSENInclusionFunding@derbyshire.gov.uk
Book your training!
EYSEN training for Autumn 2023
Makaton taster: Thu 19 Oct 10.00am – 12.00 noon
Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) training: SEMH – Becoming curious, calm and competent practitioners in response to complex behaviour, Thu 23 Nov 1.00pm - 4.00pm
Sensory Processing Needs: Reducing Sensory processing barriers to learning, Thu 9 and 16 Nov 1.30pm – 4.30pm (both sessions must be attended)
ASD: Including children with ASD in Early years settings, Tue 28 Nov 9.30am – 12.30pm
SENCO training: Tue 5 Dec and Thu 7 Dec, 1.30pm – 4.30pm (both sessions must be attended)
All these courses will be available to book on Eventbrite and S4S – visit Derbyshire EYSEN Service courses on Eventbrite and click follow to get notifications when they add new courses.
New!! FREE Drop in clinics
- First ones were for Celebratory Checkpoints and took place on:
- Mon 23 October 3.00pm - 4.00pm, Thu 26 Oct 4.00pm - 5.00pm
- A drop-in session specifically addressing questions, queries and thoughts on how to use, what to do and when to use the Celebratory Checkpoints.
- Book on via Eventbrite
Book through Eventbrite Derbyshire EYSEN Service courses on Eventbrite or on Derbyshire S4S Early Years SEN.
To be first to hear about EYSEN Service training and events go to Derbyshire EYSEN Service training and events | Eventbrite, log in on Eventbrite and click 'Follow'. You'll then receive an email notification each time a new event or training is added.
Level 3 Early Years SENCO award
This is free to access and our team are one of the delivery partners with Best Practice Network. Each setting can apply for one free place for their SENCO – follow this link for more information:
Early Years SENCO - Level 3 | Best Practice Network
We want to make sure that all Early Years settings are aware of the Local Offer website and all the information on it. It is a great resource for you all and for your parents and families.
We would be really grateful if you could publish a link to Local Offer website on your setting website or Facebook page to help raise awareness amongst families who have children with SEN:
Home - Derbyshire Local Offer
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We are pleased to introduce the new Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Early Years Stronger Practice Hub, led by Alfreton Nursery School.
They are one of 18 Hubs who have been designated nationally by DFE to support early years settings (schools, PVI and childminders) to improve outcomes for the children most affected by Covid-19. They will particularly look at:
- personal social and emotional development
- communication and language
- early literacy and maths
- SEND & behaviour
The Early Years Stronger Practice Hub offers:
- Free training, webinars & networks
- Clear information & research on best practice
- Access to specialists, 1-1 support, visits to EY settings
- Signposting to DFE programmes, funds & opportunities
Click here for more information about the launch and to join their mailing list.
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Early Years Stronger Practice Hub - Autumn 2023 Newsletter
- a message from Derbyshire Library Service
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Did you know that you are eligible for a library card for your setting to borrow books from your local library to use and share with the children in your setting?
The library card entitles you to borrow 24 books at a time for 6 weeks. We have a great range of picture books and board books with regular deliveries of new titles.
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Our services are free of charge and available to all nursery and pre-school settings in Derbyshire. Please contact your local library or email ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk for more information.
You would also be welcome to bring groups of children for a library visit to your local library. Just give the library a call or enquire through ask.library@derbyshire.gov.uk to arrange a time and date.
We also run regular rhyme times and story times in most libraries, where you will be welcome to bring small groups along. Again, contact the library for details.
You will be aware that there are currently several Government offers to help parents with the cost of childcare such as 2-year-old funding, 30 hours for 3- & 4-year-olds, support for those on Universal Credit or Tax credits and the Tax-Free Childcare scheme.
Following the announcement of the Spring Budget 2023, the financial support that is available to parents to help with the cost of childcare is increasing. The new plan will extend the 30 hours scheme to eligible families with children from 9 months up to 2 years old. This will mean from Sept 2025; all eligible households will be entitled to 30 hours of funded childcare for children aged 9 months until they start school.
The current 15 hours of funding for eligible 2-year-olds and up to 30 hours for eligible 3 and 4-year-olds will remain. The expanded offers will be introduced gradually in the following stages:
Stage 1 - From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours childcare support.
Stage 2 - From September 2024, 15 hours of childcare funding will be extended to eligible working parents of children from the age of 9 months to 3-year-olds.
Stage 3 - From September 2025, eligible working parents of children form 9 months to school age will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare a week.
Like the existing offer, these hours can be used during school term time over 38 weeks of the year, or depending on your provider's delivery model, they may be used up to 52 weeks (stretched offer) if fewer hours are accessed per week.
Eligibility
The eligibility criteria for this new cohort of families is the same as the current offer for 3-and-4-year-olds.
The entitlements will continue to work on a termly basis. Therefore, children of eligible working parents will be able to receive the entitlement from the beginning of each term after they reach the relevant age.
Derbyshire’s Families Information Service (FIS) provides free, impartial information and guidance for parents, carers, practitioners, children, and young people on a wide range of services, activities, and events available in Derbyshire.
You can contact FIS via:
Follow us on Facebook
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Early Years Service general enquiries: CS.EYS@derbyshire.gov.uk
Funding & contract queries: cs.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk
OR cs.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk
OR cs.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk
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