Hounslow Council’s ‘Free Trees for Hounslow’ initiative is live and ready for signup. 750 free fruit trees are being given away, and as with last year, a number of trees are being held back for schools and nurseries.

A member of staff from your school/nursery can apply via the button below, either for an individual tree or for a bundle of three different trees to be planted.

Please note that each setting can only apply once, so please coordinate internally.

There are two dates when you can collect your trees:

• Sunday, 14 January: Boston Manor Park, Brentford
• Sunday, 21 January: Turnham Green, Chiswick

All collection events will run from 10am -1.30pm. Please note that the representative of your setting that comes to collect the tree will need to provide staff I.D.

When you fill in your details on the online form, you’ll be able to choose which event you want to pick up your tree from. Click the link below to read more about the programme and to place your order.

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/free-trees

We all have mental health, just as we have physical health. In the same way that we can be more or less physically healthy from time to time, we can also be more or less mentally healthy from time to time too.

Help for Early Years Providers has added new information and guidance on supporting babies and young children with their mental health.

The guidance:

• explains how practitioners can support positive mental health in early years children
• includes emotional and behavioural support strategies to use in early years settings
• links to further reading and resources

For more guidance on supporting children in the early years, visit the Help for Early Years Providers website.

You received an email on 17 November from Nicola West seeking your ideas on the types of marketing materials you would like for the new childcare expansions. Thank you to those that responded.

In the email, a link was also provided to a toolkit which is full of information and marketing templates to help raise awareness of the new offers, helping you to plan and grow your business.  Please take some time to look at the toolkit which is available here.

Tell us what you think – If you have already found the toolkit useful, we would love to hear from you. For example, what templates are you using and what responses have you had?  Also, if you have adapted any of the templates provided, it would be great to see these if you are happy to share them. Please email them to  nicola.west@hounslow.gov.uk.

In the next few weeks look out for a mailshot that will contain:

• some postcards to give out to families aimed at the new childcare support for working families of a 2 year old from April 2024
• a poster on the existing offers to display for parents and carers
• an A4 information sheet for your staff on the new expanded offers. This is to be displayed in your staff room/staff notice boards and relates to signposting families to where to apply

The University of Oxford, in partnership with the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, is working to share knowledge about the science of brain development for families and professionals. This is important information for everybody to understand how our earliest experiences can affect our long-term mental and physical health.

Please see the link button below for further information.

Following the announcement of the new start-up grant for childminders at the Spring Budget on 15 March 2023, DfE have confirmed that the £600 grant for those who register with Ofsted, and £1,200 for those who register with a childminder agency, will be payable to any individual who has completed their childminder registration on or after 15 March 2023. Applications opened on 30 November for new childminders to apply for the grant.