Please find below the new Hounslow Start for Life poster for you to include on your noticeboards for families.

Below you will find a very useful guide for Early Years practitioners on how to use 50 Things To Do Before You're Five. It's really important that the workforce understand how this resource can support parents and their children's development.

Every Tuesday Feltham Family Hub (TW13 5AF) hosts free play sessions for dads and male carers with their children aged under four years old. Sessions take place from 11.15am to 12.30pm.

Tom and his two children join dad’s play regularly. He says the sessions can offer participants a safe and comfortable place to talk, network and build their parenting confidence.

Read Tom’s story here.  

Additionally, three Hounslow Family Hubs in Lampton (TW3 4JG), Brentford (TW8 0BJ) and Feltham (TW13 5AF) are offering Start for Life programmes and a range of supporting sessions for families with children aged 0-19, or up to 25 years old if they have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Find out more on the Hounslow Family Hubs website.

The Council’s new Children and Young People’s Plan sets out its commitment and ambitions for children and young people aged 0-18 years, and 18-25 years for those with SEND or in care for the next five years.

Shaped by input from over 2,000 young people, the plan reflects on what matters most to them - a greener, healthier, cleaner, safer, liveable, and thriving Hounslow.

It is a rolling plan which will be reviewed and updated annually based on feedback gathered throughout the year to ensure it evolves with changing service demands.

Share your feedback: Children and Young People Plan | Let's Talk Hounslow

Ofsted have launched ‘The Big Listen’ to seek views right across their work, including early years and schools.

This is your opportunity to help Ofsted improve. If your work or children, any decisions, education, or care are affected by Ofsted, then they want to hear from you. The consultation is open until 31 May 2024.

Ofsted Big Listen - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In December 2023 the DfE published an update to the statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children. On 23 February 2024, a further update was published.

Summary of changes:

• Page 26, paragraph 48: amended the wording used to describe lead safeguarding partners.
• Page 42: corrected the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel email address.
• Page 161: updated the glossary definition of 'safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children' to match that on pg. 7 to 8.
• Page 167: linked to the latest version of 'Good practice guidance on working with parents with a learning disability'.

UPDATED Statutory definition of safeguarding (Source: Working Together to Safeguarding Children 2023, pages 7 and 8)

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children - defined for the purposes of this guidance as:

• providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
• preventing impairment of children's mental and physical health or development
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children's Social Care National Framework.

The DfE has launched a consultation for childminders seeking their views on three proposals which aim to address the issues that they have identified as important:

• simplifying the registration process for new childminders 
• ensuring local authorities pay entitlements funding monthly where this is the provider’s preference 
• offering flexibilities to childminder agencies to enable them to thrive and grow.   

The consultation also seeks to gather evidence on a range of other issues that impact childminder recruitment and retention such as property barriers, and support for childminders to remain in the profession. The consultation will be open for 8-weeks running from 9am on 15 March until 11.59pm on 10 May.  

Childminder recruitment and retention consultation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

ISOS Partnership, a research and advisory company has asked that a survey be shared for Early Years providers to complete.

With the government's expanded childcare offer for working families, the proportion of places which will be publicly funded is anticipated to rise to around 80 per cent.  The scale of local authorities' responsibilities will continue to grow as they will need to be responsible for distributing more funds, encouraging parents to take up the offer and ensuring sufficiency of places to meet demand. The purpose of this short and anonymous survey is to take a quick litmus test of views of childcare providers and key stakeholders about the future role of local authorities. This will inform ISOS Partnership's policy development work in this area