Early Years Bulletin 12.11.2018

12 November 2018

Are you interested in becoming a pre-school moderator?

Following on from our successful re-introduction of the pre-school moderation programme, we are now looking to recruit some new pre-school moderators.

If you meet the following criteria and are interested, please send an expression of interest (stating how you meet the criteria) to eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk by 5.00pm on Monday 19 November 2018.

We are looking for the following practitioners:

You must be a pre-school lead practitioner or manager with recent experience of working in a pre-school room
Your setting must be currently judged as good or outstanding by Ofsted.

We will be selecting one moderator from each of the following groups:

Full day-care settings
Sessional pre-schools
Nursery classes based in schools.

Your expression of interest MUST detail:

How moderation is already embedded within your setting
How you have influenced practice in your pre-school room and the impact this has had on learning
If you have had any experience of moderating with other settings or schools
That your setting manager/owner agrees to release you for moderation training and moderation visits. This is a fully supported CPD opportunity to join the early years team as part of the pre-school moderation programme. Your owner/manager should agree to release you and support your decision to apply for the role of pre-school moderator. You are likely to require 1.5 days of release time (1/2 day for training in March 2019 and 1 day for moderation visits or follow up work in May 2019).

We will shortlist the expressions of interest and notify you via email as to whether you will move to the next stage of an interview.

The interview process will take place in January - February 2019. The existing early years team moderators will visit your setting to observe practice in the pre-school room and ask the lead practitioner to share a child's learning journey, summative assessment and talk through the developmental stages the child is working within.

If you have any questions regarding the pre-school moderation recruitment or programme, please email eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Update your Information!

We have launched an online tool for finding childcare which includes details of all providers across the city. You need to log in and update your own details (and childminders need to choose which pieces of information are added to the online system through this route. Click here to set up an account or to log in and check/update your information. We recommend you do this at least termly. More details will be added to the tool over the next few months and we plan to capture data more regularly on childcare places/vacancies, fees etc. to inform our statutory sufficiency audit. Any problems with the system, please email eydelivery@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Conference booking

From Monday 19 November you will be able to book your place on the Early Years Conference, along with your workshop choices on the Service Network website.

Package 3 and 4 members - If you would like to choose the onsite contact option as your freebie as part of your package, please email eyworkforce@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

The conference price is £72 per place for additional members and £90 per place for non-members.

Re-usable cups for training

To support our commitment to the environment, we would like to politely request that you try to bring your own re-usable coffee cup to training or events held at the Civic Offices. We will have spare cups available but would appreciate everyone doing their bit to help the environment! Thanks.

Early Education Funding

Reminder

The forecast task will be available on the Provider Portal from 12 November 2018. This is to claim early education funding for all two, three and four year olds who are registered to attend in the Spring 2019 term. In order to avoid late submissions please make sure that your current log in details are working, contact us at eyfunding@portsmouthcc.gov.uk if you have password issues that need resolving. The deadline for submission is 16 November 2018.

30 hours codes

Important Message for parents: Please remind parents to apply for the 30 hours childcare code in good time for January 2019. They should apply by November to have the code before the 31 December 2018. They must also reconfirm every 12 weeks for 30 Hours and Tax-Free Childcare if they already receive it. You can use the expiration dashboard on the provider portal to track which parents need to re-confirm their 30 hours this term.

Important Message for providers: Eligibility dates are not the same as the dates that the extended 15 hour entitlement funding can be claimed.

Example: Parent of a three year old (already attending a setting) starts work in November, applies and is awarded their first eligibility code for the 30 hours on 23 November 2018. Although the Provider Portal shows the child as eligible from 23 November 2018 (the date the code was issued), this is not the date that the child can start claiming the extended 15 hours from. The guidance states that the child can claim their childcare place the term after they turn 3 years old and have received a valid 30 hours code, whichever is later. In the example above the child can claim the extended 15 hours from 1 January 2019 as this is their first extended hours claim.

Summary

To claim funding, parents must have their eligibility confirmed by the HMRC for the extended 15 hour entitlement by:

31 August, to claim from 1 September, or
31 December, to claim from 1 January, or
31 March, to claim from 1 April

Training for Portsmouth Out of School Clubs

'Ofsted ready' workshop - Farlington Wrap Around

Farlington Wrap Around (FWA) provides breakfast, after school and holiday clubs for children between the ages of 3-11 years across three Portsmouth venues. All FWA clubs are registered with Ofsted, follow EYFS statutory requirements and are subject to Ofsted inspections. The FWA leadership team were keen for their practitioners to feel confident and prepared for their upcoming Ofsted inspections. They consulted with our Workforce Development Officer and invested in a 'two hour onsite contact'. Our tutor wrote a bespoke 'Ofsted readiness' workshop and delivered this to the whole FWA staff team at one of their after school club venues from 6.30pm - 8.30pm. The FWA practitioners were engaged, motivated, inquisitive and enthusiastic during the workshop. We have captured some of their evaluation comments below…

What were the key things you learnt from this training?

'Understanding of what you have to do as a legal requirement'

'Basic awareness of Ofsted requirements'

'That the newest member of staff will be spoken to'

'The Ofsted inspector may come with staff when picking up children offsite'

'First impressions are everything'

'What forms/paperwork is needed for an inspection'

How will you improve practice as a result of this training?

'Complete staff observations on each other'

'Do little quizzes on what Ofsted may ask'

'All staff to have areas of responsibility'

'Check where paperwork is'

'Check policies and know procedures'

'Make sure all staff know where/how/when with paperwork'

'Will record our self-evaluation for setting'

Any other comments?

'Excellent instruction and delivery'

'Relevant and up to date'

'Tutor knows what she's talking about and I respect her knowledge of our setting and Ofsted requirements'

If you work with over 5's and/or run an out of school provision please browse our Early Years and Childcare Training and Development Programme for details of upcoming workshops.

Contact our Workforce Development Officer if you would like to discuss a workshop's suitability or if you are considering booking a bespoke workshop for your team: eyworkforce@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Over 5's practitioners meetings

This termly meeting is free for practitioners working with over 5's in out of school clubs, childminding settings and school settings. This is an opportunity to network with other practitioners working with over 5's in our City, receive updates on local and national priorities and a training input to support the development of your role and setting.

The next Over 5's Practitioners Meeting is happening on Tuesday 4 December 2018, 6.30pm - 8.30pm at Portsmouth Academy Training & Learning Centre. (Please note the change of date).

Book your place via the Portsmouth Services Network.

If you have any problems logging into the Services Network and/or booking your place please contact the Workforce Development Team - 023 9284 1974 or email eyworkforce@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

PSCB Safeguarding Training Programme

The PSCB Safeguarding Training Programme has historically been funded through a government grant which has now been reduced. Since 2014, PSCB introduced a Charging Policy. Contributions from partner organisations currently fund the training programme together with traded services arrangements for all schools and colleges in the city.

Since 1 September 2016, there has been charging arrangements for all early years providers. Early Years providers are asked to pay on a 'pay as you use' basis.

Please see the table below as to the Charging Policy:

Please continue to use the PSCB Safeguarding Training booking form and complete the invoice details. Your organisations will be issued with an invoice for payment following delegate attendance at the course to be paid within 30 days.

Please contact Sam Nesbit, Safeguarding Children Training Manager if you have any questions or queries sam.nesbit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

View safeguarding training here.

Winter readiness pack

Public Health England have produced a winter readiness pack for schools and nurseries containing checklists for seasonal flu and norovirus readiness as well as materials and leaflets on flu, norovirus, meningitis and measles. It aims to promote good infection control practices and vaccination.

Download the pack here.

Vaccinations

Are children in your setting up to date with important vaccinations which protect them against potentially serious infectious illnesses? If in any doubt, parents should speak to their GP surgery to check.

A child receives a number of doses of some vaccines from when they are 8 weeks old up until they go to school, and beyond. They need all of these doses to strengthen their protection against infectious illnesses. It is important to complete them at the right times or the child may be at risk of catching them.

It is particularly important that a child is up to date with their vaccinations before they start school as this is when they come into contact with more children and potential sources of infection.

Unfortunately locally, vaccination rates are too low, with many children missing vital doses – putting them at serious risk and increasing the likelihood of an outbreak of infectious illnesses in the wider population.

It is not too late if the child has missed any – parents should speak to their GP or practice nurse to discuss a catch-up.

Vaccinations are safe – they are thoroughly tested and are continually monitored. It is the success of these vaccines that has helped to reduce the number of infections of some dangerous diseases such as measles, mumps and diphtheria. But these illnesses are still in circulation and if the number of fully protected children falls, these diseases can spread quickly.

Vaccinating children also helps stop infections spreading to others, particularly those who cannot receive them, such as sick children, who are much more at risk from infections.

There is lots of information on the NHS website, and the Vaccine Knowledge Project website.

Download the pre-school immunisations guide here.

Download back to school posters here.

Top tip for talking

Please print and display November's Top Tip for Talking poster. This is available on the Services Network website under the 'resources tab'.

Download November's Top Tip