 A very warm welcome to Susan Cooke who has joined the Early Years Inclusion Team. Susan has joined as the new Early Years Inclusion Outreach Officer after Hannah Rapley stepped up to become the Higher Level Early Years Inclusion Outreach Officer. Hannah and Susan offer support and guidance for settings around SEND practice and provision. Susan will mostly focus on the low and emerging SEND needs and lead on the reviews for SENDIF low/emerging. Hannah will support settings with children with higher level and more complex needs and support settings to complete Education, Health and Care assessment requests.
You can contact the Early Years Inclusion Team on eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
The Early Years Inclusion Team from left to right; Ella Harbut, Early Years Advisory Teacher - Strategy, Hannah Rapley, Higher Level Early Years Inclusion Outreach Officer, Sue Bowler, Early Years Advisory Teacher - Inclusion, Susan Cooke, Early Years Inclusion Outreach Officer.
 As you know, Vicky Taylor was successful in her application to become an Early Years Quality and Sufficiency Officer (QSO). Vicky has now stepped across from her role as Wraparound Co-ordinator, although will remain the named contact for all things wraparound, whilst being supported by Layla and Gill for the remainder of the programme.
QSOs provide advice, support and guidance for childcare providers in meeting requirements for Ofsted registration and inspection, enable targeted settings to improve their quality and business sustainability and support all aspects of safeguarding practice. They are part of a pool of early years trainers delivering the Portsmouth Early Years Training and Development Programme.
You can contact the QSOs on eydelivery@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Vicky can be contacted re wraparound at vicky.taylor@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
The QSO team from left to right; Layla Riches, Gill Park, Vicky Taylor.
 As part of the Start for Life Infant Feeding initiatives to promote and support Breast Feeding, safe formula feeding and introducing solid foods, in Portsmouth there is a new training session - ‘Basic Infant Feeding Awareness Training’ for all agencies and professionals working with families within the first 1001 days.
This would be really valuable training to help ensure everyone who is supporting families, in whatever their role or capacity, whether health related or not, is up to date with the most recent evidence based information and can signpost to the wide variety of support options. As with many things, the research and climate is constantly changing, and updating your knowledge and skills can have a real impact.
 Held every Friday, 11.00am - 12.30pm at Somerstown Family Hub.
The group will be structured as follows:
- A focus each week that reflects and complements the Start for Life offer, discussion led by a visiting professional wherever possible
- A 'circle time' to enjoy a hot drink, vocalise any worries and celebrate positives with peers, and make connections
- Opportunity to ask questions and signpost to other services if needed
Places should ideally be booked in advance through the stay and play PickTime system but they are also happy for people to just show up. There are 10 spaces available. There's a click-through on this page.
 For those expecting a baby or with a baby/babies under 2 years who are struggling with their mental health, or at risk of worsening mental health due to isolation, lack of support network, challenging living conditions/relationships, etc.
Support in the home for 2-3 hours a week, led by the family's needs - can be emotional and practical support, feeling confident getting out and about, confident caring for baby out of the home, help with transport, attending appointments and groups, filling out forms, housework and errands, etc, etc!
Please see referral form at button below which can be sent to referrals@hsportsmouth.org.uk.
Home-Start will start off by accepting referrals through healthcare professionals only, assess demand and capacity and then consider opening up to self-referral in the future.
 Home-Start are delighted to share the new poster and referral form for their Perinatal Dads Outreach Support. Please also see details of some pilot coffee mornings across each of the five hubs. The drop-ins will be family friendly with a Dad/partner focus.
 PSCP is responsible for providing Safeguarding Children to organisations in Portsmouth. You may be familiar with the extensive training they have on offer to the whole children and families workforce.
As we all know and understand, meeting the needs of children early in their life, as well as early in the life of an issue is an imperative part of good safeguarding practice. In Portsmouth we have a citywide process for doing this through the Family Support Plan (FSP), many of you will be familiar with this and have been on training to support implementation.
PSCP agreed to provide Early Help Training - using the Family Support Plan free of charge for 1 member of staff in each Early Years setting from April 2024 to March 2025. This was implemented to support the workforce grow the skills necessary to undertake FSPs. Due to the ever-growing pressure on local budgets, they will be charging for places on this course from April 2025 and are sorry that they are unable to extend this offer for longer.
If you would like to book yourself or a staff member onto this training prior to April 2025 please see availability here.
The Masterclasses for DSLs & Managers are all still available free of charge and can be accessed here.
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