Early Years and Childcare Broadcast

West Sussex County Council sent this bulletin at 13-11-2019 04:00 PM GMT

Early Years and Childcare Broadcast header

With you, with the child. Every step of the way.

Weekly broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council - Early Help Service

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Wednesday 13 November 2019

30 hour codes - checking eligibility for Spring term

Did you know? The Online Provider Portal (OPP) has an instant eligibility checker for 30 hour codes which you can use at any time by logging into the OPP: www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsportal

If you offer Extended Free Entitlement (FE) places it is recommended that you use the online eligibility checker to check a child’s 30 hour code is valid for the upcoming term.

Click here to view our helpful video guide which covers:

How to use the online eligibility checker
When to use the online eligibility checker
How to instantly check a code is valid

Please note, that in order for children to access Extended FE in the Spring term their 30 hour code must be issued by HMRC by 31 December 2019.

Please advise parents to:

apply now to ensure they have their 30 hours code by 31 December 2019;
log in to their childcare account to check their details are up to date, and reconfirm their eligibility to ensure they continue to be eligible for Extended FE: gov.uk/sign-in-childcare-account

For any queries please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk

Free Entitlement Spring Term estimates – now open

The Online Provider Portal (OPP) is now open for you to submit your Spring term estimates for Free Entitlement (FE) 2, 3 and 4 Year Olds: www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsportal

Headcount Day for Spring term is 16 January 2020.

The deadline for estimate submissions is 29 November 2019.

Help and guidance:

Click here to view our quick and easy Estimate video guide, alternatively, you can refer to the Estimate help guide PDF version.

Please note, we only require estimate information at present and we will request your actuals (child-level) data in January.

If you have any questions, please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk or phone the Family Information Service on 01243 777807.

Starting School Questionnaires – support for families

Thank you to those of you who have already returned their completed Starting School Questionnaires.

The Healthy Child Programme (HCP) are starting to record responses and follow up on any queries or concerns identified by families. Unfortunately, a number of questionnaires have been returned without the end column being completed meaning that it is unclear if the setting have already responded, or if HCP need to make contact with the family. If there are any outstanding issues that you need the support of HCP to address, please contact your local Healthy Child Programme team (contact details can be found on our website (https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/media/11287/hcpcd.pdf ) to ensure that families get the support that they need.

More information on the process of the School readiness Integrated Review is available on: www.westsussex.gov.uk/integratedreview.

You can still return any completed questionnaires that are returned after 1 November, but please return as soon as possible afterwards so support can be provided to families at the earliest opportunity. It would also be helpful if you could complete the review process for any new starters at your setting to support them to have a positive start to school.