Early Years and Childcare Broadcast

West Sussex County Council sent this bulletin at 04-03-2020 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 4 March 2020

Provider Declaration 2020/2021 – existing Free Entitlement providers only

The new Free Entitlement (FE) for 2, 3 and 4 Year Olds Provider Declaration (April 2020 to March 2021) is now available, please ensure you refer to the latest version on our webpage: www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsfreeentitlement.

All existing FE providers must return their signed Provider Declaration form via the Online Provider Portal (OPP) by 27 March 2020 in order to continue delivering FE from April 2020.

To access guidance and the OPP go to www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsportal to complete and return your ‘Provider Declaration v2’ signature form electronically. Failure to return this form by the due date may delay your Summer term estimate payment.

Any providers wishing to sign up to deliver Free Entitlement for 2, 3 and 4 year olds for the first time, please contact the Family Information Service for a separate form and do not complete the online form.

Please note, the Parent Declaration form has also been updated. Please ensure you use the latest version which can be found on our webpage: www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsfreeentitlement

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

Indicative Budgets 2020/2021 – existing FE providers only

In December 2019, central government announced an increase to the base rate paid to local authorities of £0.08 per hour for both the 2 year old and 3 and 4 year old funding. Following consultation with the West Sussex Schools Forum, it was agreed that 100% of this would be passed on to you, our Early Years and Childcare providers.

As such, we have prepared your Free Entitlement Indicative Budgets for 2020/21 which are based on the following hourly base funding rates:

Base funding £4.50

Deprivation supplement bands unchanged

Early Years Pupil Premium £0.53 for eligible 3 and 4 year olds

Eligible 2 year olds £5.18

The Indicative Budgets are due to be posted to you during this week.

Should you have any queries please contact the Family Information Service on 01243 777807 or email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk.

Coronavirus – advice to all early years providers

Further to yesterday’s Special Broadcast containing an update on COVID-19 (Coronavirus) from Public Health England (PHE), WSCC are receiving daily updates from the Department for Education (DfE) on the government’s response to COVID-19. We will continue to inform you of any significant and relevant updates we receive from the DfE.

The DfE have launched a new helpline to answer questions about COVID-19 related to education. Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:

Phone: 0800 046 8687 Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)

For all queries relating to Free Entitlement, please continue to contact the Family Information Service on 01243 777807 or email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk.

The DfE’s advice remains that no school should close in response to a suspected (or confirmed) COVID-19 case unless directed to do so by Public Health England.

The importance of hygiene.

Personal hygiene is the most important way we can tackle COVID-19. Public Health England has a dedicated webpage with a range of posters and digital materials at https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/101-coronavirus-/resources. Sign up is quick, free and means you will be alerted as more resources are made available.

New guidance for employers

The Department for Business (BEIS) and Public Health England have issued guidance for employers, which you can find at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/guidance-for-employers-and-businesses-on-covid-19.

Where to find the latest information

Updates on COVID-19: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Guidance for educational settings: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19

Travel advice for those travelling and living overseas: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus

The proposed addition of Specialist Support Centres within West Sussex

WSCC has been developing a new Education and Skills Strategy to support the inclusion of all children and young people, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND).

As part of the strategy, WSCC are consulting on the proposals to develop Special Support Centre (SSC) provision in West Sussex Maintained Schools. The proposals are for the addition of four new SSCs and the redesignation of an existing provision. More information on the proposals can be found here.

The consultation ends on 6 March 2020

Mid Sussex area

WSCC, in its role as commissioner of school places, has been working with Warden Park Secondary Academy to consider changing the designation of their existing SSC from Additional Learning Needs (ALN) to a dual designation of ALN and Social and Communication Needs (SCN) and increase the available places from the current 20 to 28. More information can be found in here. Warden Park Secondary Academy would value your ideas and comments on these proposals via the online survey WPSA SSC Consultation. The consultation will run until 23 March 2020.

Early Help Branding

Following feedback from WSCC staff, partners and the children and families who use our services, we have taken stock of our brand, listened to the feedback and it has been decided that we change the name of ‘Integrated Prevention and Early Help’ (IPEH) to ‘Early Help’ services. We consider this change will make it much easier for us to explain the work that we do in this area.

It’s important to stress that this change is in name only. It does not alter the support the teams in Early Help provide, nor the strong local partnerships we have with you and rely on to deliver these services.