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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SPECIAL BROADCAST: COVID-19 update for settings
Thursday 19 March 2020
You will already be aware of the latest Government decision to close schools, colleges and nurseries and appreciate that you may have some anxieties around this in relation to the children and families you support as well as running your business. For clarification from West Sussex County Council’s (WSCC) perspective this includes group settings and childminders.
Here is a summary of the support currently being offered to you:
- The Department for Education have already confirmed the continuation of Free Entitlement funding for children already accessing early years education. Further details will be communicated in due course.
- WSCC will also continue to honour the Inclusion funding already awarded for children.
The Government has also announced a package of support for businesses, details of which can be found here. Guidance for local authorities on the business rates holiday will be published by 20 March.
We appreciate that you may have a number of queries and we have already started compiling a series of FAQs. To keep you up to date, we will be sending regular, at least daily, broadcast emails which will include the latest set of FAQs.
You can also email any queries to family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk putting ‘Covid-19 setting query’ into the subject box. You can also call 01243 777807 but remember lines may be particularly busy.
Following the announcement from Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Educations, the Government have indicated that early years settings should remain open from next week to support vulnerable children and provide childcare for the children of parents who are Key workers. These are likely to be anyone working in the NHS, Police Social Service, Teachers, Care Workers, Delivery Drivers, workers in food shops or supermarkets, drivers of public transport and the Military. To help us identify which settings either, plan to or could remain open and potentially take on extra children, we will be sending you a short survey tomorrow morning. This will enable us to look at whether we have sufficient places for these identified children and offer our childcare brokerage service for parents needing to be in work.
We appreciate that these are very worrying times for you and that you will be concerned for your business, staff, the children you care for and the families you work with, not forgetting your own personal circumstances. We want to reassure you that we are working round the clock to ensure that you have access to information and support at the right time. We will keep you updated as the situation evolves. Thank you for coming together at this moment of need.
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