With you, with the child. Every step of the way.
Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council - Early Help Service
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Thursday 10 December 2020
Advance notice - next week's DfE data capture
Next week's DfE data capture for the numbers of children currently accessing early years provision will be open from Monday, and will close at the end of Wednesday (midnight). Please use this link to complete your return.
Updated Flowchart for Managing Confirmed and Suspected Cases of COVID-19
The flowchart for early years and childcare settings has been updated to include a reminder to notify Ofsted of any confirmed cases of COVID-19 and resulting closures. Please make sure you refer to the most up to date version when you have suspected or confirmed cases.
Positive cases of COVID-19 during setting closures over Christmas
It is important for us all to make sure that we continue to do all we can to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 over the Christmas break. This includes contact tracing for any confirmed cases. There may be confirmed cases of children or staff in your setting up to a week after your setting closes and it is important that their close contacts are alerted so that they self-isolate rather than mixing with other households. Please make sure you have made arrangements within your setting to receive and share any notifications of positive cases. This would include reminding families that they need to contact you if they or their child receives a positive test result and providing them with contact details if different to the usual setting contact number. Whilst we understand that all staff need a break at the end of term, we also need to stress how important it is that someone is available to receive the information and carry out the usual procedures where there is a positive case, including notifying affected families. We would suggest that each setting plans a system that gives all staff some rest time as well as having someone who can respond to any information about positive cases of COVID-19 to minimise the risk of the spread of infection.
The DfE have suggested to schools that they may wish to use an INSET day to close a day early before Christmas. Due to the different operating hours of providers, this approach would not universally work for all Early Years settings as many of you will still be working during the school holidays anyway. If your setting is considering amending your opening hours, please make sure you discuss this with parents to understand the impact this would have for them and review your delivery of FE to ensure that children are not missing out on their early education entitlement for the autumn term.
If you need to contact the DfE Helpline over the Christmas period, please see their Christmas and New Year opening hours.
OFSTED updates
Ofsted have released their operational guidance and published FAQs which are below around inspection activity from January 2021. Please read these carefully.
Routine, graded inspections will continue to remain on hold for the spring term. From January 2021, Ofsted will continue a phased return to routine inspections, across early years, schools and further education providers. In these remits, there will be no graded inspections until the summer term 2021.
Ofsted – Rules around taking children’s records off site:
Permission to take records off site can be granted by the regulatory team at Ofsted. The nominated individual of a provider should contact enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk with information about why this is necessary and what they will do to mitigate risks. The Ofsted team will reply but may need to ask for additional information.
Survey on Transition Arrangements for Children Starting School
Thank you to those of you who have already completed the survey on universal and supported transitions. If you have not yet completed this, please share your views by completing this survey which is open now until 18 December 2020. Your feedback will help us plan transition arrangements for this and future years.
Putting wellbeing at the heart of our early years practice
NCB recently hosted five free Learn – Explore – Debate events focused on putting wellbeing at the heart of early years practice. The events brought early years practitioners, local authorities, consultants and academics together with officials from the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted to discuss practical ways to support the wellbeing of children and staff. The recordings, slides and case studies from the events, including a video from the DfE, thanking the early years sector for their work, are now available to view on the Foundation Years website.
New course - Understanding the Changes: The EYFS and Development Matters from September 2021
Learn about the changes in the EYFS and the key features of effective practice outlined in the new Development Matters. Become aware of the implications when supporting the learning and development needs of children. The course costs only £15. Log onto the Learning and Development Gateway and search for the course code to book and pay by card.
- Tuesday 23 February 2021 - 10.00am to 12.30pm - EYT 21/562
- Thursday 4 March 2021 - 1.30pm to 4.00pm - EYT 21/629
Please inform the Family Information Service if your setting needs to close or is re-opening. Email family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk and include your setting name, Ofsted URN, the date you intend to close/open, and any changes to your operating hours. If you inform us of re-opening, you will be reinstated on the public list and appear on our website www.westsussex.gov.uk/fis.
If closing due to COVID-19 please ensure you read and follow all the steps in the PHE South East Health Protection Team ' Managing Suspected and Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Early Years and Childcare settings' flowchart.
In the event of your setting having a confirmed COVID-19 case, if Public Health or the Department for Education have stated you must close for any period of time you must inform the Family Information Service. However, if Public Heath have not explicitly stated in correspondence to you that the setting must close, we would expect you to make contact with your Early Years and Childcare Adviser (EYCA) to talk through your circumstances, where possible, before making the decision to close the setting. If you are not able to make immediate contact with your EYCA then please email your nearest Early Help Hub using the following email addresses:
Where there are not clearly evidenced reasons why the setting had no option to close, there could be implications for funding received as per the government guidance.
If a family you know are struggling to ensure they have food for their family, collect medication, or are in need of any additional support, contact West Sussex County Council Community hub.
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#111 (DfE data collection frequency, public health seminars, information sharing, LADO myth busting, SEND strategy update, springtime crafts, online sessions for children from West Sussex libraries)
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#110 (Public health seminars, updating your sufficiency data, IT maintenance 7 December, DfE research, Ofsted research, Makaton training, EYTS training)
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#109 (Updated guidance, contingency framework, OOS guidance, planning for Spring 21 FE, transitions survey, future EY training programme, celebrating inclusion)
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#108 (Public health seminars, FE spring term estimate deadline tomorrow, autumn additional payments, spring term 30hr deadline reminder, safeguarding webinar)
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#107 (IT maintenance, Foundation Years FAQs, Attachment and Trauma webinar)
We have a range of online training available for you to access for your staff to ensure they have the most up to date information to support them in their role:
- w/c 07 Dec - Spring Term FE Estimates submissions payment expected
- 31 Dec - Deadline for Sufficiency information for Autumn 2020
- 04 Jan - Annual Census submissions open (mandatory for FE providers)
- 04 Jan - Spring Term FE Actuals submissions open
- 21 Jan - Spring FE headcount day
- 29 Jan - Annual Census submissions close
- 29 Jan - Spring Term FE Actuals submissions close
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