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
Difficulty viewing this bulletin? Click here to view in your browser.
Thursday 14 January 2021
Further to yesterday's special broadcast we have now received updated guidance from the Department for Education for the Early Years Census. This means we will now be able to fund children for the whole of spring term within these new guidelines. Please see further information in the article below.
New guidance for the Early Years Census 2021
New guidance, Coronavirus-related support for submitting an Early Years Census 2021 return, has been published today, 14 January 2021. Full details can be read in the guidance document but a summary of the key points is as follows:
What can be claimed for:
- Where a child would normally attend Early Years provision, and that provision is made available to them by the provider, their expected hours should be recorded in the Early Years Census, where signed Parental Declarations are in place on or before 21 January 2021. This means children who, were it not for the impact of COVID-19 on either their own personal circumstances or on the operation of their Early Years setting, would be attending Early Years provision. This includes children who have previously attended the provision and children who were expected to start attending the provision in January. Please read full guidance for list of other exceptions.
- The provider has attempted to remain open, but has temporarily closed for a period of time for reasons such as: staff shortages due to illness or staff shortages due to self-isolation.
- The provider has closed due to government guidance, for reasons such as temporary inability to access the site premises (for example, a PVI setting whose landlord or trustees have temporarily refused permission to operate on the site for COVID-related reasons) or numbers of staff shielding make it impossible to provide the funded entitlements.
What cannot be claimed for:
- A provider must not count a child where they have furloughed the staff who would be required to deliver the child’s place.
- Where the provider chooses not to offer the entitlements – i.e. to close, or only offer a limited provision to children of key workers/vulnerable children - then they should not make a return for a child who is not being offered a place. If this applies to your setting you must speak to your Early Years and Childcare Adviser to discuss any potential impact on funding.
If you have already submitted your headcount and Census form, any changes required as a result of this updated guidance, should be made via the Online Provider Portal.
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.
We have added a free text box for you to share the issues that are currently impacting on you and your setting so we can take all of this into consideration when planning support. But also very importantly we will use this information as evidence to help us with lobbying the government on your behalf around funding, guidance and support.
URGENT: Early Years Free Entitlement (Dedicated Schools Grant) - Consultation
If you have not yet done so, please remember to share your views on proposed changes to the Free Entitlement funding originally shared in a special broadcast on 4 January 2021. 55 providers have completed this so far. Please read the briefing paper and consider your response before you start completing the survey. The deadline for this survey was tomorrow, 15 January however, we recognise that the last two weeks have been so incredibly busy, so we are extending the deadline until midnight on Sunday 17 January.
Your views are extremely important to us and will be used to inform decision making around any changes to the funding formula, which is used to set the funding rates.
Rapid COVID-19 Testing Kits
You may have seen in the press that Children's Minister Vicky Ford has said that she will be ensuring that those working with children such as early years staff are prioritised for access to rapid testing. This follows on from Health Secretary Matt Hancock's announcement that every local authority across the country will be able to offer rapid testing to workers who cannot work from home during this national lockdown. The current information that we have is the Department for Education (DfE) will be rolling out a programme of weekly testing of staff only in Primary schools and school based nurseries and maintained nurseries. Kits will be delivered 18-22 January. Private nurseries and childminders will be in the Community testing facilities not the DfE testing programme. We will continue to investigate this and provide more information as soon as we can.
Ofsted inspections to be done remotely until half-term
On 12 January, Ofsted announced that all planned inspection activity will be carried out remotely until after February half-term. The statement from Ofsted said:
"We have reviewed our plans for the inspections of schools, early years and further education, which were due to begin next week. In light of a change in emphasis from the government and clear advice to ‘act as if you have the virus’ over the next few weeks, we have decided that all planned inspection activity will be carried out remotely until after the February half term."
You can read the full announcement made by Ofsted here.
Early Language Identification Measure and Intervention Training - Booking Details
Public Health England will be delivering online training sessions (via Microsoft Teams) on the use of the new Early Language and Identification Measure (ELIM) and Intervention (to be offered alongside the ASQ-3 at the Healthy Child Programme 2—2½ year review). This training is open to Health Visitor senior leads, Health Visitor trainers for local ELIM training to cascade, Early Years practitioners and Senior Leadership Team representatives, to support local planning and embed ELIM within the 2—2½ year review.
This flyer contains more details about who should attend, the content of the half-day training and dates for London and the South East, including the links to the online registration system. Please note: A limited number of places are available per session on a first-come-first-served basis. Please do contact BestStartInLife@phe.gov.uk if you have any questions.
Spring term Early Years Learning and Development Network Webinar available to book
Networks are for those who lead practice in the settings. They provide updates, information and guidance to support and improve practice. They are free to attend, but please book a space by logging onto the Learning and Development Gateway and searching for the course code.
Due to the ongoing restrictions, the networks for this term will be run via Microsoft Teams, but we recommend that, where possible, you attend your local network so you can link with providers and Early Years and Childcare Advisers in your local area.
|
Day/Date
|
Date
|
Area
|
Course Code
|
|
Tuesday 02/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Littlehampton
|
EYT 20/2205
|
|
Tuesday 02/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Chichester and Petworth
|
EYT 21/324
|
|
Wednesday 03/02/2021
|
10.00am to 11.30am
|
Haywards Heath
|
EYT 21/333
|
|
Wednesday 03/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Sidney West -Burgess Hill
|
EYT 20/2114
|
|
Monday 08/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Kingston Buci -Shoreham
|
EYT 20/2115
|
|
Monday 08/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Pulborough
|
EYT 20/2116
|
|
Tuesday 09/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Crawley
|
EYT 21/258
|
|
Tuesday 09/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
Roffey/Horsham
|
EYT 20/2117
|
|
Tuesday 09/02/2021
|
7.00pm to 9.00pm
|
Bognor Regis
|
EYT 20/2206
|
|
Thursday 11/02/2021
|
1.00pm to 3.00pm
|
East Grinstead
|
EYT 20/2119
|
|
Thursday 11/02/2021
|
1.30pm to 3.30pm
|
The Wave -Worthing
|
EYT 20/2118
|
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.
-
13 JAN Special broadcast - Free Entitlement funding for 2, 3 and 4 year old children - spring term 2021
-
#118 - (DfE data capture, updated guidance, protective measures for out of school provision, foundation years - new FAQs, HSE checks, informing DfE of cases, new online form to report cases to Ofsted, maths webinar)
-
#117 (DfE data capture, DAF spring claims, EYPP spring claims, starting school applications - one week to go, springtime crafts, ICON)
-
#116 (Urgent reminder - DfE data capture, updated guidance, PH seminars, DSG consultation, mandatory EY census, FE Spring actuals, OAIP, business map webinars, Makaton taster)
-
04 JAN Special broadcast - Consultation - Early Years Dedicated School Grant (DSG)
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:
- NOW - Annual EY Census submissions open (mandatory for FE providers)
- NOW - Spring Term FE Actuals submissions open
- 21 Jan - Spring Term FE headcount day
- 29 Jan - Annual EY Census submissions close (mandatory for FE providers)
- 29 Jan - Spring Term FE Actuals submissions close
| 
