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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Tuesday 2 February 2021
Reminder - this week's DfE data capture
This week's DfE data capture for the numbers of children currently accessing early years provision is open now, and will close at the end of Wednesday (midnight). Please use this link to complete your return.
The number of providers completing this increased by 48 last week so a huge thank you as this helps us to ensure that the data we hold is as up to date as possible to support our planning. This increased the percentage of those completing the data return to around 66%, compared to 60% last week. If your setting is not submitting this weekly, please ensure you do so. It should only take a few minutes to complete. As this information is so vital, we will begin to follow up with providers who are not completing this and ask them to do so.
Following last week's submission, the main issues raised are your continued concerns around lateral flow testing and vaccines, staff morale, families deferring new starters and loss of income from fee paying parents. We have shared your concerns with the DfE and Public Health and further updates will be via this broadcast, as soon as there are any.
New Frequently Asked Questions on the Foundations Years website
This document answers FAQs from the early years sector on the national restrictions. The previous set of FAQs can be found here. These answers have been checked with the Department for Education (DfE) and cover:
- safety of settings,
- testing and vaccinations,
- clinically vulnerable children and staff,
- funding and financial support,
- Reception-aged children,
- Children's Centres, and more
If you have any further questions, please submit these to foundationyears@ncb.org.uk. The Foundation Years COVID-19 resources hub will continue to be updated to include the latest information and guidance, in addition to hosting a variety of resources to support early years settings during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Readiness: Early Years pre-school setting into Reception – survey open until 14 February
West Sussex County Council are conducting a survey in order to seek your views on what would be most beneficial in terms of supporting ‘readiness’ in order to optimise learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage from pre-school setting into Reception. There is some funding available to support project work around developing ‘readiness’.
We know that this comes at a particularly challenging time, however if you do have time to engage with this, it will help shape support that is most effective to settings and schools. It should only take a few minutes of your time. To complete the survey, please use this link. The survey will be open until Sunday 14 February.
Free Training from ICAN available until the end of March
As part of the EYSEND Partnership, I CAN is pleased to be offering training to early years SENCos, managers and early years practitioners to enable excellent support for Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) in early years settings. The training is provided at two levels – core and in-depth. You may choose to start with the core training and move to the in-depth, or if you have had previous SLCN training, you could move straight to the in-depth training. Full details of how to access both levels of training can be found on the I CAN website at https://ican.org.uk/eysend-partnership.
Working with Children who have English as an Additional Language (EAL) Webinar (Evening session)
This training examines the importance of celebrating individual language development, and how needs can be met through a range of play and learning opportunities. The session outlines best practice, resources, routines, activities and experiences that can be provided to support children and work in partnership with their parents.
The cost is £15. Log onto the Learning and Development Gateway and search for the course code to find out more, book and pay by card.
- Thursday 25 February - 6.00pm to 9.00pm - EYT 21/588
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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#123 (Updated information for managing COVID-19 cases, letter from Public Health, final reminder - FE spring term and EY Census, informing Ofsted of significant events, new single route for families and professionals to access support, attachment and trauma in early years)
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#122 (Settings not currently open to all children, Local Offer revised link, stories and songs in libraries, Compass card, a look at treasure baskets for babies)
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#121 (Updated funding letter for parents, reminder for mandatory EY Census, FE spring term actuals reminder, Local Offer, understanding parental conflict webinar, Recover and Rise business workshops, every mind matters)
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20 JAN Special broadcast - COVID-19 testing within early years and childcare settings
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#120 (Furloughing staff, update on EYFSP, Paediatric First Aid requalification, updated action cards, supporting children with self-regulation)
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 22 Feb - Spring term Actuals payments expected (FE providers)
- 10 Mar - Summer term Estimate submissions open (FE providers)
- 26 Mar - Summer term Estimate submissions close (FE providers)
- 31 Mar - deadline for completing termly Sufficiency data (all providers)
- w/c 5 Apr - Summer term Estimate payments expected (FE providers)
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