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 23 February 2021
We are sure that many of you will have watched government announcements regarding the roadmap to ease COVID restrictions.
Items of note for the early years and childcare sector include:
- Wraparound childcare (including childminders) and other children’s activities can restart from 8 March for all children where it is needed to enable parents or carers to work, seek work, attend education, seek medical care or attend a support group (page 32 point 87).
- Clarification that face coverings are recommended in early years and primary schools for staff and adult visitors in situations where social distancing between adults is not possible, for example, when moving around in corridors and communal areas (page 33 point 92).
- current guidance around social distancing and childcare bubbles remains in place (see article on Changes to Action for early and childcare providers below).
As further information becomes available, we will of course assess any new guidance and communicate any key messages via these setting broadcasts. However, if you have an immediate questions we would recommend that you add these to the weekly Department for Education data capture.
Reminder - this week's DfE data capture
This week's Department for Education 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.
Changes to Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus outbreak
On 22 February 2021 the ‘Education and childcare settings: national lockdown from 5 January 2021’ guidance was withdrawn and the relevant sections were transferred into the updated Actions for Early Years and Childcare Providers guidance.
Also of note is page 32 point 9 which states:
- The asymptomatic testing programme in education will expand to staff in all private, voluntary and independent nurseries, who will start to receive deliveries of lateral flow device (LFD) home testing kits to offer to all their staff for twice weekly testing.
Deadline approaching: Contain Outbreak Management Fund
As announced on 3 February, West Sussex County Council have secured £500,000 for early years and childcare providers who are registered to provide Free Entitlement (FE) places to help with the challenges of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a temporary package of financial support in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Around 50% of our FE providers have currently submitted applications. Please do not miss out on this funding. Apply today! The application should only take a few minutes and will provide your setting with vital financial support. If you have been open during the last 12 months and have not yet applied, you could be missing out on funding that will support the financial sustainability of your business as a contribution towards the additional costs you have faced as a result of the pandemic.
Please refer to the special broadcast for more details and to apply. The closing date is midnight on 28 February 2021.
Free Entitlement for 2, 3 and 4 year olds – Spring Term Payments
Please be advised that Spring term payments have now been released for:
- Free Entitlement actuals where there are no outstanding queries.
- Disability Access Fund (DAF) for all approved applications where evidence was provided.
Please note, payments can take 3-5 working days to show in your account.
Reminder - OPP/2 year old FE applications/FIS website unavailable today
Please be advised that the Online Provider Portal (OPP) will be unavailable today due to planned maintenance. This affects all functions within the OPP. Please also note that parents and carers will not be able to submit 2 year old Free Entitlement applications online, and our FIS childcare website will be unavailable.
Have your say: Draft EYFS framework and statutory instrument
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the new draft Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework and draft statutory instrument (SI) for comment by 18 March 2021, in line with legislative consultation requirements under the Childcare Act 2006. This is the revised EYFS that is due to come into force from September 2021. The draft framework will be available for one month from the date of publication for comment (as required by the Childcare Act 2006).
Changes to the current EYFS statutory framework are in red to highlight where DfE are seeking views. The new educational programmes and Early Learning Goals are not in red as these are final government policy as confirmed following the full 12 week public consultation conducted in 2019. Please send your comments to EYFSP.REFORMS@education.gov.uk.
Stories with Symbols
A speech and language therapist has created a series of videos of story times for parents to use at home using symbols to support children's language development. As well as a great resource to share with families, these videos provide good models of using symbols and visual timetables with children which could support staff development in your setting. The stories with symbols already have a range of stories that young children love available and more will be added over the coming weeks.
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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#129 (Vaccinations for early years and childcare practitioners, planned IT upgrade, free early years virtual conference)
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#128 (Contain Outbreak Management Fund reminder, updated public health action cards, autism aware in early years)
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#127 (COVID cases during half-term, notifying Ofsted of COVID cases - updated information, planned IT upgrade, SEND and Inclusion newsletter, Tools for Schools surveys, Inclusion Framework free peer support sessions, Business Map webinars, Makaton new dates, international research project on child poverty)
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#126 (Updated Actions for Early Years Providers, safeguarding and child protection for the designated person, library service online offer)
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#125 (Outcome of FE consultation, vulnerable children in settings, slides from Public Health webinars, planning for positive transitions)
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)
- 23 Feb - Online Provider Portal closed today. Reopens on 24 Feb
- 28 Feb - Contain Outbreak Management Fund application deadline (FE providers)
- 10 Mar - Summer term Estimate submissions open (FE providers)
- 12 Mar - West Sussex Virtual Early Years Conference
- 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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