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 9 March 2021
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.
The number of providers completing this data return has noticeably decreased since the half-term break. Whilst we appreciate that you are likely to be busy welcoming more children back following the return of schools on 8 March, this data continues to be highly important. Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes each week to provide us with this vital information.
Asymptomatic testing
All businesses that are registered in England, where employees cannot work from home, can register to access free lateral flow tests. This includes childcare settings. You must register on or before 31 March 2021. Use this service to get the forms you need to order free lateral flow tests to test your employees in the workplace.
Guidance to contain the spread of COVID-19
On 8 March, the government published Coronavirus (COVID-19) local restrictions in education and childcare settings to give guidance to providers on how they can prepare for restrictions to help contain community transmission of COVID-19. The contingency framework is a set of guiding principles designed to help decision makers when they are considering plans to apply, tighten or relax restrictions to education and childcare.
Nurseries, childminders, schools, 16 to 19 academies and further education providers should have a contingency plan for how they would operate if any of the approaches for easing and tightening of restrictions become necessary in their local area. This includes how they would ensure every child, pupil or student receives the quantity and quality of education and care to which they are normally entitled, whether onsite or remotely.
Any restrictions on education are always a last resort and should only be initiated following a ministerial decision. This framework is separate to the processes in place for managing outbreaks and operational challenges.
Early years settings:
- The default position for early years settings is to allow all children to attend.
- If attendance needs to be limited in early years settings, the Department for Education (DfE) may advise that only vulnerable children and children of critical workers should be allowed to attend. The DfE will advise when children should be permitted to return.
Out-of-school settings and wraparound childcare:
- Providers who run community activities, holiday clubs, breakfast or after-school clubs, tuition and other out-of-school or childcare provision (including wraparound childcare), for children over the age of 5 should be able to continue to open for both indoor and outdoor provision.
- Where restrictions are required, these providers should only offer face-to-face provision for those children that are eligible to be in school full-time, or who are electively home educated and of equivalent age to those eligible groups.
Contain Outbreak Management Fund
We are pleased to report that we have received 513 applications for the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF), including over 75% of all Free Entitlement(FE) group providers. These were all reviewed on 1 March and any outstanding queries were followed up last week. Award letters are being sent out from today, and payments will be made into the bank account where FE funding is usually paid w/c 15 March 2021.
As we intended, the £500k funding pot has been distributed to providers in its entirety. As such we are unable to accept any further applications. The funding awarded is proportionate to the time the provision was open throughout the various restrictions. We hope that this grant will be a contribution towards covering some of those additional costs you have faced over the last year and thank you for your continued commitment to children and their families.
Provider Declaration 2021/2022 – existing Free Entitlement providers only
The new Free Entitlement (FE) Provider Declaration (April 2021 to March 2022) is now available, please ensure you refer to the latest version on our webpage: www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsfreeentitlement.
The Provider Declaration form will be available from tomorrow on the Online Provider Portal (OPP). All existing FE providers must complete and return their signed ‘Provider Declaration v2’ form electronically by 26 March 2021 in order to continue delivering FE from April 2021. To access guidance and the OPP go to www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsportal. Failure to return this form by the due date may delay your Summer term estimate payment.
Any providers wishing to sign up to deliver Free Entitlement for 2, 3 and 4 year olds for the first time, please contact the Family Information Service for a separate form and do not complete the online form. If you have any questions, please contact the Family Information Service on 01243 777807 and ask to speak to the Specialist Team, or email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk
Free Entitlement Summer term estimates - opens 10 March
The Online Provider Portal will open Wednesday 10 March 2021 for you to submit your Summer term estimates for Free Entitlement (FE) for 2, 3 and 4 year olds.
- Headcount Day for Summer term is 6 May 2021.
- Deadline for estimate submissions is 26 March 2021.
View our quick and easy Estimate video guide, or you can refer to the Estimate help guide PDF version.
30 hour code deadline reminder: In order for children to access an Extended FE place in the Summer term their 30 hour code must be issued by HMRC by 31 March 2021. Any existing codes with a grace period ending 31 March 2021, or earlier must also be reconfirmed by this date. Please refer to setting update 132 for further guidance. If you have any questions, please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk or phone the Family Information Service on 01243 777807.
Important – Online Provider Portal account changes – Day Nurseries and Pre-Schools only
Some Online Provider Portal (OPP) account holders will soon receive notification of a change to their username. This is due to a system update which improved security, and consequently disallowed email addresses being tied to more than one OPP login. However, if you run multiple settings, it is possible to have one user account to access all providers. This is to further improve our online security.
If your current username begins with your Ofsted URN, followed by your name(e.g. EY100000.John.Smith), this will change in the near future. If your username is another random number (the number is actually a unique reference number for each user) followed by your name (e,g. 12345.John.Smith), your account will not change as it is already in the correct format. Should you have any queries regarding these changes then please email family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk .
Early Years Virtual Conference ‘Putting Children First’ - bookings close 10 March
We have a new workshop confirmed ‘Achieving Self-regulation in the Early Years. One Practitioner at a Time’ delivered by Dr Mine Conkbayir. This workshop will take you on an introductory journey of self-regulation in Early Years. You will explore the meaning of self-regulation, how and when it develops and your role as co-regulators in nurturing its development. The inextricable link between self-regulation and executive functioning will also be examined, alongside discussion concerning the new self-regulation Early Learning Goals, to ensure they are interpreted appropriately and not reduced to a tick-box exercise.
The West Sussex Virtual Early Years Conference 2021 is on Friday 12 March, 9.30am to 3.00pm. It provides training opportunities throughout the day on practice and managerial topics. The presentations and workshops will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. To find out more and book, go to Eventbrite and download the conference brochure. We are offering all West Sussex settings two free conference places per setting. Please book using an individual name and email, so that you can be assigned to the correct workshops.
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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#133 (Updated guidance for out of school settings, early years virtual conference, save the date - childminder conference)
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#132 (Vaccine prioritisation, Ofsted inspections, summer term extended FE, mapping the wellbeing landscape, getting to grips with EYFS changes webinar for childminders)
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#131 (Final chance to apply for funding, COVID Public Health webinar, planning for positive transitions, healthy eating and safe food preparation)
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#130 (Information transferred in government guidance, deadline approaching for Contain Outbreak Management Fund, FE spring term payments released, FIS Website and OPP down today, EYFS revised draft consultation, stories with symbols)
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#129 (Vaccinations for early years and childcare practitioners, planned IT upgrade, free early years virtual conference)
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:
- 10 Mar - Summer term Estimate submissions open (FE providers)
- 10 Mar - FE Provider Declaration 2021/2 opens (Mandatory for all FE providers)
- 12 Mar - West Sussex Virtual Early Years Conference
- 26 Mar - Summer term Estimate submissions close (FE providers)
- 26 Mar - FE Provider Declaration 2021/2 closes (Mandatory for all FE providers)
- 31 Mar - deadline for completing termly Sufficiency data (all providers)
- w/c 5 Apr - Summer term Estimate payments expected (FE providers)
- 15 May - Childminder Virtual Conference (save the date, event details to follow)
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