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 8 April 2021
DfE data capture
Please note, there is no Department for Education data capture for the numbers of children currently accessing early years provision this week.
Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) Reminder
As announced on 31 March, West Sussex County Council have secured £100,000 for Breakfast Clubs, Out of School Clubs, Holiday Playschemes and Childminders who do not offer 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.
The grant aims to help address the increased costs of running your setting due to the pandemic and other issues that providers face in ensuring their premises are safe for children and staff, in order to offer high quality care and learning in these exceptional times.
Following some queries from providers, we want to clarify the position for applications from settings where they have changed their FE status during the past year. The first COMF award was for settings signed up to deliver FE and the second COMF is for settings who are not registered to offer FE places. If your status has changed during the last year, you can apply for the current COMF for the period of time that you were not registered to deliver FE places within your setting. There is space for you to give further details on this in the application form.
All applications will be considered on a case by case basis and providers will be informed individually of the outcome. There is no further funding available for FE providers who did not apply for the initial round of funding.
Decisions to award COMF are made on the basis of the information provided by the setting which will be checked against our records. If we become aware that providers have completed the application inaccurately, then we will investigate these claims under the terms and conditions of the grant.
Please refer to the special broadcast for more details and to apply. The closing date is midnight on 21 April 2021.
Final revised EYFS Framework published
The Department for Education has published the final version of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework. The new framework, available here, will come into effect on 1 September 2021, and the Early Years Alliance has summarised the main changes here.
Following a recent consultation, a number of small amendments have been made to the safety and welfare requirements of the EYFS, which the Department for Education has also summarised here.
To support settings implementing the revised EYFS Framework, two vodcasts have been published on Foundation Years, bringing the latest information on the revised EYFS into one place. The first vodcast is aimed at headteachers, senior leadership and governors and the second vodcast is aimed at Private, Voluntary and Independent settings and childminders.
Support that is already available for the sector includes:
- The Department's new non statutory curriculum guidance Development Matters published on 3 September 2020. This document provides a top-level view of how children develop and learn and guides but does not replace, professional judgement. The department has sought feedback from early adopters on this and will consider making refinements ahead of statutory roll out of the reforms.
- Foundation Years recently hosted free Learn - Explore - Debate events focused on the revised EYFS with sessions on reducing unnecessary workload and self-regulation in the early years. The recordings and case studies from the events can be found here.
Further EYFS implementation support and guidance will be published during the summer term, including local authority case studies which will be published after Easter.
Reminder: Recovery and Renewal Survey
Lucy Butler, Executive Director of Children Young People and Learning for West Sussex County Council, is chairing a recovery group to start to work on the way services are delivered as we recover from the pandemic restrictions.
We want to ensure you are kept well informed and engaged on all areas of work across our Children, Young People and Learning department. We also want to give you opportunities to get involved in helping us shape and move forward various aspects of how we work. To do this as effectively as possible we need your help and a few minutes of your time!
We would be grateful if you could respond to the following survey to help review and inform our next steps and decision making. We plan to feedback on the survey responses we receive and how we are taking onboard your feedback and ideas for the future.
There are only a few questions so should not take long to complete. The survey closes on 13 April 2021.
Summer term Childminder Network Webinar
Childminder Networks are briefings for local childminders. They provide the opportunity to meet with other childminders to discuss practice, share ideas and to receive up-to-date information about national and local developments that may affect practice.
This network is hosted by the Crawley and Horsham Early Years and Childcare Advisors, but childminders from any area are welcome to attend. There is no cost to attend. To book, log on to the Learning and Development Gateway and search for the course code.
- Saturday 12 June 10:00am - 11:30am EYT 21/1079
Online learning opportunities
Did you know we offer 29 online courses available for only £10 each? We have purchased these from National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) in bulk, so we can offer to you at a reduced price. They include:
- Characteristics of Effective Learning
- Cohort Tracking
- Home Learning Environment
- Let’s look at Phonics
- Let's look at Evaluative Practice and Impact Measurement
- Little Scientists Leading the Way
- Level 2 Food Hygiene
- Maths in Early Years
- Promoting Positive Behaviour
- Safer Recruitment, Selection and Induction
- Supporting Children with SEND
- Level 2 Child Protection
To book:
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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#142 (DFE data capture, SEND under 5's support process, contain outbreak management fund - round 2)
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#141 (DfE data capture, Updated Covid-19 Guidance, FE Estimate Payments, Recovery & Renewal Survey, Virtual Childminder Conference)
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#140 (Asymptomatic testing letter for parents, Ofsted inspections, Contain Outbreak Management Fund round 2, Talking Heads with our LADOs)
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#139 (FE - Provider Declarations, Asymptomatic Testing Guidance, Qualifications Pathway, Public Health Webinar, SEND Survey, Reporting COVID-19 cases over the holidays)
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#138 (Asymptomatic Testing for Childminders and Parents of Under 5s, Shielding Update, Free Entitlement deadlines, provider declaration and indicative budgets, Cyber-attack warning)
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:
- 14 Apr - Deadline for Sufficiency submission
- 21 Apr - Summer term Actuals submissions open (FE providers)
- 15 May - Childminder Virtual Conference (save the date, event details to follow)
- 21 May - Summer term Actuals submissions close (FE providers)
- w/c 21 Jun - Summer term Actuals payments expected (FE providers)
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