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Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council - Early Help Service
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Thursday 6 May 2021
Advance notice - next week's DfE data capture
Next week's Department for Education (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.
Following next weeks submission, the DfE have confirmed that the frequency of the data capture will decrease to fortnightly. Many thanks for your continued support in completing this.
Ordering testing kits for private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries and upcoming deliveries on Thursday 6 May, Friday 7 May or Monday 10 May
We have been informed by the Department for Education that the test kit supply process for PVI nurseries has changed. They have introduced a new online system for ordering test kits for testing at home. You are now able to regularly re-order test kits and better manage stock levels and deliveries to your nursery.
Your Unique Organisation Number (UON) is needed to place orders for test kits, using the new online ordering system. You should have received a separate welcome email containing your UON. You can also find your UON using the unique organisation number lookup form. In order to use the UON lookup website, please enter your Ofsted Unique Registration Number (URN) in the organisation ID field. If your URN is not prefixed with EY (for example EY123456), please add YE as a prefix to your URN (for example YE123456).
If you operate more than one nursery, you will receive a UON for each nursery. This will allow you to order test kits for each individual nursery. Where an individual nursery is registered with Ofsted with more than one URN, you may also receive more than one UON. In this scenario, nurseries are advised to use the UON associated with their most recently registered URN.
Please note that PVI nurseries will automatically receive a delivery of test kits on Thursday 6 May, Friday 7 May or Monday 10 May. This will be the final automatic delivery and will provide you with sufficient test kits to last until the end of May. In the unlikely event that you have a significant stock of self-test kits, you do have the option to reject your next delivery. After this you will need to use the new ordering system to place an order to receive further test kits.
You can order your test kit supplies using the order coronavirus (COVID-19) tests for your organisation online form. For further information on how to place an order, please refer to the ordering guidance available on the primary schools and nurseries document sharing platform. (Note: This link may not be compatible with some internet browsers. Please use an alternative if you are unable to access this.)
Testing of staff
It is important to remember the following regarding the testing of staff:
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Carrying out the tests. Nursery staff are asked to take their test kits home and carry out the test twice a week. The tests should be:
- taken before going to the workplace to minimise the risk of introducing infection, and
- evenly spaced through the week.
- Staff returning to work after a period of leave should take a Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test before coming into work.
- Part time workers should still broadly space their two tests through the week.
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Reporting results. Staff must report their result (whether positive, negative or void) to NHS Test and Trace as soon as the test is completed either online or by telephone as per the instructions in the home test kit. Staff should also share their result with their nursery (whether positive, negative or void) to help with contact tracing.
- Testing is not mandatory for staff and staff do not need to provide proof of a negative test result to attend nursery in person, although participation in testing is strongly encouraged.
New Resource To Support Diversity and Inclusion in Early Years
Tiney, a community of registered childminders, have developed a new guide for educators to reflect on their practice and review how they are celebrating diversity, promoting inclusion, challenging racism and all forms of prejudice in all types of early years settings. The guide provides a self-reflection tool for settings to use and can be downloaded here.
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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#150 (support available to providers to engage with asymptomatic testing, FE summer term actuals final reminder, extended FE claims reminder)
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#149 (COMF update, reminder to report positive COVID-19 cases, get a PCR test if symptomatic, ventilation, DAF summer claims, EYPP summer claims, working with pregnant people and/or families with a child under 1, childminder conference - enabling environments workshop)
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#148 (data retention period for testing log, Makaton)
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#147 (updating your Local Offer information, EYFS update, Ofsted update, Foundation Stage Forum subscription and Tapestry discount, Tools for Schools and Settings, Paediatric First Aid)
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#146 (final chance to apply for COMF, COVID-19 last public health webinar, FE summer term actuals, extended FE claims, school transitions Sept'21, CM conference - superhero play)
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:
- 6 May - Free Entitlement Summer term 'headcount day'
- 15 May - Childminder Virtual Conference
- 21 May - Summer term Actuals submissions close (FE providers)
- 16 Jun - Autumn term Estimate submissions open (FE providers)
- w/c 21 Jun - Summer term Actuals payments expected (FE providers)
- 2 Jul - Autumn term Estimate submissions close (FE providers)
- w/c 12 Jul - Autumn term Estimate payments expected (FE providers)
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