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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 22 July 2021
Now the summer holidays are almost upon us, the frequency of these broadcasts will be reduced to weekly on Wednesday at 4.00pm. If there are any urgent messages, in particular relating to COVID-19, these will be communicated as a special broadcast, as required. The frequency of the broadcasts will be reviewed again in September to take account of the amount of information needing to be supplied at that time.
We would also like to say a huge thank you for all your hard work in supporting children and families across the county during this year, which we know has, and continues to, present some significant challenges to early years and childcare providers. The resilience shown by providers has been unparalleled, including your continued commitment to support all families, whether they were physically attending or at home. We have and will continue to share the amazing work you do, and the impact of this, at all levels of the county council, and in our discussions with the Department for Education.
For both settings who will remain open over the summer and those who are term time only, we hope that you are able to find some time to relax and spend time with loved ones. For anyone needing support over the summer period you can still obtain help through your Early Years and Childcare Adviser (EYCA) or by contacting the Family Information Service in the usual way.
Apology
In Tuesday's broadcast we included an article about the CHIL-led Out Olympics. While we are happy to promote this as an excellent opportunity for children and families, it has been brought to our attention that the use of the word "oriental" may have caused some offence. We would like to apologise for any offence caused to anyone reading the article. We have contacted the organisers who have also apologised and will remove this reference in all future communications.
PHE South East Educational Settings Outbreak Pack
Public Health England SE have just updated their Outbreak Pack for schools, early year settings, special and residential schools, out of school provision and FE colleges, which can be found here.
Important note on changes to contact tracing
You will be aware of changes to the requirement to contact tracing Monday (19 July). This means that early years and childcare providers no longer need to contact trace, unless an outbreak situation occurs, and can leave this to NHS Test and Trace, although they can choose to continue if they wish.
Locally we are recommending that you continue to contact trace, using the usual definitions of a close contact, just as we hope you are continuing to adopt other mitigation measures available to you in the face of rapidly rising cases. We appreciate the disruption this causes, but Public Health have recommended that this is currently the best way of protecting staff and children until the Test and Trace service can properly support you. Please note, there is no requirement for settings to have staff available to contact trace if they are closed for the summer.
For early years and childcare settings running over the summer, please continue to report all positive cases to our Family Information Service family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk.
Introduction of new self-test kits for at-home testing in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries
From this week, NHS Test and Trace is introducing a new type of lateral flow device (LFD) for at-home testing of staff in PVI nurseries. These tests involve double nasal swabbing only – a throat sample is not needed. These devices return a positive or negative result in under 30 minutes.
Settings should continue to use any remaining Innova self-test kit stock and only order additional test kits through the online reordering system when stocks start to run low. New test kits for at-home testing are supplied in boxes of 7 and enable testing for 3.5 weeks. Updated guidance on the introduction of the new test kit has been uploaded to the early years and primary school document sharing platform in the ‘Guidance Manuals/Documents' folder. (Note: link is to Google Drive which may not work in older browsers)
An update to Development Matters
On Tuesday, the Department for Education (DfE) published a revised version of Development Matters, the government’s non-statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The updates reflect feedback received from the Early Adopter schools that have been implementing the reforms to the EYFS over the 2020/21 academic year. Please note that changes to content are minor and providers will not need to alter any planning they have already carried out based on the September 2020 version
You can find the revised version by clicking this link.
These minor changes include:
- updated links, making minor tweaks to wording for clarification purposes,
- updates to the Introduction and Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning sections to ensure the wording is aligned with the aims of the reforms and reflects the most recent research and evidence
- ensuring the document is accessible, inclusive, and easier to navigate which includes a new design, layout and colour coding.
No major changes have been made to the curriculum guidance under the seven areas of learning and therefore this update should not impact planning based on the early adopter version of Development Matters.
‘Development Matters was originally road-tested with over 200 early years practitioners, who gave extensive feedback. Their input changed the document for the better. Since then, over 3000 schools have been ‘Early Adopters’ of the revised EYFS. They have been overwhelmingly positive about the revised Development Matters, but their experience has highlighted some minor areas for improvement in the document. I would like to thank all those teachers and early years educators for being so generous in giving this time and sharing their expertise.’ – Dr Julian Grenier, who developed this guidance.
The DfE hope that this new design will make it easier for practitioners to navigate and use for their curriculum planning.
Ofsted: Early years inspection handbook
On Monday 28 June, Ofsted published the early years inspection handbook for use from 1 September 2021.
Changes have been made to:
- Reflect the new statutory framework for the EYFS, effective from 1 September 2021, including Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).
- Reflect that the period in which EYFS disapplications can be used ends on 31 August 2021.
- Provide clarity on inspection preparation and practice for providers.
There are no changes to inspection policy or methodology and all inspections will be on-site. The current Early Years inspection handbook will continue to be used until 31 August 2021.
Request for help from the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme!
Do you have a venue or space that is not being used over the summer holidays that could be hired from you by a potential HAF provider? This could be a great opportunity for some additional income over the holidays, whist helping children in your community to access much needed provision.
Or did you miss the deadline but you would still like to explore offering places to eligible children in your summer schemes?
If you are interested in finding out more about HAF and how you can get involved, either offering places or venues, please email HAF@westsussex.gov.uk.
Autumn term Extended Free Entitlement (FE) claims - 30 hour code deadline reminder
In order for children to access an Extended FE place in the Autumn term, please advise eligible parents to:
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apply in good time to ensure they have their 30 hours code by 31 August 2021: www.westsussex.gov.uk/freechildcare
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log in to their childcare account to check their details are up to date, and reconfirm their eligibility by 31 August 2021: gov.uk/sign-in-childcare-account;
- Contact the HMRC helpline on 0300 1234 097 if they are experiencing issues applying or reconfirming.
Checking 30 hour codes are valid for Autumn term:
- Parents must have applied for, or reconfirmed their 30 hour code before 31 August 2021.
- The code ‘start date’ must be before 1 September 2021 and the ‘Grace period end date’ covers the Autumn term 2021.
- Login to the Online Provider Portal and use the online eligibility checker ahead of the Autumn term. View our helpful video guide for step by step guidance.
- Codes which are applied for or reconfirmed after 31 August 2021 will not be valid for Autumn term.
Please note, where a parent no longer meets the eligibility criteria for 30 hours, and their child is already in a 30 hours place at your setting, they can continue to access their funded place for the duration of the code’s grace period.
If you have any queries, please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk or phone the Family Information Service on 01243 777807.
FE stretched claims: Termly limits 2021-2022
In line with the Provider Declaration 2021-2022, point 4.29, providers who stretch their funding over more than 38 weeks per year, must claim within the following termly limits as below:
| Term |
Term Time Claims |
Stretched claims - maximum number of weeks available |
| Autumn 2021 |
14 |
17 (includes half term and Christmas holidays |
| Spring 2022 |
12 |
16 (includes half term and Easter holidays) |
| Summer 2022 |
12 |
19 (Includes half term and summer holidays) |
Please remember, it is important that you only claim what you can deliver. If you are closed over Christmas, you will need to reduce the number of weeks claimed for each child.
For further information please read the document entitled ‘Claims process pdf’ on our website.
Update to Hungry Little Minds website
DfE have recently added new activities, videos and resources to the Hungry Little Minds website to give parents and carers fresh ideas for supporting their child’s early language development.
The activities are simple to do and don’t require many resources. Most importantly, they are rooted in evidence about ‘what works’ for supporting children aged 0-5 to develop their speech, language and communication skills.
Some changes have also been made to the look and feel of the website to make it even easier for parents to navigate the page and find what they need.
We hope you will support in sharing the updated website on social media and with the families that you work with, so that it can reach as many parents and carers as possible.
Learning and Development Networks dates for autumn
Early Years Learning and Development Network are for those who lead practice in early years settings. They provide updates, information and guidance to support and improve practice. They are free to attend.
- Adur - 4 October – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2074
- Arun – 29 September – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2071
- Arun - 5 October – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2076
- Chichester and Petworth - 5 October – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2077
- Crawley – 02 November – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2070
- Horsham - 5 October – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2075
- Horsham - 6 October – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2078
- Mid Sussex – 29 September – 10am to 12pm - EYT 21/2072
- Mid Sussex – 29 September – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2073
- Worthing - 7 October – 1pm to 3pm - EYT 21/2079
To book, search for the course code on the Learning and Development Gateway. If you have any questions, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
All early years providers must follow a new reformed EYFS framework from September 2021. View the new framework and how the changes affect you.
The West Sussex Learning Journal materials have been updated to reflect the changes to the EYFS from September 2021 and are available on our website.
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.
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:
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#172 (DfE data capture, Actions guidance update, EYC survey, CHIL-led Out Olympics, EYFS courses)
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#171 (DfE data capture, changes to government COVID-19 guidance, Early Help redesign - next steps, request for HAF venues, new staff wellbeing resource, two new courses for fostering wellbeing in the early years)
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#170 (Message from Director of Public Health, provider survey, FE autumn term estimate payments, letter from Ministers, new food safety resource, enhance your practice by learning Makaton)
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#169 (Removal of bubbles in settings, help with HAF venues, 30 hour code deadline reminder, FE leaflets, new virtual webinars for 2021/22)
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#168 (DfE data capture, get ready for changes to EYFS - new DfE service, last chance to book)
- 31 Aug - West Sussex EYC provider survey closes
- 31 Aug - Deadline to complete termly Sufficiency Update
- 1 Sep - Autumn term Actuals submissions open (FE providers)
- 1 Sep - New EYFS framework effective
- 16 Sep - Autumn term headcount day (FE providers)
- 24 Sep - Autumn term Actuals submissions close (FE providers)
- w/c 18 Oct - Autumn term Actuals payments expected (FE providers)
- 8 Nov - Spring term Estimate submissions open (FE providers)
- 22 Nov - Spring term Estimate submissions close (FE providers)
- w/c 6 Dec - Spring term Estimate payments expected (FE providers)
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