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Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council
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Wednesday 3 November 2021
COVID-related closure notifications
We have been made aware by Ofsted that some Early Years settings have not been reporting COVID-related closures to them because they think this is no longer a requirement.
Please remember that you must notify Ofsted, or the childminder agency with which you are registered, of any confirmed cases in your setting, whether a child or a staff member. Settings should also tell Ofsted if they have to close the setting as a result. It is a legal requirement as set out in paragraph 3.52 of the early years foundation stage statutory framework. Settings should report as soon as they are able to, and in any case within 14 days. Settings can read ‘tell Ofsted if you have a COVID-19 incident at your childcare business’ to ensure that all the required information is included in their notifications.
Although you no longer need to notify the Family Information Service (FIS) of all positive cases of COVID-19 within your setting, you must contact FIS if you are considering closing or reducing children's access to their usual education entitlement as a result of cases within your setting or linked to staff members.
Key Spending Review Announcements
On the 27 October 2022, the Chancellor delivered his Budget and the outcome of the 2021 Spending Review.
The Department for Education (DfE) want to draw your attention to the following key announcements relevant to the sector:
- Government are investing additional funding for the early years entitlements worth £160m in 2022-23, £180m in 2023-24 and £170m in 2024-25. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s childcare entitlement offers and reflects the costs of inflation and national living wage increases.
- Over £200 million a year will be invested into the continuation of the holiday activities and food programme, providing enriching activities and healthy meals for disadvantaged children during school holidays.
The DfE will confirm the 2022-23 hourly funding rates for individual local authorities in due course, followed by the initial allocations in December. We will keep you informed as and when we receive more information.
The government is also investing £153 million to build a stronger, more expert workforce in the early years sector. This was previously announced as part of the £1.4 billion commitment made on 2 June 2021. View a factsheet detailing how that £153 million will be invested.
Support to Early Years Settings
We would like to update you about some changes to the early years team. From this month, we now have a number of Early Years and Childcare Advisors (EYCAs) working within the Virtual School. As a result of this change, all support for care experienced children will now be provided by the Virtual School.
For enquiries regarding Children in Care, please contact:
As we continue to review and develop the EYCA role as part of our move to Education and Skills, we will offer support to settings based on the level of need and support already being provided. This may mean that you are not offered a Termly Conversation every term. We will use the opportunities already in place, such as existing Targeted Setting Support, to engage with you and offer information, advice and guidance. Termly Conversations may be offered online, by phone or by a visit. If your setting needs additional support, please use the information below to help you to access the information you need.
To enable you to be able to access the support you need quickly, and to allow our EYCAs to focus their support to where it is most needed, we would like to remind you of the information, advice and guidance that is available to you on our website. Please refer to this guidance before you contact the Family Information Service (FIS) as you may be able to answer your query by reading and following this guidance.
If your query relates to COVID-19, please see the guidance for early years and childcare settings:
For other queries, please see information available on our website at Information for childcare providers - West Sussex County Council or Tools for schools and settings in the first instance. Within this section of the website, you can find information on:
If this does not answer your query, please contact the Family Information Service on 01243 777807 or family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk.
If you require additional support please complete a Targeted Setting Support request form, referring to the guidance document to support you in completing this fully.
Early Years Professional Development Programme - Building on Success - Invitation to participate
Invitations to take part in the Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP) have now been sent to eligible settings in West Sussex. If you have not received a related email, please check your junk folder. If you think you meet the criteria to take part in the programme, but have not been contacted about taking part, please contact family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk and we will check your eligibility and pass your details on if appropriate. The eligibility criteria are that a setting includes:
- at least one child with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or in receipt of Disability Access Fund (DAF)
- at least one child in receipt of Early years Pupil Premium (EYPP)
- at least one child in receipt of 2 year old Free Entitlement (FE)
You can find more information here, including an introductory video, an e-Brochure and a training course taster session.
Spread the word and share our page!
Did you know The Family Information Service is on Facebook? We post information relevant to parents and carers on a range of topics including;
- Finding local childcare
- Free Entitlement funding
- Starting school
- Health
- Family services
- Important national dates and more
Please like and share our page to encourage your parents and carers to receive the most recent updates and information - @FISWestSussex
Talking Clearly (Online)
This half day course is run by the NHS Speech and Language Team. It is for Practitioners who work with children who may need additional support with their speech and language at home or in an early years, childcare or home based setting. The aim of this course is to support you to understand how speech, sounds, attention and listening skills develop in young children and to learn about a range of strategies and approaches which promote the development of attention and listening skills, clear speech and pre-literacy skills. The cost is £25 per place.
- Tuesday 9 November 2021 – 6:00pm to 7:30pm – EYT21/2545
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 ' What happens if there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 in an educational setting' 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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#187 (Under 5's safeguarding conference, safeguarding training, early years teacher status)
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#186 (COVID-19 guidance update, notification reminder, contact tracing, COVID-19 testing during half-term, CO2 monitors, HPT change to out of hours enquiries, FE autumn term payments, learn - explore - debate, mental health aware, SEND newsletter)
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#185 (DfE data capture, starting school questionnaire, videos on implementing EYFS reforms, EYFS profile handbook, EYPDP phase 2 update, EY updates from the virtual school, provider survey, Christmas HAF - last chance to submit expressions of interest, child protection conferences)
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#184 (DfE data capture, important changes to reporting COVID-19 cases in your setting, self-isolation hub, Public Health England name change, FE children starting between 20/09/21 and 8/10/21, starting school applications, LoCASE business grants, step away from the star chart: strategies for responding to children's behaviour)
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#183 (COVID-19 guidance updates, HAF for Christmas, Nasen awards final reminder, EYPDP phase 2, area inclusion and improvement workshops, new DfE publications, oral health and the EYFS, Ofsted early years inspection handbook, choking hazards in settings)
- 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)
- 4 Jan - Spring term Actuals submissions open (FE providers)
- 4 Jan - Annual Early Years Census submissions open (FE providers)
- 20 Jan - Free Entitlement headcount day for Spring Term
- 28 Jan - Spring term Actuals submissions close (FE providers)
- 28 Jan - Annual Early Years Census submissions close (FE providers)
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