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Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council
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Wednesday 18 May 2022
Summer term Free Entitlement (FE) actuals claims – deadline this Friday
A reminder that the Online Provider Portal (OPP) is open for you to submit your FE claims for 2, 3 and 4 year olds. To ensure you submit your FE claims correctly please refer to the Actuals help guide and YouTube video. Please refer to setting update #212 for further information.
If you have already submitted your claims it is a good idea to log back in to check your submission is correct, and all child records are submitted. Ensure you click the ‘Send claim’ button to submit any changes, or unsubmitted records.
Deadline for submission: Friday 20 May 2022.
Government to launch consultation on childcare ratio changes before summer
Children and families minister Will Quince has confirmed that the government is "consulting on mirroring the Scottish model" for early years ratios.
In a series of tweets, the minister stated "I've considered the childcare ratio question carefully and put safety and quality first. We will be consulting on mirroring the Scottish model before the summer, which means a maximum ratio of 1 to 5 instead of 1 to 4 for 2-year-olds.
This proposal is about giving providers greater flexibility. Some were pushing me to go further on ratio reform but I’ve been clear from the start that I would not compromise on safety or quality.
This consultation is just the start of the journey. We have some of the best early years provision in the world, and I'll continue exploring how we can be ambitious for working parents - improving flexibility and reducing the cost of childcare."
The Department for Education will consult 'before the summer' on plans to raise the number of two-year-olds that one member of staff can care for in early years settings in England. Please look out for this consultation and take part to ensure your views are taken into consideration. We will also share the consultation via the broadcast.
Tax-Free Childcare resources
Following on from our previous Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) information in setting update #212, we are working on a campaign to encourage providers and eligible families to sign up, and use TFC. This will help families to save money on their childcare costs and may help open up a new line of income for providers.
It would be great to promote these messages in your setting for parents to view. We have a poster from Childcare Choices, a TFC poster and a poster on 30 hour codes which can be displayed in your setting.
There is useful information on why childcare providers should sign up to TFC and help your business grow. There is also a helpful parents guide which you can share with families in your setting to help spread the word about this childcare saving.
New Guidance on the Progress Check at Age 2
The Department for Education (DfE) has published new early years foundation stage (EYFS) guidance to provide support for early years practitioners when completing the progress check at age 2.
This non-statutory guidance will help all early years practitioners working with children between the ages of 2 and 3 to make an accurate assessment of a child’s development and work closely with parents and other professionals to put in place appropriate support and intervention where it is needed.
The guidance informs, supports and offers suggestions that can help practitioners review children’s development across the three prime areas of learning. It does not replace the professional judgement of practitioners. The guidance is clear that practitioners do not need to spend a long time away from the children to complete the progress check or carry out excessive tracking or evidence collection.
The recently published SEND and alternative provision green paper (see broadcast #210) sets out the government’s commitment to explore ways to upskill early years practitioners in undertaking the progress check including through encouraging better integration with the Healthy Child Programme review. The new guidance for the progress check emphasises the importance of integration for identifying any emerging concerns or SEND early, and quickly implementing appropriate support.
The DfE have also published a vodcast (open in Google Chrome) to explain the new guidance to early years practitioners and a blog that highlights why the progress check is important now, more than ever, as we support children to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
OFSTED Education Inspection Framework (EIF) curriculum roadshows for Early Years settings - South East
Ofsted is running a series of Education Inspection Framework (EIF) curriculum roadshows for Early Years settings. These events will be held regionally across the country, between June and July this year. Ofsted intend to run a specific roadshow for maintained nurseries later in the year.
These half-day events will offer the opportunity to learn more about how we look at language and communication at inspection and what we have learnt about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two representatives from your setting are welcome to attend. Each person attending will need to register separately. Please note that there is no charge for attending one of these events and spaces are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you are interested in attending one of these events, please find below details of the date, available session times and links for registration. Please see frequently asked questions or if you have any other queries, you can contact Ofsted at events@ofsted.gov.uk.
Free SENCO Training
The National Association of Special Educational Needs (nasen) run an accredited Early Years SENCO Award, funded by the Department for Education (DfE). The first cohort completed their training with West Sussex in February this year and we are very excited to offer this training again starting in the Autumn Term 2022.
This DfE funded award, run by nasen and developed by School Improvement Liverpool, is a 12.5 day course, which runs over a four month period. After undertaking a series of online written tasks and an observation in the setting, attendees are awarded a Level 3 Early Years SENCO Award, which is accredited by CACHE. Participants must be Level 3 qualified and Early Years SENCOs currently working in PVI settings or childminders within the Local Authority. If you would like to take part in this programme, please see the Key Information sheet for settings - Level 3 SENCO Award, dates for Level 3 SENCO Award Training 2022-2023, and complete the Expression of Interest Form returning it to FISInclusionTeam@westsussex.gov.uk by 3 June 2022.
The 2022 Speech, Language and Communication Early Years Summit
The 2022 Early Years summit is taking place Monday 30 May – Sunday 5 June. This is a free online event and you are able to watch the videos at any time during the summit week. As soon as each day's videos are released at 9.00am you can watch them from then to the end of the summit on Sunday. More information, including how to sign up is available here.
- NOW - Summer term Actuals submissions open (FE providers)
- 12 May - FE Headcount day (FE providers)
- 20 May - Summer term Actuals submissions close (FE providers)
- w/c 20 June - Summer term payments expected (FE providers)
- 31 August - Sufficiency submission deadline
Network meetings ran as online webinars:
Learning and Development Network Meetings
These took place online in January and February. The network focused on reviewing the quality of your provision and ongoing quality improvement planning. View the key presentation slides and the updates shared at the meetings.
INCO SENCO Network
These took place in March and focused on Supported Transitions, SEND Under 5 Outcomes, Deferring or Delaying School Entry, and Action Planning. View the key presentation slides, the presentation from the Virtual School and the FAQ document.
To allow our Early Years and Childcare Advisors to focus their support to where it is most needed, we ask that you check for information online before you contact us.
COVID-19 guidance
Other information and guidance (WSCC)
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Practice support (EYFS, Diversity and Inclusion, health and wellbeing, transitions, legislation, regulation and safeguarding)
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Supporting families in your childcare setting (includes CLaWBA, integrated reviews)
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Tools for schools and settings (supporting the inclusion of all children in early years)
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Business support (Free Entitlement, marketing, finance, recruitment, advertising)
- Training and qualifications
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Network meetings/events (Learning and development, INCO SENCO, business and welfare)
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Online Provider Portal (submission dates, help guides)
For help to access information
To request additional support for your setting
All early years providers must follow a new reformed EYFS framework from September 2021. View the new framework to see how the changes affect you, and access updated Learning Journal materials online.
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 consult the guidance to check when to inform Ofsted.
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.
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#214 (Advance notice of planned IT downtime, summer term FE actuals claims reminder, FE for families from Ukraine, transition events 16-27 May, new resources from the National Literacy Trust)
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#213 (Summer term FE actuals claims reminder, no FE children this term, transition events, Ofsted updated guidance for childcare register, DfE sustainability and climate change strategy, Ofsted's five year strategy, foundation years survey, childcare choices survey, energy efficiency funding)
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#212 (Summer term FE actuals claims, claiming FE for Afghan families, settings signing up to tax-free childcare, children and young people's plan, business planning tools, HAF 2022 expressions of interest, healthy child programme update)
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#211 (New training dates for paediatric first aid and child protection and safeguarding training, new benefits advice service for parents of children with SEND)
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#210 (DfE incident support line, post headcount/exceptional payment requests, SEND review, families from Ukraine, childminders and Ukraine family scheme, consultation FE2YO NRPF, education recovery in EY providers)
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