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Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council
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Wednesday 1 June 2022
Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme - deadline reminder
Further to information in Broadcast #212, this is a reminder that the Expression of Interest form for Summer HAF 2022 will close at midnight on 5 June.
Invitation to take part in Early Years research
The Department for Education (DfE) is carrying out research to explore the experiences of people working in the early years sector. They want to speak to childminders as well as those working in group settings to gather their views and get feedback on a new service. The wider aim for this project is to provide information and training for the early years workforce. The research is planned for early June. The research sessions will last a maximum of 45 minutes and will be conducted online. The DfE will require your consent before research can take place. Once consent has been received, you will be sent an email asking you to select a date that is suitable to you.
If you or your colleagues are interested in taking part please read the information sheet and complete the form at the end of the information sheet.
If you have any questions, please email andrew.davies@digital.education.gov.uk or dalma.adefeyisan@education.gov.uk.
SEND and Inclusion Newsletter
The latest edition of the SEND & Inclusion Newsletter is now available.
Foundation Years Facebook Page
Foundation Years have a new Facebook page. If you currently use their Facebook page, please update to the new page as the old one is no longer being updated.
DfE's Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy published
The Department for Education (DfE) has published its Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy to empower children, young people and those working in education to fight climate change.
All education settings will have a nominated sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan. To support this, DfE will roll out carbon literacy training for at least one person in every locally maintained nursery, state-funded school, college and university. They will also support settings to reduce waste, moving away from single-use items and towards reusable alternatives where possible.
Later this year, the National Education Nature Park will launch. By considering the whole physical education estate as a virtual National Education Nature Park, we can engage children and young people with the natural world and directly involve them in improving biodiversity in their setting.
If you would like to receive further updates about the development and delivery of DfE’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, you can sign up to the mailing list by completing this form.
Launch of the National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership
The DfE has announced the launch of the National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) which will be available from autumn 2022.
This professional development offer will support early years leaders to develop expertise in leading high-quality education and care, as well as in effective staff and organisational management, working with and through their colleagues so that every child gets the best start in life.
Read more about National Professional Qualifications here.
A message from the DfE on staff: child ratios
Following recent media attention, the Minister for Children and Families at the Department for Education (DfE) Will Quince has confirmed plans to consult the sector in the summer on mirroring the Scottish model of a ratio of 1 to 5 instead of 1 to 4 for 2-year-olds in early years settings.
The Minister emphasised that he wants to work closely with the sector, hearing from providers and parents/carers on the issue before any decisions are made. The DfE will share information on how to make your voice heard in due course.
Learning Language and Loving It™ - The Hanen Program® for Early Childhood Educators (Hanen LLLI)
Learning Language and Loving It™ – The Hanen Program® for Early Childhood Educators (Hanen LLLI) is a training programme to promote opportunities for social, language and literacy learning in Early Years (EY) settings. In this project, the focus was on children aged 3–4 years and the staff in the 131 state-maintained nursery settings that supported them.
The implementation and process evaluation (IPE) report for this project was published last month, April 2022, and can be found here.
The report found the vast majority of nursery staff surveyed agreed that children’s exposure to Hanen-trained staff had increased the amount of high-quality child-staff interactions (88%), child-initiated interactions (86%) and the frequency of children’s turn-taking interactions (86%). Ongoing COVID-19 disruptions throughout the trial meant that it was not possible to assess the impact of LLLI on children’s language outcomes with standardised measures.
State-maintained and PVI nursery settings interested in the LLLI programme can now register to receive the programme as part of a new research trial starting in Sept 2023.
Good Practice Articles for Early Years Settings
Aaron Bradbury looks at how nurturing in the early years lays the foundation for empathy and how you can embed this in your practice
In light of National Childrens Day UK 2022, which had a theme of 'Choose Kind', PACEY speaks to some of its advisors about how to promote kindness in your setting.
Early Excellence looks at the key questions to consider if you're looking to improve processes for effective assessment.
- w/c 20 June - Summer term payments expected (FE providers)
- w/c 20 June - Summer term Inclusion payments expected
- 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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#216 (Early years COVID-19 recovery experts and mentors programme; children we care for - designated lead forum; vodcast on outdoor learning; child safety week; speech and language courses this term)
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#215 (Summer term FE actuals - deadline this Friday, consultation on childcare ratio changes before summer, Tax-Free Childcare resources, new guidance on progress check at age 2, Ofsted EIF curriculum roadshows for South East, free SENCO training, speech, language and communications early years summit)
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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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