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Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council
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Wednesday 8 June 2022
Advance Notice of Planned IT Downtime
Please be advised that the West Sussex County Council's website, including the Online Provider Portal will be unavailable on Monday 13 June 2022 between 12:00pm and 2:00pm. All forms, 30 hours (extended FE) eligibility checks, and funding summaries will be unavailable during this period. Please note that parents and carers will not be able to submit 2 year old Free Entitlement applications, and our Family Information Service website will also be unavailable to the public during this period.
Beyond COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control public health webinars
Nationally since 2020, largely due to precautions introduced as a result of COVID-19, there has been a dramatic decrease in most communicable infections, including those usually associated with young children. However, as we move to living with COVID-19, it is highly likely that there will be a resurgence of these infections within education, early years and childcare settings. This is already being reflected in reported cases of Chicken Pox and Scarlet Fever within West Sussex.
The best line of defence is to continue to embrace the high standards of infection prevention and control (IPC) previously introduced, in order to effectively break the chain of infection and reduce the likelihood of onward transmission within primary schools, early years and childcare environments.
The Public Health team are pleased to be able to provide a webinar focused on Infection Prevention and Control Beyond COVID-19. The webinar is targeted towards primary school, early years and childcare staff, with the ambition to build upon existing knowledge, skills and practices developed over the course of the pandemic. The webinar looks beyond COVID-19 with a greater focus on other common childhood infections and explores how best to break the chain of infection by providing practical application of precautionary measures and actions staffing teams can take.
This Zoom webinar, which is intended to run between 60 and 90 minutes, acts as an introduction to the broader IPC practices, with the hope to act as a foundation for enrolling onto the IPC Champions program we are looking to develop next academic year.
The webinar is targeted at primary school, early years and childcare staff, although the ideal audience would be staff who are responsible for implementing COVID-19 guidance, liaising with UKSHA or food safety and hygiene in these settings. To book your place, please use the link below for the date you wish to attend.
Safeguarding Reminder
It has come to our attention that a number of settings do not currently have appropriate practice in their setting to keep children safe. The key areas that have been identified relate to:
- the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the responsibility of all practitioners in the setting to take responsibility for safeguarding,
- how to raise concerns including whistleblowing,
- the role of the LADO,
- safer recruitment and the Disqualification and Barring Service (DBS),
- risk assessment in the setting,
- use of supervision to support safeguarding, and
- all staff having up to date knowledge of developments in safeguarding, such as county lines ad contextual safeguarding.
Please make sure that all staff in your setting have access to high quality safeguarding training. All of our West Sussex training has been quality assured and refers to the procedures used within West Sussex. If you access alternative training, you must make sure it includes all necessary elements and that you also have knowledge of West Sussex processes. Please refer to the West Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership website for local information, including recent West Sussex Serious Case Reviews/Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Audits.
We would also recommend that you keep safeguarding as a regular conversation in staff meetings so that you can discuss scenarios and how you would respond. This will support staff confidence in dealing with a range of issues in order to keep children safe.
Action Planning to Improve Outcomes for Children with identified SEND (Taster Webinar)
This is a 1.5 hour webinar for Early Years SENCO’s, Room Leaders and Practitioners. It is designed to support practitioners in identifying potential barriers to children with SEND accessing the learning experiences on offer, ensuring access to a full and rich curriculum.
- Tuesday 14 June 2022 - 6.30pm to 8.00pm - EYT 22/1803 - £16 per place
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.
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 begins on 13 June on the theme of "Understanding Early Trauma". The Parent-Infant Foundation have more information available on their website.
- 13 June - IT downtime
- 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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#217 (HAF Deadline Reminder, Invitation To Take Part in Research, SEND and Inclusion Newsletter, Launch of the NPQEYL, Staff Ratios Consultation, Learning Language and Loving It, Good Practice Articles)
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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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