The West Sussex approach puts the child first. We work with children, families, communities, our partners and schools in a restorative, strength based way. Strong relationships are at the heart of what we do.
Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council
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Wednesday 19 October 2022
Input into our Early Years Strategy
We have been successful in securing support from the Local Government Association to write an overarching Early Years Strategy. Please find a letter here from Helen Gillespie (Senior Education Advisor) and Yasmin Maskatiya (Head of Service - Standards and Effectiveness) for further information.
As key stakeholders, input from the Early Years and Childcare sector will be fundamental in drawing up an effective Early Years strategy.
The provider focus group will be taking place on 7 December 2022, 6.00pm to 8.00pm via Microsoft Teams and will be led by Katie Clarke from Cumbria County Council.
To express interest in taking part in this session, please email: family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk. Spaces are limited and if we have more requests to join, we will endeavour to ensure a balanced representation. Further session information will be sent at a later date. For those who are unable to attend, we will contact you to let you know how you can share your views.
Free Entitlement Autumn Term Actuals Payments
Please be advised that Autumn term payments have been released for:
- Free Entitlement actuals where there are no outstanding queries.
- Disability Access Fund (DAF) for all approved applications where evidence was provided.
Please note, payments should reach your account by the end of this week (week commencing 17/10/22), as they can take three to five working days to show in your account.
The Online Provider Portal (OPP) is now closed for Autumn term submissions, but you can still log back in to view your payment summary. Please refer to the OPP actuals help guide at: www.westsussex.gov.uk/ecsportal. If you have any queries please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk.
2 Year old funding criteria extended to include all families with No Recourse to Public Funds
Following consultation, the Department for Education (DfE) has recently extended the 2 year old funding eligibility criteria to children from all families with No Recourse to Public Funds, subject to the below maximum income thresholds:
- £26,500 for families with one child.
- £30,600 for families with two or more children.
This includes children of:
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Zambrano carers (persons from a non-EEA state whose residence is required in order to enable a child or dependant adult, who is British, to live in the UK),
- families with no recourse to public funds with a right to remain in the UK on grounds of private/family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights,
- families receiving support under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 who are also subject to a no recourse to public funds restriction,
- those who have claimed asylum in the UK and are waiting for a decision (known as ‘part 6’),
- a subset of failed asylum seekers supported under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999,
- Chen carers (a primary carer of a self-sufficient EEA national child),
- families holding a BN(O) passport,
- spousal visa holders,
- work visa holders,
- student visa holders,
- those with no immigration status,
- those with a UK Ancestry Visa,
- those with temporary protection status under Section 12 of the Immigration and Nationality Act,
- those with pre-settled status who do not meet the qualifying right to reside test.
Please signpost any potentially eligible families to our webpage for further information regarding how to apply: www.westsussex.gov.uk/freechildcare.
Retaining and recruiting practitioners
Retaining and Recruiting staff is a current issue for many employers, not least the early years and childcare sector. A survey carried out by the Early Years Alliance in October 2021 revealed that more than 80% of settings are finding it difficult to recruit staff.
We have been talking to providers and here are some things you might want to consider if you are looking to attract new practitioners to your setting and to retain those already in post.
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Commit to upskilling the workforce: Demonstrating a clear career pathway, with opportunities to progress, can help retain existing staff but also attract candidates to your setting.
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Make your staff ambassadors: Looking after your staff means they are more likely to speak positively about your setting making them powerful ambassadors. The early years and childcare world can be small so word of mouth can really matter.
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Sell what makes you unique: If you want to stand out from other settings, understand what makes your setting unique and use it as a selling point. Maybe you’re a charity run setting and do a lot to support the local community. A community-focused ethos can have a big part to play in attracting new staff.
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Look beyond college leavers: If recruiting college leavers isn’t working there are other routes to consider. These include T-Levels, and apprentices.
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Utilise social media: making use of online job sites can work but may not always attract the right demographic for you. Perhaps you could share job vacancies on local community social media pages, or your local school may be willing to put something in their newsletter. This can get your message out locally but also hit a much wider mix of people.
Don’t forget! Setting update #219 included information on how we can support you in sharing job vacancies on our social media pages.
Business Focus
In these tough economic times, a working current business plan could mean the difference between success and failure. In a provider survey carried out in the summer of 2021, only 43% of the respondents had a business plan in place, and of these who did over half said it was in need of a review.
A well-written, realistic business plan helps you focus your attention to where your business needs it. It will show peaks and troughs in income across the year and help you project how this may affect your business operation. This should be a live working document that focuses you on any action that is needed, and not just something you do once a year.
Your plan should have a cash-flow forecast as well as a profit and loss forecast. Using sensible, realistic figures in your cash-flow forecasting can help identify shortfalls in cash before it becomes an issue.
Need help getting started? More help and guidance is available on our website.
Launch of seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccinations programmes ahead of winter
To support this year’s seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccination programmes, the government and NHS has released media materials to support the uptake of flu vaccines and COVID-19 boosters. The following materials are available to you to share with families and staff in your setting. Additional resources will be made available at the end of October.
Early Years Food and Nutrition Survey
Early Years Alliance and the London Early Years Foundation are keen to hear from as many providers as possible about the food provision within your setting.
This survey will help to better understand the experiences of the early years sector to try and influence policy to improve early years food provision and funding. The survey can be accessed here and the closing date is Tuesday 25 October 2022.
Early Years Professional Development Programme - Phase 3
Earlier this year, a number of practitioners in West Sussex took part in the Early Years Professional Development Programme phase 2 (EYPDP3). Feedback from practitioners who took part was very positive. We are pleased to say that the Department for Education (DfE) are able to offer additional practitioners the chance to take part on Phase 3 of the programme.
The programme involved between 10 and 12 days training delivered through self-directed learning and live webinars focusing on Communication and Language, Mathematics and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. Backfill payments will be paid to the setting to support the practitioner to be released to complete the training.
The training is open to any practitioners who is qualified to Level 3 and has not yet already completed EYPDP1 or EYPDP2 who is working in a setting that meets at least two of the following criteria:
- 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 taking up the disadvantaged two-year old offer (2 years FE)
Early years providers where settings may not meet the above criteria but where local intelligence suggests disadvantaged children would benefit from their practitioners receiving additional training support may also be eligible.
Once the DfE have confirmed the Delivery Partner for phase 3, we will share details of eligible settings with them and the Delivery Partner will contact you directly with details of how to sign up for the programme. If any practitioners in your setting would like to take part in the training, please keep an eye out for this email and use the instructions provided to sign up. This offer is to all settings across the country so, if you would like to access this free training, please respond as quickly as you can to the email in order to secure a place. Please be aware that the email may go into your junk/spam box email box, so you should check this regularly to ensure you don't miss this final opportunity to access EYPDP training.
Support for early years settings from the Experts and Mentors Programme
The Experts and Mentors Early Years COVID-19 Recovery Programme from the Department for Education (DfE) is focused on supporting early years practitioners and leaders to address the impact of the pandemic on the youngest children. The DfE are currently looking for settings who are interested in receiving support from January 2023, for the spring term (academic year 2022/23). To receive support, settings must complete the application form by Friday 11 November 2022. You can apply to receive support, and find out further information on eligibility, on Pen Green's website.
EYFS Reforms One Year On conference
Last week, Hempsall's Early Years (hey!) ran a conference entitled "EYFS Reform - one year on". You can see the presentation slides and a recording of the conference at www.hempsalls.com/hey.
I CAN is now Speech and Language UK
Many of you use the information on the I CAN website to support children with speech, language and communication needs. I CAN has now changed its name to "Speech and Language UK" and the new web address is https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/.
- W/C 17 OCT - Autumn actuals payment expected
- 31 DEC - Sufficiency for Autumn term deadline
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
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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#236 (Government's energy support scheme; starting school questionnaire; wrap around childcare for armed forces families; network meetings; early years designated lead forum; virtual school website; inclusion courses; home learning environment campaign launched; new blog on the early years experts and mentors programme)
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#235 (Starting school applications; Ofsted roadshows; new foundation years vodcast and blog; autumn term network meetings; updated contact details for SAT EY SEND transition teachers)
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#234 (Safeguarding focus: safer recruitment - guidance on online searches of shortlisted candidates; childcare survey deadline approaching; committee run provision; introduction to specialist advisory teachers - EY SEND transitions; Ofsted education recovery series; respiratory outbreaks and prevention and control webinar; pre-school immunisations; HAF summer feedback)
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#233 (Childcare needs survey update; autumn FE actuals - deadline this Friday; tax-free childcare search route now live; early years stronger practice hubs advisory group; updated FAQs and webinar recording; updated quality improvement criteria; virtual reality demonstrations)
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#232 (Increase in Scarlet Fever; autumn term FE actuals claim; setting review meetings; early years inclusion support plan; HAF Christmas 2022 expressions of interest now open; government consultations final reminder; childcare needs survey; Flu immunisation for early years; food poverty a growing concern)
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