Newsletter for Early Years and Childcare providers in West Sussex
#12/2024 - Wednesday 20 March 2024
This week's newsletter includes:
- Contacting the Local Authority Designated Officer
- Warning - Online Provider Portal downtime
- Deadlines for Summer Term Estimates and Provider Declaration
- Early Years Funded Entitlement eligibility codes - Summer Term deadline
- New funding policy and invoice templates available
- Childminder consultation
- Early Years Training
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We would like to share with you an update from the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) service:
"Due to the increasing demand on LADO service, we are making a small change to the way we work to ensure we continue an efficient response to enquiries. The dedicated phone number will now automatically go to a voicemail and we ask you leave details of the reason for your call or email us. This enables us to record the contact and complete checks ahead of the consultation. We will continue to endeavour to get back to you within one working day."
You can visit the allegations against someone who works with children web page on the West Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership website for more information.
Please be advised that the Online Provider Portal has two planned periods of maintenance and will be unavailable during the following times:
- Wednesday 20 March between 8.00pm and 10.00pm, and
- Thursday 21 March between 8.00pm and 10.00pm.
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.
Please be reminded of the following deadlines:
- 11.59pm Friday 22 March - Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) Summer Term Estimates
- 11.59pm Wednesday 27 March - Provider Declaration form via the Online Provider Portal
We appreciate the Online Provider Portal has a short amount of downtime before this deadline, so please take note of this in the above article to ensure you can submit your Estimates and the Provider Declaration.
Headcount Day for Summer Term is 2 May 2024. Payments are scheduled to be received by providers week commencing 1 April 2024. Please note, we can only release payments once we have received/processed your Provider Declaration and there are no outstanding queries.
Please do not complete a Provider Declaration on the portal if:
- you already offer EYFE but want to add the new 2 year old EYFE, or
- you do not currently offer any form of EYFE but would like to from the Summer Term.
In these instances, if you do attempt to complete the online declaration it will be declined. Instead, please email freeentitlement@westsussex.gov.uk to request an EYFE sign-up pack. To offer funding for the Summer Term all EYFE sign-up documents must be submitted before 31 March 2024 as detailed in the special newsletter shared on 6 March.
In order for children to access a funded childcare place in the Summer Term using an Early Years Funded Entitlement code, please advise eligible parents to:
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apply now to ensure they have their code by 31 March 2024 - www.westsussex.gov.uk/freechildcare,
- log in to their childcare account to check their details are up to date, and reconfirm their eligibility by 31 March 2024 - gov.uk/sign-in-childcare-account, and
- contact the HMRC helpline if they are experiencing issues applying or reconfirming on 0300 1234 097.
The online eligibility checker is always available to check a child’s code is valid for the upcoming term. If, after viewing the guidance available on our website you have any questions, please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk. In order for us to deal with your query effectively, please ensure that you include the following details in your email:
- Child's name
- Child's Date of Birth
- 15/30 hours code
- Parent's name
- Parent's National Insurance number
Please remember, parents must apply/reconfirm their eligibility by the above deadline in order for their code to be valid for Summer Term.
Following suggestions from West Sussex providers, we have created a template fees and funding policy. You can use this template if you:
- want to sign up to offer EYFE for the first time,
- want to offer the new EYFE for Working Families from Summer Term, or
- are an existing EYFE provider and want to review your existing policies.
You can use this template in its entirety, borrow sections or use it as a reference if you wish to write your own policy. Please note that some of the links in the template policy do not work currently as we are in the process of updating our web pages. These links will work in the next two to three weeks.
We have also created simple template invoices in both Microsoft Word and Excel format which you can use and customise. These templates will also soon be available on the West Sussex County Council website and we will update you with their location via this weekly newsletter.
As these templates are new, we would be interested in any feedback and suggestions you may have to improve these templates, including any suggestions for additional sections. Please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk to share your views.
The Department for Education have launched a new consultation for childminders. The consultation will ask childminders, parents, providers and local authorities for their thoughts on how government can further support more childminders to join and stay in the profession. You can read the full press release on GOV.UK.
The consultation will be open for eight weeks from 9.00am on 15 March and closes at 11.59pm on 10 May. Visit the consultation web page to find out more and have your say.
After a successful start to 2024 for our Makaton courses, we are pleased to announce that we have a further two dates confirmed for the Summer term. Over 80 attendees have taken part in Makaton so far in our 2024 courses - start your journey now.
If you experience any issues when booking your course, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
Useful information
- 22 Mar - Portal closes for Summer term estimates
- W/C 01 Apr - Summer term estimate payments due
- 12 Apr - Spring term Sufficiency deadline
- 15 Apr - Portal opens for Summer term actuals
- 02 May - Headcount day
- 10 May - Portal closed for Summer term actuals
- 31 May - Inclusion funding deadline for Autumn term
- W/C 03 Jun - Summer term actuals payments due
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:
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.
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 EYCA team using the following email addresses:
Where there are not clearly evidenced reasons why the setting had no option but to close, there could be implications for funding received as per the government guidance.
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#11/2024 (Business focus - Funding for apprentices in your setting; Warning - Online Provider Portal downtime; Outcomes Framework for children and young people - parent/carer survey; Department for Education Provider Roadshows; Transition Events 2024; Department for Education COVID recovery programme; Jobcentre plus - support with recruitment; SEND and Inclusion newsletter - March 2024; Fraud guide for businesses)
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#10/2024 (Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) for working families – reminding parents to check and reconfirm their codes; Checking Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) codes; Advanced Warning - Online Provider Portal downtime; Network meeting presentations; New Ofsted early years blog post - Ofsted priorities for the early years sector; Early Years Training; Lose weight for free)
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#09/2024 (Safeguarding focus - Free county lines video and resource pack; Early Years Funded Entitlement - Provider Declaration; Online Provider Portal downtime; Ofsted inspections - Support from the Early Years and Childcare team; New resource to support practitioners with Early Years Foundation Stage assessment; Kent Early Years Stronger Practice Hub newsletter - February 2024; Early Years Training)
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#08/2024 (Business focus - Things to think about when making changes to your Ofsted registration; Early Years Funded Entitlement - Spring Term payments; Early Years and Childcare heroes - Do you know someone who deserve an Honour?; Ofsted curriculum roadshows in West Sussex; Foundation Years Live - March events; Kent Early Years Strong Practice Hub webinar recordings - Maths and Self-regulation; Early Years Training)
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#07/2024 (Statement from the Department for Education on charging; Level 3 qualifications and offering Early Years Funded Entitlements; Early Years Funded Entitlement eligibility checker updated; Notice of planned downtime; Early Years Foundation Stage Leaders Network slides; Final chance for free training and support; Early Years Conference - Embracing Inclusivity; SEND and Inclusion Newsletter; Early Years Training)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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