Newsletter for Early Years and Childcare providers in West Sussex
#37/2024 - Wednesday 11 September 2024
This week's newsletter includes:
- Early Years and Childcare Advisors corrected contact information for support
- Job centre support with recruitment
- Childcare job fair in Horsham in October – meet job seekers
- Wellbeing and Exercise in Pregnancy Programme
- National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership
- Autumn Early Years and Childcare networks
- Early Years Training
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In our special newsletter sent on 2 September 2024, we let you know about some updates on the support provided by the EYCAs.
Two of the emails we provided were incorrect, please see the correct email addresses for the EYCAs for SEND and Inclusion team below.
You can also contact the EYCAs for the SEND and Inclusion team using the Setting Support Phone Line on 01243 777807. Please ask to be transferred to the "Setting Support Phone Line". The phone line is available every Tuesday afternoon from 1.00pm to 4.00pm. For any additional queries relating to SEND and Inclusion please email the relevant mailbox, outlined in the special newsletter.
You can contact your local EYCAs for Quality and Sufficiency team using the following email addresses:
If you want free support with your staff recruitment, the Jobcentre may be able to help.
Jobcentre Plus has a range of recruitment services that can help you as an employer. They can:
- promote your staff vacancies in local job centres,
- help to match the right candidate to your vacancies, including sifting applications and interviewing candidates for you,
- help to speed up your recruitment process,
- allow you to use Jobcentre Plus offices to carry out interviews (where an office is available),
- invite you to local recruitment events to promote your vacancies,
- help you connect with other businesses in your area,
- work with you to plan your future recruitment campaigns, and
- help you set up work trials to give you the opportunity to try out potential recruits at no cost to you.
Find out more here, or email your local Employer Adviser at gatwickdiamond.eas@dwp.gov.uk to see how they can help.
Are you a provider with staff vacancies based in Horsham, Crawley or Mid Sussex?
Job Centre Plus are hosting a Childcare Job Fair from 10.00am -12.00pm on Monday 7 October at the Salvation Army, Horsham. Please see the event flier for more information.
They are looking for early years and childcare providers to come along as stall holders and promote their vacancies. This is a great opportunity for providers in Horsham, Crawley and Mid Sussex to meet job seekers looking to start or progress their career in early years and childcare. You might meet your perfect candidate, so what are you waiting for?
If you have vacancies and would like the opportunity to attend the event as a stall holder and promote your setting as an employer of choice, please contact Kelly.pearce@dwp.gov.uk.
WEPP is a free online pregnancy and postnatal resource which is hosted by the Sussex Local Maternity and Neonatal System. Please share this information with your families.
The programme provides useful resources and information for people to refer to during pregnancy and after they have had their baby. There are also exercise videos to help people stay fit and well during this important time.
- Exercise videos include Pilates, yoga, exercise using a gym ball and a focus on a pregnant persons general fitness.
- Videos are suitable for all, including complete beginners.
- Most videos are between 10 to 25 minutes long so that they are easy to fit into someone’s daily routine.
WEPP ‘Spotlight On’ videos are designed to meet the needs before and after a baby is born, and include a range of topics:
- pelvic floor exercises,
- breaking down barriers to exercise,
- pelvic girdle pain, and
- rest and relaxation.
Please contact them at uhsussex.wepp@nhs.net if you have any questions.
The NPQEYL is endorsed by the Department for Education (DfE).
It is for early years leaders, qualified to at least level 3 with a full and relevant qualification, who are or aspire to be:
- managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries,
- headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries, or
- childminders with leadership responsibilities (childminders do not need a Level 3 qualification to enrol).
The programme starts in October 2024, and lasts 18 months. At the end of the programme, you will complete your summative NPQ assessment during a fixed eight-day window. You will have your result confirmed in three months. Another cohort will start in April 2025.
The course costs £1,090 plus VAT if applicable.
The programme contains a balance of online learning, face to face sessions and a formative assessment task. The programme will help you develop expertise in the knowledge, skills and concepts for leading an Early Years setting. Visit the Teach First website to find out more.
If you are interested in knowing more about the programme please drop into one of our webinars:
In newsletter #34/2024 we let you know that our early years and childcare network meetings are coming up later this month.
Please see our 2024/25 network flyer for dates, times and locations. Some dates and venues are still to be confirmed. We will update these on the Services for Education website once confirmed.
To book on to a network meeting, click on the booking link for the date you require within the brochure. Alternatively, you can visit our new West Sussex Services for Education booking portal and select your required date.
All of our training courses can be booked via the new West Sussex Services for Education booking system. To book a course, click the course name below. You can also visit our new booking system and search for a range of courses.
If you experience any issues when booking your course, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
Useful information
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19 Sept - Autumn term headcount day
- 27 Sept - Portal closes for autumn term actuals
- w/c 21 Oct - Autumn 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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#36/2024 (Business focus - Marketing your early years and childcare business; Early Years Funded Entitlement autumn term Actuals - now open; Early Years Funded Entitlements for Working Families; Claiming Disability Access fund; Early Years Funded Entitlement leaflet for parents and carers - digital copies available; Setting support phone line reminder; Fire safety training; Oral health pilot; PACEY Childcare and Early Years Awards 2024; Early Years and Childcare 2024/25 Training and Events Brochure)
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#35/2024 (Safeguarding focus - Updated Prevent referral form; Right from the Start: Early Years and Childcare Strategy; Applications open for Wraparound Childcare Programme Funding; Registering as a childminder and nanny; Ofsted updates - returning the ID checking form to Ofsted; Join the West Sussex Multiply Bus for a week of learning and fun; Kent Early Years Stronger Practice Hub newsletter - August 2024; Early Years Training)
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#34/2024 (Childcare Expansion Forum – joining opportunity extension; New Early Years Funded Entitlement web pages; Ofsted updates - what early years providers and practitioners need to know; Childminders - new to Ofsted inspections, what do you need to know?)
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#33/2024 (Early Years Funded Entitlement for working families - autumn term deadlines; Applying for Early Years Funded Entitlement when on parental leave; Do Something Big campaign - advertising your vacancies; PACEY's first childcare and early years conference)
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#32/2024 (Business focus - Maintaining quality early years and childcare provision in the face of workforce challenges; Setting support phoneline - downtime and changes to operating hours; European Early Childhood Education Research Association conference 2024 - Brighton; Brighton and Hove childminder conference - November 2024; Childcare Expansion Forum - opportunity to join; Making Every Contact Count training)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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