Newsletter for Early Years and Childcare providers in West Sussex
#8/2025 - Wednesday 26 February 2025
This week's newsletter includes:
- Final reminder - Online Provider Portal downtime
- Wraparound Childcare Funding Grant
- Early Years Funded Entitlements spring term payments
- Champions of childhood: Celebrating early years heroes conference 2025 - spaces are limited
- Coming soon - careers in early years and childcare website and Jobs in early years and childcare newsletter
- Childcare Works Wraparound and Early Years Provider Toolkit
- Supporting regular activity and exercise before and after pregnancy
- Kent Early Years Stronger Practice Hub newsletter
- Early Years Training
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Latest Ofsted news and updates here.
Please be advised that the Online Provider Portal will be unavailable for viewing or submitting forms from today (Wednesday 26 February), however you can still access the funding area. It will be completely unavailable on Thursday 27 February due to essential maintenance and we expect it to return to normal on Friday 28 February.
Please note, parents and carers will not be able to submit 2 year old Local Authority Issued Early Years Funded Entitlement applications and our Family Information Service website will also be unavailable to the public.
We have helped create over 1200 wraparound childcare places since applications opened in September 2024. We now have access to some additional funding for places that will be available for September 2025 or earlier.
Our current application window closes on Monday 3 March 2025. We will then re-open the application window one final time on Tuesday 1 April until Friday 23 May 2025.
Where there is existing wraparound childcare provision, you can apply to expand your place capacity or extend the time your provision is open. All providers applying for funding should be open no later than 8.00am and close no earlier than 5.30pm. Ideally providers should aim to be open until 6.00pm.
Please visit the Wraparound Childcare Programme Funding web page for further information and to apply.
Please be advised that spring term payments have been released for:
- EYFE actuals where there are no outstanding queries, and
- Disability Access Fund (DAF) for all approved applications where evidence was provided.
Please note, payments can take three to five working days to show in your account.
The Online Provider Portal is now closed for spring term submissions, but you can still log back in to view your payment summary. Please refer to the provider portal help and guidance PDF at www.westsussex.gov.uk/eycportal.
If you have any queries please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk.
Ben Kingston-Hughes will deliver our closing address which celebrates you and your role as an early years practitioner. Overwhelming evidence repeatedly states that early years practitioners have the most profound impact on children. Shaping, guiding, and supporting each child to become their future self. This closing address highlights the vital role practitioners play in children's lives in West Sussex, spanning fields from neuroscience, biology, behavioural sciences to global economics.
Please see the conference brochure for more information and the schedule.
To book your place, click on the booking link below:
West Sussex Early Years and Childcare Conference 2025 (South) – Friday 7 March – Field Place, Worthing, BN13 1NP - 9.00am to 3.30pm - £75 per person.
If you experience any issues when booking your place, please email: early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
We have been working hard to develop a website that makes it easier for people interested in a career in early years and childcare to understand and access routes into the sector. This website will include a free subscription service for jobseekers to receive a weekly Jobs in early years and childcare (JiEYC) newsletter.
We will need the JiEYC to be full of jobs in order for our partners and job seekers to use it as a trusted resource. If you have job vacancies please use this guidance to help you fill out a job vacancy template. Send your completed template to jobsineyc@westsussex.gov.uk. The first newsletter will be circulated on Monday 17 March 2025, so let's make it a great one.
Childcare Works have launched a new Wraparound Toolkit. It has been created by experts to bring together everything you need to grow, sustain or start, your childcare provision. It is designed for all types of providers at any stage of your journey. Whether you are just starting out, are sustaining your provision or growing, you will find informative and relevant content.
Please visit the Wraparound Toolkit webpage for further information.
Do you have any parents or carers in your setting that are struggling to engage in regular activity and exercise? Could they benefit from some guidance?
Please signpost them to The Wellbeing and Exercise in Pregnancy Programme (WEPP) to watch their ‘Spotlight On’ Breaking Down the Barriers to Exercise video.
The WEPP team discusses general exercise guidelines, how to include exercise in daily routines, available support, and tracking progress.
Please share the video with families in your setting.
The KEYSPH February newsletter is now available.
Please see below our safeguarding courses for March that still have spaces, including a newly released ‘Safeguarding and child protection for the designated person in early years settings’ course. To book a course click the course name below. You can also visit our booking portal West Sussex Services for Education and select your required course.
If you experience any issues when booking your course, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
Useful information
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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We’re committed to providing excellent support to all providers we engage with. Please take a moment to complete our Early Years and Childcare Provider Feedback Survey and let us know about your experiences. Your feedback will help us improve our service and better support settings like yours. You can visit the web page or scan the QR code. |
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#7/2025 (Safeguarding Focus: Updated safeguarding letter for parents and carers; Advanced warning - Online Provider Portal downtime; Changes to the setting support phone line; Early Years Funded Entitlement - Indicative Budget report; When do you need to notify Ofsted?; Champions of childhood: Celebrating early years heroes conference 2025 - meet our workshop leader; Specialist Advisory Teachers for Early Years SEND Transition (EYSAT’S); Fire Safety Training; Early Years Training)
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#6/2025 (Early Help Focus - Early Help service SEND events; Childcare Expansion Capital Grant Funding - deadline approaching; Business opportunity in Walberton - reminder; Wraparound Childcare Funding Grant - spring term 2025; New Early Years Funded Entitlement web pages for parents/carers; Champions of childhood: Celebrating early years heroes conference 2025; National Professional Qualifications information; New toilet training guidance; Network presentations; Early Years Training)
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#5/2025 (Business Focus - Childcare Expansion Myth-buster; Ofsted inspections - consultation launched; New information for early years and childcare providers website - now available; Recognise your apprentice by nominating them for our Exceptional Early Years Apprentice Award; Right from the Start: West Sussex Early Years and Childcare Strategy – we need you!; Introducing the new experience-based route for practitioners to count in ratio at level 3; Deadline for Childminder Start-up Grant applications – reminder; Early Years and Childcare Workforce Survey; Champions of childhood: celebrating early years heroes conference 2025 - meet our workshop leader; Early Years Training)
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#4/2025 (Safeguarding Focus: Let’s Talk PANTS with Pantosaurus!; New website for early years and childcare providers - final reminder; Champions of childhood: celebrating early years heroes conference 2025 - introducing our keynote speaker; Autumn Early Years and Childcare networks; Sustainability and climate change strategy for education; Resources available to help you at your setting)
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#3/2025 (Business Focus: National Apprenticeship Week - nominate your apprentice for an Exceptional Early Years Apprentice Award; Early Years Conference 2025 - book soon to avoid disappointment; Training required for settings with children aged under 2 years; Termly Provider Update; New website for early years and childcare providers - advance notice; Childcare Works launches Early Years Provider Toolkit; Department for Education (DfE) Early Years Provider Roadshows for 2025; National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL); Early Years Training)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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