Newsletter for Early Years and Childcare providers in West Sussex
#13/2025 - Wednesday 2 April 2025
This week's newsletter includes:
- Childcare Expansion capital grant funding – applications open for further projects
- Specialist Advisory Teachers for Early Years SEND Transition (EYSATs)
- Department for Education's (DfE) invitation to the South-East region Roadshow in Brighton
- Operation Encompass update
- Help us shape Early Years services
- Free toilet training posters and handouts
- Early Years Training
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Latest Ofsted news and updates here.
West Sussex County Council (WSCC) was allocated £1.87m in capital grant funding to contribute to capital costs associated with projects that increase the supply of early years places and/or wraparound childcare for primary-school aged children.
Following the previous rounds of capital grant applications, up to approximately £300,000 is unallocated. We are pleased to invite further capital grant funding applications for projects to support the creation of additional places. Please visit our Childcare Expansion Capital Funding web page to find out more and apply. If you are a Private, Voluntary or Independent provider delivering provision on a school site, please work together with the school to submit one application.
The deadline to submit your application is Friday 23 May 2025.
Please note that to assess cost certainty, the panel require a full breakdown of the costed activity you are seeking capital funding for, including three quotations/estimates for each element of your plan costing £15,000 and over.
For any questions during this process, please contact: childcareexpansiongrants@westsussex.gov.uk.
In newsletter #7/2025, we shared that the EYSATs are preparing to support 2025 school starters who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) with their transition. The referral criteria has been updated to help practitioners identify the appropriate type of transition for individual children, including those that require a referral to the EYSAT team.
The following criteria is used to triage referrals and for settings to use to explore whether a child is likely to need a universal transition, supported transition or EYSAT supported transition. The EYSAT will consider each referral on a case-by-case basis. Before deciding what support is needed, they will consider factors such as the child's needs, setting and school staff experience, staff new to role including the SENCO and EYSAT knowledge of the school and setting.
- Universal transition: A child with additional needs who has received some additional support in nursery e.g. with separating from parent/carer, may be anxious, or has Speech and Language support.
- Supported transition: A child with additional needs who has been accessing additional adult support in nursery, Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice (OAIP), and staff feel OAIP may be required in school.
- EYSAT supported transition: A child with additional needs who has been accessing targeted adult support in nursery such as following specific and tailored activities designed in liaison with another professional and may require targeted support in school.
The referral guidance has been updated to clarify which sections of the referral form must be completed by different professionals. Please review the guidance while completing a referral form. Both the referral criteria and guidance can be found on the Services for Education website. If you have any questions or comments, please email: eysatreferrals@westsussex.gov.uk.
Following the nine regional roadshows last year, the DfE would like to invite you to their next early years South-East region Early Education and Childcare Provider Roadshow. This event is an opportunity for providers to engage with DfE to share their ideas, successes, concerns and challenges and to help shape the Government’s current and future early education and childcare policy.
You will also hear about the plan for the Best Start in Life pillar of its Opportunity Mission and activity underway to meet the expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025, as well as to network with other setting leaders, Local Authorities and organisations which support the sector.
This event is targeted at, but not limited to, group-based setting managers who have an interest in influencing early years and childcare policy and delivery. We also welcome childminders, small group setting leaders and a representative from Local Authorities. You can register for the event here:
Further details will be sent upon registering, including confirmation of registration.
Thank you to those practitioners who attended the Operation Encompass briefings last week. In addition to the information shared in newsletter #10/2025, we are pleased to share with you the presentation from the briefing. There is also some additional information available about email accounts to ensure that once you have signed up, you can receive referrals.
There were some outstanding queries from the briefings so we would like to share an update on these:
- If you have multiple Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) in your setting you can share their information with us. Please complete a Staff Update form for each member of staff to be added as DSL on our database. They will all need to be able to access the same email account as the notifications will only be sent to one email address, but you can identify more than one person for the role.
- Settings can use any email address as long as it is only accessed by the DSL(s), and it has been made secure by the encryption process as outlined in the attachment. This includes hotmail and gmail accounts.
You can find additional resources on the website Resources for educational settings: Operation Encompass including posters to display in your setting and information for families in a range of languages.
Healthwatch West Sussex is working with West Sussex County Council on a Lived Experience project. This is part of the Right From The Start Early Years and Childcare Strategy (2024-2027). We want to ensure that parents, carers and communities have a say in shaping local services.
We are asking parents and carers to complete a short survey about their experience of using early years services. Their feedback will help us understand what support is working well and what needs improvement. It will also help us track progress in 2027 to see how services have developed.
We would really appreciate if you could share this survey with families at your setting through your usual communications. This flyer can be printed and displayed. The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete and will close on Wednesday 30 April. Thank you for your help.
Foundation Years have provided downloadable posters and handouts for early years and childcare providers and parents. Visit the Foundation Years website to access these free resources.
The new early years training programme has been released and you are now able to book on to courses. The programme for 2025/2026 contains many courses that were fully booked last year, newly introduced courses for this year, as well as the continuation of the £10 ‘Expansion Support Training Offer’ on a range of courses.
With that in mind, please see below some baby-related courses that are part of the £10 offer, including a newly introduced course for this year, 'Baby room basics: Understanding secure attachments'. To book, 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
- w/c 7 April - summer term estimate payments due
- 18 April - spring term Sufficiency deadline
- 21 April to 16 May - portal open for summer term actuals
- 8 May - summer term headcount day
- w/c 2 June - 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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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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#12/2025 (Deadline approaching - Early Years Funded Entitlement summer term 2025 estimates; Deadline approaching - Early Years Funded Entitlement for Working Families - summer term 2025 code; The Department for Education frequently asked questions guidance about charging; Ofsted Education Inspection Framework and the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework; Early years qualifications – new check service; New Ofsted webinar; Transition events; BBC Tiny Happy People survey; Early Years Training)
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#11/2025 (Safeguarding Focus - Safer recruitment for staff from overseas and those who have lived abroad; Recording attendance of children and visitors; Reminder - Provider Declaration 2025/26; New resource to support setting's Early Years Pupil Premium spending; Reminder - Operation Encompass briefings; World Oral Health Day – new resources to download and share; 'Little Moments Together' campaign ;Pelvic floor exercises for new parents)
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#10/2025 (Early Years Funded Entitlement summer 2025 term estimates now open; Operation Encompass information; New careers in early years and childcare website; Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice copies posted to you; National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership; SEND and Inclusion Newsletter - Spring 2025; Early Years Training)
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#9/2025 (Business Focus- Paying employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices; Provider Declaration for 2025/26 - number of funded weeks in spring and summer terms 2026; Information on supporting special education needs and disabilities; Early years and childcare workforce review – deadline extended; Confused about staff-to-child ratios?; Workplace recycling changes from 31 March 2025 - early years and childcare providers impacted; New website - Careers in early years and childcare, 1 week to go; Webinar for early years providers: improving the way Ofsted inspects education; Changes to apprenticeship expectations for adult learners; Early Years Training)
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#8/2025 (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)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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