Newsletter for Out of School providers in West Sussex
#3/2025 - Monday 12 May 2025
This newsletter includes:
- National Wraparound Childcare Programme Grant Funding
- Childcare Expansion Capital Grant Funding – applications open for further projects
- Leases and Licenses
- Careers in early years and childcare website
- Out of School Alliance - one year free membership
- National Wraparound Childcare Programme - information for maintained schools and academy trusts
- Supporting wraparound providers to provide inclusive provision
- Training opportunities for wraparound and out of school providers
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Wraparound Childcare Programme Grant Funding applications are still available. This summer term 2025 window will remain open until Friday 23 May 2025. This could be the last chance for you to apply for a share of £4.5 million.
So far, schools and settings in West Sussex have accessed over £2 million in grants, creating over 2300 wraparound places for children.
Wraparound childcare is for school aged children that wraps around the conventional school day, ideally from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Equivalent hours would be considered on request, but your provision can open no later than 8.00am and close no earlier than 5.30pm.
To support the continued expansion of early years and childcare provision, the Early Years and Childcare team, along with a number of key stakeholders, have produced this comprehensive guidance. This guidance is for anyone wishing to establish early years and childcare provision in a school. It will support you with your wraparound childcare plans, from the initial planning stage through to opening your provision.
Please visit the Wraparound Childcare Programme Funding web page for further information and to apply.
If you have any questions, please email: Wraparound.Childcare@westsussex.gov.uk.
West Sussex County Council was allocated £1.87 million 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 previous rounds of capital grant applications approximately £300,000 is unallocated. We are pleased to invite further applications for capital grant funding to support the creation of additional childcare 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 to assess cost certainty, the panel requires a detailed breakdown of the activities you are requesting capital funding for. This must include 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.
It is necessary for Private, Voluntary or Independent (PVI) provision on school sites to have a West Sussex County Council (WSCC) lease or license in place before wraparound care can commence. Agreeing a service contract with a provider is not necessarily the same as agreeing that a provider can occupy WSCC owned school premises. Any maintained or voluntarily aided school that you are working with, must contact the West Sussex Estates team as soon as possible. A voluntary aided school will also need to contact their diocese for advice. An academy will make their own arrangements via their business support teams.
The Estates team role is to ensure any occupation is appropriately documented with a lease, licence or at the very minimum a hiring agreement. This depends on the extent of use and in particular whether any use is exclusive. Exclusive use can bring with it implied occupation rights, which if not legally documented can be difficult to terminate should there be a need to.
During any tendering process, please remind schools to complete a Preliminary Enquiry Form with as much detail as possible so that the Estates team can carry out an assessment. Forms and initial enquiries can be sent to childcare.estates@westsussex.gov.uk. The Estates and Legal teams need a minimum of a terms notice to deal with such enquiries.
We are pleased to introduce you to our new careers in early years and childcare website. We hope that the information will make it easier for people interested in a career in early years and childcare to understand and access routes into the sector. Other teams and professionals we work with are looking forward to signposting job seekers to this space.
The website encourages people interested in a career in early years and childcare to subscribe to the jobs in early years and childcare newsletter. You can now find the guidance and template for submitting job vacancies on our information for childcare providers website. Please continue to submit your job vacancies to us, so we can share them on your behalf.
As part of our ongoing wraparound childcare programme funding, we are pleased to offer all of our out of school providers a one year free membership to the Out of School Alliance. Visit benefits for members of the Out of School Alliance to find out more.
If you are not currently an alliance member and would like to be, please email the Early Years Training team at early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk to request an access code.
Please include the following information in your email:
- full name
- setting name and host school
- username (can be the email address)
- postal address
Childcare Works has created a series of videos and an information sheet, to support maintained schools and academy trusts participate in the National Wraparound Childcare Programme. The content covers seven areas:
- programme overview and roles of schools and trusts
- delivery models
- assessing demand
- overcoming common challenges
- a guide for schools running provision
- monitoring and maintaining provision
- tips when working with the private, voluntary and independent sector
The recordings are accompanied by a checklist and can be accessed in any order. The checklist can be used to help you set up wraparound childcare on your school site, and signposts to additional resources.
Childcare Works is supporting local authorities with the rollout of the National Wraparound Programme. During this work they have identified Inclusion and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as areas where support may be needed.
Childcare Works have worked with NASEN to provide a series of bitesize training sessions, to support wraparound providers to offer inclusive environments for all children including children with SEND. Further information, including links to the recorded sessions is available in the Childcare Works leaflet.
The new early years training programme was released in April 20025 and all courses are now bookable. The programme for 2025/26 contains many courses that were fully booked last year, as well as newly introduced courses and paediatric first aid courses. It also continues the £10 ‘Expansion Support Training Offer’ on a range of courses that are suitable for wraparound and out of school providers.
Please see the selection of courses that are running this summer term that are open to your settings. 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
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 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.
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:
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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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02/2025 (National Wraparound Childcare Programme Grant Funding - deadline extended; Inclusive practice in wraparound provision; Wraparound Childcare Toolkit)
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01/2025 (Childcare Expansion Capital Grant Funding – applications open for further projects; Wraparound Childcare Funding Grant - spring term 2025; Childcare Works provider toolkit launch; West Sussex Early Years and Childcare Conference 2025: Champions of Childhood – Celebrating Early Years Heroes; Early Years Training)
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06/2024 (National Wraparound Childcare Programme; Early years and childcare expansion - Funding timeline of events; e-Bug programme online focus group; Wraparound training)
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05/2024 (Right from the Start: Early Years and Childcare Strategy; Do Something Big Campaign re-launch; Childcare Works HUB; New workforce toolkit; New workforce toolkit; SEND support for wraparound and out of school providers; When do Holiday Activities and Food providers need to register with Ofsted?; Wraparound training)
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04/2024 (National Wraparound Childcare Programme update; Termly Provider Update form; Review of the National Occupational Standards for Playwork 2024/25; Setting Support Phone Line; Ofsted blogs; Expansion Support Training Offer 2024/25)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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