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In the first version of this newsletter there was an error in the "Kent and Beyond Early Years Stronger Practice Hub (K&BEYSPH) virtual webinars" article. The email address to book your place on one of their webinars was incorrect. We have now amended this error.
Please delete any previous version of this weeks newsletter. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
#33/2025 - Wednesday 20 August 2025
This week's newsletter includes:
- Warning - Online Provider Portal downtime
- Early years expansion and budget grant payments
- Early Years Funded Entitlement for Working Families eligibility codes
- Increasing awareness of the 2 year health and development review
- Access to urgent NHS dental care
- Online Provider Portal Training
- Funded Level 3 Specialist in Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator qualification
- Kent and Beyond Early Years Stronger Practice Hub
- Early Years Training
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Latest Ofsted news and updates here.
Please be advised that the Online Provider Portal (OPP) will be unavailable from 12.30pm on Thursday 21 August for viewing and submitting forms, but you can still access the funding area.
The OPP will be completely unavailable on Friday 22 August until 5.00pm. This is due to essential maintenance that is taking place. 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.
As previously communicated in our April 2025 EYC Special Newsletter, the Department for Education (DfE) has distributed the early years expansion grant 2025/26. This is to provide an additional £75 million of funding to support the sector as it prepares to deliver the final phase of expansion of the Early Years Funded Entitlements (EYFE) for Working Families from September 2025.
West Sussex County Council has now received our allocation, and 100% of this grant will be passed through to providers.
The Expansion Grant will be distributed directly to all providers, based on hours delivered in the spring term 2025, for all children aged 2 years old and under. This includes both EYFE for Working Families, and the 2 year old Local Authority issued EYFE. Providers can use this funding in a way that best suits their expansion needs and plans.
We will also be distributing the Early Years Budget Grant (EYBG) to eligible providers. This additional funding is to support early years providers with the costs of the September 2024 teachers’ pay award. It will cover the seven month period between 1 September 2024 and 31 March 2025. Allocations have been made based on hours delivered for all children aged 3 and 4 years old during the funding period. The total funding allocated by the DfE for West Sussex is £122,094, calculated at £0.01 per funded hour.
Both grant payments will be released week commencing 25 August 2025. Providers will be able to view any payments due to them via the adjustments tab on the Online Provider Portal from 25 August onwards. The Expansion Grant will be paid on the 2 year old funding adjustments, and the EYBG will be paid on 3 and 4 year old adjustments.
If you have any queries, please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk.
For an EYFE for Working Families eligibility code to be valid for autumn term, parents must have applied for, or reconfirmed, their eligibility code before 31 August 2025.
- The Code Start Date must be on or before 31 August 2025.
- The Code End Date must be after 1 September 2025.
- If the Code End Date is before 1 January 2025 and the child has accessed EYFE for Working Families with your setting last term, the Grace Period End Date must cover the autumn term 2025.
We would like to remind settings to use the Working Families Eligibility Checker on the Online Provider Portal to check a child's code before they access their funded hours. This ensures the child’s code is valid and they can start accessing their funded place. A yellow banner does not necessarily mean they are eligible. To understand if a code can be used for the current term, please use the Eligibility Checker help guide.
When checking code validity, a yellow banner will appear (as can be seen in the accompanying photo). The message will say ‘The details provided have been found’, followed by the Eligibility Code, Code Start Date, Code End Date and Grace Period End Date. This banner is shown if the parent has successfully applied for EYFE for Working Families. This message does not mean the code is currently usable, only that an application was received and approved. You must check the dates to ensure the code can be used.
You can submit a Working Family eligibility code support form after checking the code if you need help determining the validity of the code, or if the code shows as invalid and you have good reason to believe it should be valid. The form can be found on the Funded entitlement codes - working families eligibility checker web page.
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The Government has set out an ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. One of the main ways to identify children who may need extra support before starting school is through the developmental review that takes place between the ages of 2 and 2 years 6 months.
Some families may not be aware of the value of the 2 to 2 years and 6 months old health and development review. To increase the uptake, and to support parents and carers in their understanding of these reviews, please signpost them to the NHS and Better Health Start for Life websites. You can also visit our Supporting families web page which has a section on the progress check at age 2.
It can be difficult for families to find an NHS dentist or book timely appointments. Please share details of The Sussex Dental Helpline who can provide advice and help arrange an urgent NHS dental appointment. A helpful poster is available for you to display in your setting.
The Sussex Dental Helpline offers advice, books urgent appointments and supports access for vulnerable patients, including looked after children and care leavers. They can be contacted by phone on 0300 123 1663 Monday to Friday, 8.00am to 4.00pm or by email at kcht.dentalhelpdesk@nhs.net. For more information, visit the Sussex Health and Care website.
As mentioned in the EYC Special Newsletter - Early Years Funding updates sent 30 June 2025, we will be offering free online sessions to support you in submitting actuals claims (also known as headcount claims).
In each session we will cover:
- how to add, amend and remove children from your claim,
- how to determine if a Working Family code is valid for the upcoming term - review code start dates, end dates and grace period end dates,
- the changes to submissions following the entitlements expansion, particularly changes around claiming funding in the 2 year old age group and
- how to include claims for Early Years Pupil Premium and Disability Access Fund.
There will be time set aside for questions at the end of the session. The sessions will be held online via Microsoft Teams, and are bookable through the links below.
OPP training - Submitting Actuals Claims - 9 September 2025 - 10.00am to 11.30am
OPP training - Submitting Actuals Claims - 10 September 2025 - 1.00pm to 2.30pm
OPP training - Submitting Actuals Claims - 11 September 2025 - 6.30pm to 8.00pm
To support the upskilling of the workforce, West Sussex County Council are funding 36 places on a NCFE CACHE Level 3 Technical Specialist in Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator’s (SENCo) in Early Years Settings Award. This course will explore the roles and responsibilities of the SENCo, build understanding around the strategies and techniques for supporting children and their families and increase knowledge around the SEND code of practice.
This course is available to educators holding a full and relevant Level 2 or 3 qualification, who are currently or who are training to be, a SENCO in a West Sussex setting. The course runs at Crawley College on Thursday evenings, from 25 September to 18 December 2025. The time and dates will be confirmed by Crawley College in early September. There will be another course in the spring with dates and times to be confirmed.
Please note, you will be required to attend all sessions and complete all course work. You must provide a copy of your level 2 or 3 qualification and you and your manager must sign a training agreement.
To express an interest, please book a place and specify whether you would prefer the autumn or spring course. Places are not confirmed until we have verified your eligibility. If you have already booked a place on this course with Crawley College, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk as we can still fund you. If you have any questions, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
The K&BEYSPH virtual webinars and networks for autumn term have been released. If any of these are of interest to you, scan the relevant QR code on this poster or email kbeysph@northfleet-nur.kent.sch.uk to book your place.
We are pleased to announce a new safeguarding course, following setting interest and demand. This course is currently planned to only run once this year, but like the Advanced Safeguarding course, if there is the interest we will then look at adding a second date for the spring.
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 25 August - autumn term estimates payments due
- 29 August - summer term Sufficiency deadline
- 1 September to 26 September - portal open for autumn term actuals
- 18 September - autumn term headcount day
- w/c 20 October - 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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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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#32/2025 (Business Focus - Wrapround Programme Funding Grant; Reminder - Early Years Funded Entitlement autumn 2025 term estimates close this week; Online Provider Portal training - now available to book; Warning - Online Provider Portal downtime; It is never too late to have vaccinations; Early Years Training; Nominate a colleague for a King’s Birthday Honour)
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#31/2025 ('Activate' - a new physical activity campaign; Winners of the early years and childcare workforce review prize draw; Skills Bootcamps to boost careers and recruitment across West Sussex; Leading excellence in early years: quality first teaching - application deadline extended; Early Years Training – new date added)
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#30/2025 (Help us gather feedback on the Impact of Early Years Funded Entitlement; Changes to apprenticeship standards; Operation Encompass; Summer term network meetings; Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs; Early Years Training)
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#29/2025 (Safeguarding Focus - Safeguarding self-assessment tool and keeping babies safe resources; Have your say on the future of local government in West Sussex; Family Hub availability over the summer holidays; Childcare Choices - digital leaflet available; Kent and Beyond Early Years Stronger Practice Hub Newsletter)
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#28/2025 (Revised Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework; Ofsted renewed inspection framework webinars; Early Years Foundation Stage safeguarding and welfare requirement changes; Leading Excellence in Early Years: Quality First Teaching; Vaccinated children should not be excluded from settings; Paying for childcare – new resource to share with parents; Childcare Choices provider updates; Funded level 3 qualification opportunity; Early Years Education with Early Years Teacher Status MA - additional funded places available; Early Years Training)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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