#42/2025 - Wednesday 22 October 2025
This week's newsletter includes:
- Safeguarding Focus - Safeguarding Month 2025 and upcoming special safeguarding course
- Early Years Funded Entitlements for 9 months plus, 2, 3 and 4 year olds – autumn term payments
- New Ofsted Inspection Framework - Volunteers Needed
- Business opportunity - West Green Primary School
- New Making Every Contact Count vaccination training – supporting early years conversations
- Information for Childminders
- Chichester College Early Years Drop In Session
- Congratulations
- Early Years Training
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Latest Ofsted news and updates here.
Safeguarding Month 2025 Pan Sussex Programme – November
The Safeguarding Children Partnership for West Sussex, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove have designed the Pan Sussex Programme, offering free Safeguarding Month 2025 courses to all early years and childcare settings across Sussex.
The Pan Sussex Programme includes a virtual full-day conference on Wednesday 12 November and virtual courses delivered across 4 weeks. All sessions will be accessible via Microsoft Teams.
For course details, please see the Safeguarding Month Pan Sussex Programme 2025 .
Upcoming special safeguarding course
Running for the first time, 'Safeguarding and Child Protection in Early Years – Recording, Reporting and Referring: Concise and Clear' joins our collection of safeguarding courses we have on offer.
Suitable for all staff members within an early years setting, the course will introduce key safeguarding skills in recording and reporting. It will explore how daily records contribute to safeguarding chronologies and what makes a good referral report. It will also cover how to be brief, detailed and clear, and how to use appropriate language that conveys the necessary information.
To book, please click on the course name below or log in to the booking portal, West Sussex Services for Education.
Safeguarding and child protection in early years – recording, reporting and referring: Concise and clear – Tuesday 25 November – 7.00pm to 8.30pm – Online - £20 per person
Any booking queries or questions, please contact early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
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Please be advised that autumn term payments for providers who have opted for two payments per term have been released for:
- EYFE actuals where there are no outstanding queries.
- Disability Access Fund for all approved applications where evidence was provided.
Please note, payments can take 3 to 5 working days to show in your account and may have already been received.
The Online Provider Portal is now closed for autumn term submissions, but you can still log back in to view your payment summary. Please refer to the Post-submission guidance PDF found on our Early Years Funded Entitlement actuals web page for instructions.
Providers signed up for monthly payments will receive their payments for November week commencing 27 October 2025. The actuals payment will follow week commencing 24 November 2025.
If you have any queries, please email freeentitlement@westsussex.gov.uk.
As part of their steady and assured return to inspection, Ofsted are looking for settings that are willing to take part in a pilot event. This will enable inspectors to practise the new methodology and providers to become familiar with the renewed inspection process. This is open to group providers and childminders.
You may be interested in this as part of your setting review process or if you are looking to have an inspection a bit sooner than you would in the normal inspection cycle.
If you are interested, please contact family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk by Friday 24 October and we will pass this information directly to Ofsted. Offering to take part does not guarantee that you will be selected to take part.
We would like to share a potential opportunity for early years and childcare providers in the Crawley area. West Green Primary School is looking for a provider to lease their soon-to-be refurbished community room and operate it as a day nursery or pre-school. This development aims to help meet the growing demand for early years childcare locally, with a planned opening in September 2026.
They will be holding open days on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 November 2025. Please email for an appointment, as only booked appointments can be accepted.
For further information or to book an appointment for their open day, please contact: .
The application closing date is Friday 5 December 2025.
Following this, should you require support from an Early Years and Childcare Advisor, you can request new business support via the web page.
Please note, any provider wishing to explore this opportunity should ensure they seek appropriate legal advice as well as carrying out due diligence in terms of business planning and cash flow forecasting.
West Sussex County Council’s Public Health team is pleased to launch a new MECC training module, designed to help staff have effective, evidence-based conversations about vaccinations across all age groups.
With childhood immunisation rates declining and winter approaching, this training is especially relevant for those working in early years settings. It provides practical tools to support brief, meaningful conversations with parents and carers about childhood and seasonal vaccinations.
Face-to-face and online sessions are available to book onto. The first session is available on Monday 17 November. Please visit the WSCC Learning and Development Gateway for dates and times and to book your place. These sessions can be attended by anyone working with the public in West Sussex. The MECC Approach to Vaccinations flyer also details dates and more information.
In addition to the live sessions, a short eLearning module on Vaccine Hesitancy will be available via the WSCC Learning and Development Gateway from November. This resource is designed to help staff respond to common questions and concerns with clarity and empathy.
Childcare Works has brought together their most relevant resources for childminders into easy to use collections - one focused on wraparound provision and another on early years. You will find free support and information available via the Childcare Works HUB, designed to help childminders access practical tools and guidance quickly and easily.
Do members of your team have questions about early years qualifications, apprenticeships, or how to begin their journey toward gaining a recognised qualification?
Would you like to learn more about how you can support your staff in accessing professional development opportunities?
Chichester College is hosting an Early Years Drop In Session on Thursday 13 November. Join their team for a cup of tea and an informal conversation, where they will be available to answer your questions and offer guidance on qualifications and training pathways.
Please see their flyer for more details and to register your interest.
We would like to say a huge congratulations to the team at New View Nursery, Horsham on receiving their fourth consecutive Outstanding rating from Ofsted. This is an amazing achievement for the whole team - well done.
Makaton is a communication tool with speech, signs, and symbols to enable people with communication difficulties to communicate. It supports the development of essential skills such as attention, listening, comprehension, memory and expressive speech and language. We have a range of Makaton courses to support you in starting your journey, including a shorter Makaton taster. All of our courses are run by a trainer certified by The Makaton Charity. 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 20 October - autumn term actuals payments due
- 7 November - Inclusion Funding deadline for autumn term 2025
- 12 November - PHEP temporary flexibility submission deadline
- 19 November - Portal open for settings to submit estimates for spring term
- 2 January 2026 - autumn term sufficiency deadline
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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#41/2025 (Early Help Focus) West Sussex Family Hubs: fun, friendly family spaces; October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month; Publication of Statutory Notices - West Sussex Special Schools; Early Years Pupil Premium - Share your experiences; Slides from the recent network meetings; Early years apprenticeships exploration webinar; The Department for Education needs your help understanding how you check qualifications; What’s new from the West Sussex Virtual School?; Early Years Training
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#40/2025 (Business Focus - Stay informed about your business rates; Starting school applications; Keeping your data safe; Protecting children from flu this winter; Information for Childminders; Last chance to secure a funded National Professional Qualification (NPQ) this academic year; National Education Nature Park; Congratulations; SEND and Inclusion Newsletter; Early Years Training
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#39/2025 (Update on autumn term flexibility for 2 year olds starting after headcount; New childminder start-up grant scheme; Pre-entry Inclusion Funding requests – guidance and deadline reminder; Termly Provider Update; Childminder virtual network; Using paracetamol during pregnancy guidance; Updated childhood vaccination schedule; DadPad - supporting new dads in your setting; Early Years Training
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#38/2025 (Autumn term Early Years Funded Entitlement actuals – deadline this Friday; Ofsted Big Conversation; New strategy to improve West Sussex residents’ health and wellbeing; Help keep children safe from falls; Early Years Training)
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#37/2025 (Safeguarding Focus – Designated Safeguarding Lead networks and How Martyn’s Law will affect education settings; Autumn term 2025 actuals claims - reminder; Autumn term flexibility for 2 year olds starting after headcount; Post Headcount Exceptional Payment forms for children claiming in the 9 months plus age group; Submitting actuals correctly for 2 year olds; Ofsted guidance on school-based early years and childcare settings; Supervised toothbrushing in early years settings - support available; Childminder Groups; Kent and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub newsletter; Early Years training)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
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