#4/2026 - Monday 6 July 2026
This newsletter includes:
- Safeguarding Focus - Switched on to privacy: resources for early years, school-age childcare and out-of-school settings; Reporting serious childcare incidents within 14 days; Strengthening Safeguarding Practices
- Sensory toolkit
- Business support tools for providers
- Updates for Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) providers
- Ofsted Blog for Holiday Providers
- Save the date - West Sussex School-age Childcare Conference
- Tell us which schools you support
- Setting support phone line
- Free breakfast clubs
- Early Years Training (EYT)
Difficulty viewing this bulletin? Click here to view in your browser.
Switched on to privacy: resources for early years, school-age childcare and out-of-school settings
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a national campaign, 'Switched on to privacy'. The aim of the campaign is to help children and young people understand online privacy and how personal information is used. The campaign supports the online safety and safeguarding work already taking place in early years, school-age and out-of-school childcare settings.
The ICO has produced a free toolkit with simple, practical resources that settings and family-facing services can use to help start age-appropriate conversations about online privacy. This can support Early Years Foundation Stage settings alongside provision for school-age children, including breakfast clubs, after-school clubs and holiday clubs.
Settings may wish to signpost the campaign through your own newsletters, parent communications or safeguarding updates, and use the resources to reinforce key messages with children and families.
|
Reporting serious childcare incidents within 14 days
Ofsted has updated its guidance to clarify reporting timescales for serious childcare incidents. Providers are expected to report significant events as soon as possible, but always within 14 days of the incident.
You should make sure managers and safeguarding leads are aware of this timescale and that reporting procedures support prompt notification within your setting. You can find the full guidance on the report a serious childcare incident web page.
Strengthening safeguarding practices
As part of cross Local Authority work in strengthening safeguarding practices regarding wraparound and HAF provision, we are seeking your views and experiences. We are looking to create a clear protocol to support schools and providers with safeguarding information sharing.
Please take a few minutes to complete this survey, as this will be taken into consideration and help to shape a cross-county protocol.
In case you missed it -
Safeguarding guidance, e-learning and resources for providers of after-school clubs, activities and tuition, and other out-of-school settings - GOV.UK
 This summer we began delivering our new sensory toolkit to our school-age childcare providers.
Commissioned by the wraparound and HAF teams and full of fabulous resources, including a dark tent, ear defenders, a variety of fidget toys, and several really useful books, this toolkit will help providers support children's transition between home, clubs and school.
Some providers will already have received their toolkit via their host school. Please do not worry if yours has not arrived yet, we will continue to deliver them over the summer holidays and into the autumn term.
If you have received your kit already, we would love to see some photos of you using them, along with a couple of lines on the impact it has made to the children using them. Those providers who received funding as part of the wraparound project and those who completed the June management information return, will be given priority delivery.
Please ensure you have permission to share any photos that contain children.
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a set of business support materials on the Foundation Years website, designed to provide practical support for running early years provision. These resources bring together key information on business planning, finance, marketing and human resources within an early years context.
The web page also signposts to important national guidance, and highlights the need to understand local provider agreements, funding rules and consumer law when delivering childcare.
A range of practical business support tools include:
- a business planning template
- cashflow tools
- occupancy calculators
- marketing plans to support sustainability and growth
These resources are further enhanced by materials from Childcare Works. You can access this comprehensive suite of tools from the Setting up an Early Years provider business web page.
More than 1,700 children took part in the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme across West Sussex during Easter 2026. The HAF team are looking forward to supporting even more children during the summer holidays. If you are currently delivering HAF, please note the updates below.
- All HAF providers must follow Ofsted rules. Even if you are not registered with Ofsted, you may still be inspected to check that you are meeting the requirements of the exemption you are working under. If you are unsure about exemptions, visit the Ofsted website for guidance.
- All HAF providers are strongly encouraged to register with Ofsted. This helps reassure parents that you meet required standards and allows families to use the Tax-Free Childcare scheme.
- The Household Support Fund, which helped families facing financial difficulties, ended on 31 March 2026. Families who receive benefit-related free school meals will no longer get food vouchers during school holidays. Any families needing help should be signposted to the West Sussex Community Hub for support.
- All HAF providers must now be registered as a food business with their local council. If you haven’t done this yet, you must complete registration before the summer holidays begin.
If you would like to deliver HAF during the Christmas holidays, you can submit an Expression of Interest between 17 August and 20 September. For more information, visit the HAF web page or contact the HAF team on HAF@westsussex.gov.uk.
A new post, “Renewed inspection framework for holiday providers: what you need to know” has just been published on the Ofsted: early years blog. In this blog, Ofsted explains how holiday provision is inspected and what providers can expect. You can read the blog here.
Saturday 27 February 2027
Information on guest speakers, market place opportunities and venue details will be shared soon.
Wraparound childcare is essential for families, and keeping your information up to date helps everyone. On page 5 of 7 of the termly provider update form, there is an option to indicate which schools you pick up from or drop off to. This is a key part of advertising what you offer because, even if you are based on a school site, it makes it clear to us and parents/carers which schools your setting supports. If you are a school that provides its own before and after-school care, you still need to complete this section.
 We know settings support schools in different ways. Childminders often provide care in their own home and physically drop off and collect children from school. Before and after-school care providers may operate on the school site and collect children from classrooms, or they may be based off-site and collect children from the school before returning to their own setting. All providers should still complete this section, so we can understand how you support schools in your local area.
It is also important to ensure your opening times are up to date to reflect your full offer.
By clearly listing the schools you support and ensuring your information is up to date, you help us:
- provide accurate advice to parents/carers looking for childcare that can drop off or collect from their child’s school
- support your business by making your services visible to families who need them
- track and monitor wraparound provision for each school
Please make sure this information is up to date by reviewing your termly update form in the Online Provider Portal. Keeping this information accurate helps parents make informed choices and ensures we have a clear picture of wraparound provision across all schools.
We are currently reviewing our termly provider update form and appreciate that it does not currently provide specific guidance on listing schools or detailing your wraparound support. We are working to improve this and will share updates as soon as changes are in place.
All our early years and childcare providers are able to access the West Sussex setting support phone line.
The telephone number is 01243 777807 and when you call, please specify you are calling for the setting support phone line. The line is available every Tuesday from 12.00 to 4.00pm. Calls will not be taken outside of these times.
The aim of the phone line is to:
- provide advice and guidance to enhance overall inclusion
- promote reflective practice and identify areas of needs within the setting/wraparound provision
- ensure early intervention, advice and guidance is available when settings need it most
- ensure settings have a good understanding of Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice
- create actions to support settings to enhance provision and practice
- ensure settings have strategies in place to support children effectively
- refer for further support if SEND/individualised support is identified
For more information please visit the setting support phone line webpage.
Phase 1 of the national rollout of the free breakfast clubs programme began in April 2026, with 500 more schools joining the programme nationally. You can see the full list of schools on the Free breakfast clubs: schools on the programme web page.
Free breakfast clubs will become a legal requirement in all schools with primary aged pupils, though there is no exact timeline for this at present.
The Department for Education (DfE) has published a range of resources to help schools and providers prepare for and deliver the programme. You can access all guidance and DfE contact details on the Free breakfast clubs programme web page.
This list below may help you understand the requirements of the programme and the funding breakdown.
We will share further information on the national rollout as it becomes available.
To support school-age childcare providers and the increasing demand for wraparound care, we offer courses specifically designed for those working in these types of settings. During the training course advertised, you will be supported to achieve the best possible environment to enable freely chosen self-directed play and learning.
The courses are also part of our expansion support offer for this year, meaning it is part-funded and reduced in cost to only £10 per person. To book, please click on the course name below or log in to the booking portal, West Sussex Services for Education.
If you have any booking queries or questions, please contact early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
Useful information
- 31 August - summer term deadline
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:
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:
-
03/2026 - (New Quality Framework to support high quality wraparound practice; Recruiting and retaining your school age childcare workforce; Reporting serious childcare incidents within 14 days; Safeguarding guidance for providers; Safeguarding E-learning for out of school settings; Local Authority Designated Officer contact details; Qualifications and training; Managing transition toolkits; Making the most of digital tools – Childcare Works; Updates for Holiday Activities and Food providers; Promoting Healthy Smiles in Early Years and Wraparound Care; BrightBites – free oral health sessions for settings; Network dates; Out of school alliance membership; Early Years Training)
-
02/2026 (Employment Rights Act 2025 - What providers need to know; Out of School Alliance - free membership offer; Tell us which schools you provide pick up and drop off for; New training to help every child and young person thrive; Parental conduct; Tax Free Childcare; Kent and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: summer term training and networks)
-
01/2026 (Wraparound Programme Funding – Management Information spring return; Wraparound Childcare Parent Survey; Wraparound Childcare Programme funding – deadline; Holiday Activity and Food programme - expression of interest ; Out of School Provider Training Opportunities; Out of School Networks; Use your free, funded Paediatric First Aid place - reminder; Why a SEND information report matters; Weekly online safeguarding drop-in sessions; Making a safeguarding referral; Setting Support phone line; Childcare Works - free resources)
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
|
