Early Years & Childcare Bulletin - Term Two 2021

Hello Everyone

Well as we seemingly hurtle towards Christmas (and no I most definitely do not have my Christmas tree up yet, although my shopping is well underway!), the early years and childcare scene nationally has been busy enough in its own right. We have already circulated (and you would have seen anyway, I am sure) the Government’s recent funding announcements. If for any reason at all you have missed these, I am including them again here:

1. Spending Review Outcome
The spending review settlement provides all children with the best start in life through high-quality education, childcare and family services, raising standards and helping parents to work. The settlement continues to support the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people through high quality education and local services, so that no one is left behind. You can read the full publication at Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021: A Stronger Economy for the British People, the Department for Education information is on page 96 (section 4.10 onwards). We wanted to draw your attention to the following key announcements:

• We are investing additional funding for the early years entitlements worth £160m in 2022-23, £180m in 2023-24 and £170m in 2024-25. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the Government’s free childcare entitlement offers and reflects the costs of inflation and national living wage increases.
• £18 million in 2024-25 to create a network of family hubs to improve access to services for families, and £20 million in 2024-25 for parenting support.
• Over £200 million a year for the continuation of the holiday activities and food programme, providing enriching activities and healthy meals for disadvantaged children during school holidays. Information on the current programme (HAF 2021) is available.

2. Early Years Recovery
As set out in the DfE press notice, which is available here: All schools and colleges to receive extra funding for catch up - GOV.UK, the Government is investing £153 million to build a stronger, more expert workforce in the early years sector. This was previously announced as part of the £1.4 billion commitment made on 2 June 2021. We can now share details of how that £153 million will be invested.

As soon as we have information we can share about any Kent specific implications for any of this spend, we will do so.

Minister Will Quince’s Letter to Parents and Carers of Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Please see below under the ‘National News and Updates’ an introduction and link to a letter issued recently from Will Quince to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND. Whilst it is possible that your parents may have already seen this, it would be helpful if you could share through your usual communication mechanisms to be absolutely sure that they have done. It is encouraging that ‘early years’ is named as being represented on the steering group for this going forward. Again, we will share any future information when we have that and are able to do so.

Calling all Childminders: Contain Outbreak Management Fund Training
Childminders, please see page 10 of this bulletin for further details but if you haven’t already, please do take the opportunity to attend this Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) funded training, which introduces a range of visual support strategies and other augmentative and alternative communication resources to support children's communication and interaction skills.

Shout Out for Collaborations!
Over the past year and a half we have been told so many positive stories about how valuable (and indeed invaluable) collaborations have been through the pandemic, facilitating information sharing, mutual support and encouragement. In order to do all that we can to support any and every provider who wants to be in a collaboration to find and join the right one for them, we are putting out a call for potential new leaders to come forward. Please see page 8 of this bulletin for further detail and that all important ‘next step’.

I think that is all from me for this Bulletin edition. It only leaves for me to say, once again, thank you so very much to each and every provider for your diligence and tenacity in continuing to provide high quality services for Kent’s youngest children and their families and of course to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

I hope that you will have a blessed and peaceful time, whatever you are doing, and manage to get some well-earned rest and relaxation. Now, where did I put those Christmas decs…….?!

Yours, as ever

Alex Gamby
Head of Early Years & Childcare Service

Minister Quince Letter to Parents and Carers of Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Will Quince MP, Minister for Children and Families, has written an open letter to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND, their families and those who support them.

In the letter, the Minister reaffirms his commitment to delivering the SEND Review and the importance of supporting the most disadvantaged children and young people. He outlines his plans to continue to visit schools, nurseries and colleges around the country to directly hear first-hand from children, young people, parents and carers, school, college and local authority staff as well as meet with SEND organisations and experts so they can influence proposals.
 
Alongside the letter, the Department for Education has published information about the members of the SEND Review Steering Group. The new group was set up to assist the department to conclude the SEND Review at pace and advise on proposals to be set out in a SEND Green Paper to be published in the first three months of 2022.

Department for Education Message Regarding the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday
With the additional bank holiday due to take place on Friday 3 June 2022, and taking into account that for most this will be during the half term break, we are aware that some providers may intend to close on a different day to give their staff the entitlement to a bank holiday.

Our statutory guidance (paragraph A4.37) is clear that local authorities should ensure providers are not penalised through withdrawal of funding for short term closures of a setting, for example, as a result of local or national elections or damage to the premises. Therefore, providers should not be penalised for closing as a result of the additional bank holiday, as is currently the case with other bank holidays.

However, providers should be mindful of the impact on parents if they choose to close on a different day, and should be confident they can still provide the total number of hours parents agreed with the provider in their parental declaration.

Companies House News
Those of you who receive regular information from Companies House will have noticed they are offering a series of bitesize webinars to support directors’ responsibilities. Watch the whole series online.

They feature webinars with the Business Support Helpline and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), directors’ responsibilities bitesize webinar series answering questions about running a limited company. From protecting personal data, to changing the registered office address and dealing with late filing penalties, the series provides useful information to help understand the role and responsibilities as a company director.

If you missed any of the webinars, visit the website to watch a recording of the presentations. For more useful links and digital tools, visit their directors’ toolkit

Choking Hazards
Tragically, a child dies in the UK every month from choking and hundreds more require hospital treatment. It can happen quickly and it can happen to anyone.

The Food Standards Agency has produced a poster which you can display in your setting where food is prepared and served to children, as a helpful reminder of how to minimise the risk of choking.

Early years choking hazards food safety advice

(Source – foundationyears.org.uk)

Gov.uk also contains useful advice and resources for early years providers.

UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR)
How is your "UK GDPR" compliance? The main English data protection laws include the Data Protection Act 2018, Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and, of course, the GDPR. However, since 1 January it is officially referred to as the "UK GDPR". You should consider amending your documentation to demonstrate good legal awareness and compliance with the law. However, please discuss with your own professional association or advisers as the Early Years & Childcare Service is not qualified to provide legal advice.

The Kickstart Scheme
The Kickstart Scheme provides funding to create new jobs for 16- to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long-term unemployment. Employers of all sizes can apply for funding until 17 December 2021 which covers:

• 100% of the  National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant) for 25 hours per week for a total of six months
• associated employer National Insurance contributions
• minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions.

Employers can spread the job start dates up until 31 March 2022. You’ll get funding for six months once the young person has started their job.

Further funding is available for training and support so that young people on the scheme can get a job in the future.

Applying
You can either apply online yourself or access the scheme through a Kickstart gateway.

Further information is available.

Applications to join the Kickstart Scheme or to add additional staff to an existing grant agreement, ends on the 17 December 2021.

Analysis of Ofsted Recommendations Following Inspection
Ofsted resumed on-site inspections of registered early years providers under the education inspection framework on 4 May 2021. The Early Years & Childcare Service has reviewed reports for early years providers inspected following this date to identify any commonalities or patterns in the recommendations being given.

For providers receiving a good judgement two key areas have emerged as result of our analysis which are, children’s language development and the organisation of group activities.

Children’s Language Development
Recommendations following inspection highlight the need to strengthen practitioners’ skills and ability to support young children’s communication and language development, stressing the importance of securing a consistent approach to this prime area of development.

What You Can Do
It may be worthwhile revisiting your ECAT strategies, introducing peer to peer observations with a language focus or investing in additional training. The Ofsted definition of teaching is useful in helping to identify the key characteristics of effective teaching which support children’s learning and development. The Development Matters document identifies development expectations and includes useful observation checkpoints to enable us to assess where children should be. Examples of how to support language development in this document can be used to further strengthen your practice.

Group Activities
Recommendations relating to group activities focus on the importance of children’s engagement, highlighting the need to ensure group times meet children’s needs as well as being appropriate for their age and stage of development and that they maintain children’s interest to maximise learning opportunities. We have moved on from large whole group activities delivered to children of several ages and are using smaller group activities to engage children; however, these group activities must be suitably planned, meaningful and of a length appropriate for the children.

What You Can Do
Make time to observe group activities: are all children engaged and how do you know, is the length of the activity appropriate or can children come and go? Can the practitioners planning or delivering these group activities confidently talk about their intent and reflect on its implementation? Is the impact such that it develops vocabulary, extends learning, develops new skills and helps children remember long term what they have been taught?

Additional Recommendations
In addition to these two key areas, we are also seeing recommendations around the following:

• effective sharing of information with parents about their children’s progress
• enabling children to explore a wide range of media and materials to allow them to freely express themselves during creative activities
• promoting children’s independence
• extending children’s interest in maths
• strengthening practitioners’ understanding of how to secure a clear learning intent
• developing and extending children’s knowledge during planned activities.

Recommendations for Providers Receiving a Judgement of Requires Improvement
Recommendations for those providers receiving a judgement of requires improvement are predominantly related to the Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements or the Learning and Development Requirements. They include, but are not limited to, having the required documentation available, for example, first aid certificates, accessing the outdoors, the roles and responsibilities of those with governance of the setting, the implementation of the curriculum to build on what children know and can do, providing effective support and coaching to staff to improve teaching, and involving and keeping parents informed in their children’s learning.

Did you know you can sign up to receive Ofsted notifications for published early years and childcare reports? This is what we at the Early Years & Childcare Service do. Just make sure you set filters for early years and Kent or your mailbox will be filled with every report from every type of educational provision in the entire country!

Early Education Funding Reminders
Dates for the diary:

• FF2 claims to be submitted by 2 December 2021
• FF2 payments will be made during the week commencing 20 December
• Headcount week for the spring term is 17 to 21 January 2022.

Don’t forget, if you have any issues with a 30 Hours code, please contact the Management Information Team in the first instance before referring a parent or carer to the Kent Children & Families Information Service (CFIS). Recent enquiries to CFIS have included codes showing as not valid due to a grace period or incorrect input of the code.

Early Education and Childcare Entitlements for Resettled Afghan Children
Please be aware that we are awaiting guidance on the funding of resettled children from the Department for Education, which is expected to arrive soon.

Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) Referrals - Allegation Investigations
At a recent meeting Ofsted let us know that some settings in Kent continue to initiate internal investigations without first informing the LADO of any allegations made. Please be aware that settings must inform the LADO within 24 hours of any allegation being made about a member of staff. If you are not clear on whether an allegation should be referred, you can call the LADO Enquiries Officer and consult for advice and next steps. LADO Team contact telephone number: 03000 410888.

Safeguarding
You can find the November edition of the Child Protection Newsletter on our website.

Early Years & Childcare Recruitment Hub
A well-qualified and skilled early years and childcare workforce is essential to ensure you effectively deliver the EYFS and provide the best possible outcomes for children in Kent.

Finding the right member of staff is even more challenging in today’s competitive environment.  In order to support you, The Education People continues to offer ‘The Recruitment Hub’ – a central location for early years and childcare employers to advertise their vacancies and for candidates to search, either for their first role in the sector or to further their career.

Free of charge and easy to use, The Recruitment Hub is proving to be a very popular resource and, alongside the jobs board, offers a wealth of information for settings and jobseekers about the recruitment journey.

The Recruitment Hub is the place to come if you are an individual seeking a new job, or an employer looking to recruit in the early years and childcare sector.

Kent Collaborations
The leaders and members of our 70 collaborations in Kent have told us how beneficial membership has been throughout the pandemic and into recovery. Not only have collaborations shared ideas and information but have also given each other mutual support during difficult times. Some existing collaborations are seeking new members whilst others are full to capacity.

If you are from a setting graded good or above by Ofsted, why not consider further developing your leadership skills by starting up a new collaboration? The Early Years & Childcare Service can offer support to you to achieve this.

We recently supported a Canterbury childminder to meet with others to take forward a new childminder collaboration and they would welcome interest from more childminders to join them. If you are a childminder in the Canterbury district or you live in the Faversham or the Westgate and Minster areas of Thanet and feel this is something you might be interested in finding out more about then please let us know.

Email the collaborations mailbox for any support or information about Kent collaborations.

Kent Children and Families Information Service (CFIS)
Kent CFIS support and maintain the Kent Directory, which providers can use to advertise their settings. A recent report has indicated that 10% of providers who have updated their record this year have not given permission to advertise their setting. There are five levels of permissions to choose from including whether or not to appear on a map and revealing your street level location. Please review your permissions to ensure that you are visible to Kent families looking for childcare.

Kent Bookstart Annual Report
The latest Kent Bookstart Annual Report (2020-21) is now available.

The report is shorter than normal due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the delivery of both Bookstart gifting nationally and in Kent. Due to the major disruption to services this year, Kent Libraries have included no comparison data with previous years. It covers Bookstart in Kent plus also highlights how Kent Libraries responded to the impact of COVID-19 on their services by providing virtual activities and support for preschool children and their families.

Specialist Teaching and Learning Service (STLS) Redesign
This consultation is seeking the views on proposals for the future delivery of the STLS in Kent. Over the last year, families, early years settings, schools and practitioners have shared their views on how the STLS currently works. The consultation reflects on feedback received and puts forward proposals for the future delivery of the service. The ambition is to create a more consistent and equitable service across the county, as part of a network of support and interventions. You can provide feedback by completing a questionnaire, which can be accessed on the website by Tuesday 7 December 2021.