Early Years News
June 25, 2023
FAO: Solihull Leaders and Managers
Action Required
- 5th July Child minder Ofsted meeting -cancelled
- NHS BSol Immunisations and Vaccinations
- EYFSP- responsibility for statutory submission
- DfE / Foundation Years Consultation Vodcast
For information
- EY Team contact list
- Music support and Solgrid video
- Ofsted complaints
Reminder
- EYIF -reminder to submit the monitoring form
- Experts and Mentors and Professional Development Programme closing dates
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Action Required
Ofsted Childminder meeting – 5th July 6.30pm
Unfortunately, Ofsted are not able to send a representative to attend this meeting. We would be grateful if you could communicate with anyone planning to attend the Teams meeting that the meeting is cancelled.
NHS BSol Immunisations and Vaccinations – Early Years
Your Birmingham Solihull (BSol) immunisations and vaccinations team are keen to ensure all parents are able to get their children access to the right immunisations and vaccinations at the right time, to ensure children have the best start in life.
Like many areas, Birmingham and Solihull uptake rates for childhood immunisations has suffered as a result of the pandemic. We are now trying to accelerate our recovery with your help.
We want to ensure everyone is able to catch up on vital missed immunisations and that children can get the immunisations they need when they need it.
We are particularly concerned about low uptake of MMR where our uptake rates at age five do not give optimum protection for the population. As a result we could be at risk of a measles outbreak which we do not want to happen.
Your setting can help by using the free to order back to nursery poster and postcards. These resources are suitable for all nursery staff to send out to parents and carers of children to prompt them to check their child is up to date with the relevant vaccines.
You are a vital support to our campaign, and we would like to work with your sector. We want to:
- Learn from you about what could work well
- Ensure everyone is as informed about the vaccinations programme as possible
- Understand and listen to parents’ concerns
- Ensure our website contains useful information for you to signpost to parents
If you are interested in working with us please contact 0121 371 8445 & BSOLCovidVaccinationBookings@uhb.nhs.uk
Thank you, and we look forward to working with you.
Kate Woolley Director of Immunisations and Vaccinations and Helen Bissett -Programme Senior Officer
EYFSP at age 5 (end YR)- responsibility for statutory submission
If you as a setting, along with parents, choose for a child to spend their reception (YR) year with you, you need to ensure you can provide a curriculum with the ability to reach end of YR outcomes. This includes being able to read and write using phonics skills and use maths knowledge and skills with larger numbers. We need to support all children to achieve the expected ELGs in all aspects and to be able to support appropriately when children need more targeted curriculum implementation. We advise that you contact the Early Years Setting Improvement Advisers if you have a reception age child. We support settings in the summer term when there is a statutory requirement to submit EYFSP assessment. To reach these goals practitioners need to ensure curriculum opportunities match the age and learning ability of the child. The Local Authority is currently contacting settings with YR age children to request their EYFSP submission.
At a recent Leaders and Managers meeting you asked us to support you with a checklist you can use with parents when they are applying for a reception place. This is now available here – https://www.solgrid.org.uk/eyc/resources/learning-and-development/ – under parents
DfE Consultation Vodcast
In this vodcast, Ada Simpson (Head of Early Years Quality in Settings) and Daniel Blenkley (Early Years Qualifications Policy) from the Department for Education discuss the current EYFS Consultation, explaining the proposals and answer questions sent in advance by Foundation Years subscribers.You can watch the vodcast here and download the slides here. You can respond to the consultation here .
For information
Early Years Team contact list
An updated EY Team contact list is attached Early Years Team May 2023
Music courses and Solgrid video
Thank you to those of you supporting Laura Lenthall from Solihull Music who is supporting Solihull Early Years Providers to become a singing setting. Wednesday 21 June is Make Music Day- have a look at the training from Solihull Music [voices foundation CPD (1)] and the presentation here – https://www.solgrid.org.uk/eyc/news/early-years-music/ . Thanks to Kate and the team for helping us with this video.
Ofsted complaints
Ofsted has launched a formal consultation on changes to the inspection complaints system. The changes would apply to all education settings, including early years providers.
The new consultation will run until Friday 15 July 2023. The consultation document, which includes the full proposals, is available here.
Reminder
Early Years Inclusion Fund Monitoring
We are asking people who have had EYIF to submit a monitoring form before Friday 28th July. The submission form is here .(link) Last year’s report, based on information submitted in 2022/23, is here. Thank you to those of you who have already submitted.
We are currently contacting some settings for monitoring. Those settings who do not submit a form for 2022-2023 will be prioritised for visits next year.
Experts and Mentors and Professional Development Programme closing dates
Experts and Mentors – self-selection: closing dates for application for ‘expert’ support in the Autumn.
Childminders– to access support for the Autumn term the deadline for submission is 31st July 2023, Apply here
Group settings– closing date 23rd July 2023 . Apply here
Professional Development Programme (PDP) applications need to be in by 17th July to begin in September 2023. Free with some cover costs provided.
We are currently looking at our Solihull Early Years training and communications with a view to stopping e mail EY Team News and moving to a recorded on-line news. We will send on important information, but suggest you sign up to national newsletters for your updates from DfE, Ofsted, etc. We will continue with some meetings for Leaders, but these will be more content driven with the news updates being accessible on-line.
Thank you for your feedback over the year as this is helping us steer our 2023/ 2024 offer of support.