Having trouble viewing this content? View in browser

Early Years, Childcare, and School Readiness Service (CambsEYC)

News Round-Up

 May 2025

Since becoming aware of the situation, CambsEYC has been working with PACEY and Coram to continue the current contract in Cambridgeshire with no breaks or changes to the contract specification. Fortunately, this has been agreed with the Cambridgeshire County Council legal team, and it is confirmed that current PACEY colleagues will remain in their role, under the new Coram PACEY partnership. It is also confirmed that for Cambridgeshire's childminders, there will be no difference to the support and development work they are used to.

For further information, a press release, PACEY transfers to Coram Group as Coram PACEY, is available to read on the Coram PACEY website.

Many thanks for your continued hard work supporting Cambridgeshire's children and families. Should you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. 

CambsEYC has issued the agreement as a fillable PDF to avoid further delays. Please return the completed agreement by Friday, 30 May 2025. 

If you have any questions, contact eycinfo@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

As a reminder, Part 2 of the agreement covers the key aspects of claiming funding for early years places from the local authority. It has been updated to reflect the early education and childcare statutory guidance and to include the extended entitlements from September 2025. 

Providers are required to sign up for the provider agreement and to comply with the conditions set out in Parts 1 and 3 to access support provided by the local authority. In addition, providers offering early years places funded by the county council are required to meet the further conditions set out in Part 2. 

New adverts include 15-second social videos that challenge common barriers to joining the sector, alongside updated content specifically designed to encourage more men to consider working in early years roles. The campaign will be across TV, radio, digital, social media, billboards, and the rail network. 

The Department for Education would love your support in amplifying the campaign – please keep an eye out for the new adverts and use the available recruitment resources in your own recruitment activity.  

The Do something big - Early Years Careers website also directs thousands of potential applicants to early years jobs in the UK every week, and providers can advertise roles on there for free, which will ensure they are seen by a large pool of candidates. 

From introductory level early childhood studies to higher level education, the CECQC offer a variety of NCFE/CACHE accredited training courses for early years practitioners at all stages of their early childhood careers:

• Exploring Early Childhood Careers.
• Level 1 Introduction to Early Years Settings.
• Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner.
• Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator).

CECQC designs all courses to ensure learners gain the most current and up-to-date information, knowledge, and skills to work in the early childhood sector. Sign up now to learn more.

all career levels.

To learn more, take advantage of the Membership Offer available for all types of providers, which includes credits which can be exchanged for places on essential (mandatory) courses free of charge, and discounts available for multi-package membership. There is also a combined package available for schools running early years provision for children in the two to five-year age range.

Sign up for a membership package via the online booking form: Early Years, Childcare & School Readiness Service Annual Membership 2025-2026. For support with the membership, please contact earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or telephone 01223 706 133.

enables recruitment teams to search a potential employee’s certificate and confirm if the qualification they hold permits them to be counted in staff:child ratios. 

Before you start a search, the DfE requires answers to the following:

• Where the qualification was awarded. 
• The date the qualification was started and awarded.
• The level of the qualification.
• The awarding organisation.

It will be helpful to have the qualification certificate and the qualification transcript – this includes a list of the modules that were studied.

Some qualifications have additional requirements which need to be met for the qualification to be considered full and relevant. The service will inform you of any additional requirements and what they are.

nutrition guidance in the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, which will replace the ‘Examples menus for early years settings in England’ guidance from September 2025. The new guidance has been developed with nutrition and sector experts. It will help early years providers understand how to meet the existing EYFS requirement: “Where children are provided with meals, snacks and drinks, these must be healthy, balanced and nutritious.” 

Good nutrition in the early years is crucial for setting the foundations for a lifetime of good health. From September 2025, providers will be required to have regard to the new nutrition guidance, meaning they must take it into account and should follow it unless there is good reason not to.

To read the new nutrition guidance, visit Early Years Foundation Stage nutrition - GOV.UK. 

eating behaviours, they should start to resolve.

Most children's growth or health is not negatively impacted. However, it can understandably be a worrying time for parents/carers and stressful for early years and school staff to manage these behaviours at mealtimes.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Children and Young People's Health Services have created a new webpage for a guide to fussy eating with tips to manage picky eating at mealtimes and at home.

Make sure to watch the video ‘FEAST: Division of Responsibility in Feeding’ with mealtime staff to learn about Ellyn Satter's Division of Responsibility in Feeding through feeding, eating and succeeding together (FEAST).

Around 180,000 pupils in the most disadvantaged communities will be able to access free breakfast clubs. 750 schools have been funded to provide access to a free, universal breakfast club lasting at least 30 minutes that includes food, so children start every day ready to learn.

These schools are based across nine regions in England and will be funded to provide this service, available to all children in each setting. 

The government is committed to offering a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England. Further details on the national rollout will be available in due course.

The event will include an overview and update from the DfE, an opportunity to share your experiences and views in roundtable discussions, and a best practice session.

This event is a good opportunity to help shape this government’s plan for change and hear about the strategy and activity underway to meet the pillar in its Opportunity Mission to give children the Best Start in Life.

You will have a chance to engage with DfE colleagues on the work CambsEYC are doing to meet the expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025 and share your ideas, concerns, and challenges. You will also hear how the department is working on the government’s new vision for early years education and childcare.

These roadshows are an important part of shaping early years and childcare policy and delivery. For a place at the roadshow, register – contact details.

This audit will support settings to understand children’s unique backgrounds and experiences and to ensure children are encountering new experiences which they may have never had the opportunity to engage with before. When a child enters your setting, they need to feel a connection with their own home and lives to help them settle, feel included and feel welcome, and therefore settings can audit their environment to offer a diverse and inclusive space to foster a love of learning.

The toolkit is now available for you to download from the Cambridgeshire County Council Early Years Leaders (PVI) - Knowledge Hub.

The WellComm toolkit supports children’s development from six months to six years. It includes detailed instructions on how to assess children’s development and implement targeted interventions to support progress.

The loan period is 16 weeks, which would provide adequate time for children to be assessed, at least one round of interventions to be delivered, and a reassessment of any progress which has been observed. There is no charge for borrowing the toolkit.

If you would like to express your interest in participating in the WellComm Toolkit Loan Scheme, please complete the WellComm Toolkit Loan Expression of Interest Microsoft Forms.

For further information, contact Ali.Mitchell@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) is committed to supporting all parents to be actively involved, caring figures in their children's lives.

CCC’s targeted support, engaging fathers’ workstream, is excited to share their new digital platform that can be used to support your work with fathers and their journey through parenthood.

The new fatherhood information and advice webpage has a wealth of guidance on offer for professionals, including information on training, tips to enhance engagements with parents, resources and services to share with the families.

Please take a look at Supporting Fathers a short video guide on YouTube that introduces the site.

understanding the Early Support Pathway and wider SEND offer.

SEND surgery consultations are conducted via telephone and will be bookable in 30-minute slots. Please outline the areas you wish to cover when making your booking. Please note that it is a requirement, unless parental permission is in place, that children remain anonymous.

Your free telephone consultation can be booked via Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development, SEND Surgery.

Currently, the following dates are available: Monday, 2 June 2025, Thursday, 19 June 2025, Wednesday, 2 July 2025, and Tuesday, 15 July 2025 (all dates in May 2025 are fully booked).

• The free resources and information available to make sure your nursery, school or setting is ready for the roll-out of expanded early years entitlements in September 2025.

• Practical support and fast access to information on a range of topics, including business planning and meeting the needs of children with SEND.

This informal and friendly session is suitable for early years setting managers, leaders and owners, school leaders who have, or are considering developing their early years provision, childminders, and everyone who wants to learn more about how to start, grow and sustain an early years setting. 

Find out more and register for a place at HUB Webinars - childcareworks.org.uk.

course on Tuesday, 17 June 2025 from 10 am to 11.30 am via Microsoft Teams. 

The training course is suitable for any practitioner working in early years and childcare who is not in the setting ENCo but is interested in developing their knowledge on equality, inclusion, and diversity (EDI). 

Participants will gain an overview of the principles of EDI and will consider how this agenda contributes to high-quality early years and childcare practice.

Please promote this course to all practitioners. Training can be booked via Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development, Equalities and Inclusion. 

The aims of the course will support practitioners to:

• Develop an awareness and understanding of STEM in practice with children.
• Gain confidence in celebrating STEM subjects with children in practice, to support children’s interests in STEM.
• Develop an understanding of the importance of STEM in Early Childhood to improve outcomes for children.
• Gain ideas of strategies and activities to support STEM-based practice.
• Gain confidence in sharing STEM knowledge and simple, low-cost activities, particularly to support the home learning environment.
• Gain confidence in sharing STEM knowledge and simple, low-cost activities, particularly to support the home learning environment.

The conference will be held for early years providers on Wednesday, 25 June 2025, and Thursday, 26 June 2025, for wraparound providers, at Cambridge Science Centre, from 9 am to 4 pm.

To learn more about the conference and to book a place, please visit Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development, ‘Curriculum, Pedagogy and Practice.’

Please also ensure that all parts of the request form are fully completed, and if requesting rate three, please remember to include a copy of the child’s latest risk assessment. Requests received will be discussed at a SENIF panel meeting in July 2025, ready for funding to commence in September 2025.

For children already receiving SENIF, a review form will be sent out, in early July 2025, via Microsoft Forms, for you to complete and inform the CambsEYC SEND team of what funding requirements there are for the Autumn 2025 funding period. 

• Developmental information in the context of the early years foundation stage (EYFS). This could be in the form of a copy of the child’s latest EYFS summative assessment and/or a copy of the Cambridgeshire Early Years Developmental Journal – if submitting the developmental journal, please include the completed profile summary page.
• Targeted observations to illustrate concerns identified.
• Individual risk assessment/reduction plan in place, or any enhanced support strategies you are using to support positive interactions.
• Assess, Plan, Do, Review documentation to date, individual child plans, current targets, etc.
• Parent/carer comments – this is an opportunity to capture the child’s needs and the impact on the child and family from the perspective of the parent/carer.

Please remember that an EHA must be completed in conjunction with the parent/carer, and they should see a final copy before it is submitted.

Please ensure parent/carer email addresses are included and up-to-date on EHM/Liquid Logic. This is essential to enable services to contact the parents and offer support.

If you have any questions about referring a child to Early Support, contact early.support@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. 

Directory and offer one-to-one support for families with children and young people from birth to 25. 

Their advice is free, confidential, and impartial. The FIS can help with finding childcare, understanding childcare funding options, childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and the SEND Local Offer.

For information on childcare and early learning, contact the FIS team: Lisa Watson, Families Information Coordinator, and Tracey-Ann Grant, Childcare Brokerage Adviser – SEND, email fis@cambridgeshire.gov.uk, or telephone 0345 045 1360.

Please also connect with CambsFIS on Facebook and share their page.

In my free time, I enjoy exploring Europe and travelling with my husband. We also have a French bulldog who enjoys exploring with us whenever he can. I enjoy music and getting to see this live. I am fortunate to visit family often, and you will find me out in the Peak District or back in Stamford. I am looking forward to starting with the Cambridgeshire Early Childhood Qualifications Centre and getting to know the team. 

Outside of work, I love being a mum to my girls, and we love to spend time outside, either on long walks at National Trust properties or on the beach.

Your News

Shelford Day Nursery’s allotment adventure.

Shelford Day Nursery has taken a bold and exciting step on our journey to becoming a truly eco-conscious setting. We have secured a 22-metre allotment plot, and we are transforming it into a thriving, sustainable growing space for our children, families, and the wider community.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of Timotey Playscapes, we now have beautiful, low raised beds perfectly designed for little hands to explore and grow.

We have laid accessible pathways around them, making sure all our children, from our toddlers to our tiniest babies, can get involved. Yes, even the babies have been helping with watering cans in hand.

We have made amazing progress:

• Bases laid and sheds installed to safely store tools and resources.
• A water butt set up, ready to instruct the children about rainwater harvesting and sustainable water use.
• Three tonnes of fruit and vegetable soil were moved to fill the first three of our six raised beds, with the rest on the way.
• Generous allotment neighbours have donated strawberries and rhubarb, and we are deeply grateful for their support.
• Planting is underway – our little eco-explorers have already planted potatoes, onions, leeks, broccoli, and wildflowers.

We have nearly completed the groundwork, just the mulch to lay on the remaining pathways, and then it is full steam ahead. But we do not want to do this alone. This project is about community, collaboration, and connection. We are putting up a board on-site to let families know what tasks need doing each weekend, from weeding to watering to harvesting. We would love your help, so look out for this addition coming soon.

Are you a green-fingered community member with a little time to spare? Fancy popping down to do a spot of weeding or lend a hand with the harvest? Just want to be part of something wholesome and hopeful?

Come and join us on The Hectare Allotments, Great Shelford. Many hands make light work, and big dreams grow faster together.

This initiative is not only a fantastic outdoor learning opportunity, but also a vital part of our application for Green Flag accreditation with the Eco-Schools Award. We are committed to helping our children understand the importance of sustainability, nature, and working as a team – and we want the whole community to be part of it. Together, let us grow something special.

Share your good news with CambsEYC

Contributions for News Round-Up should be between 150 and 300 words and include a high-resolution image. All photographs must have parental permission to publish for any children shown. The editors reserve the right to edit articles for length and content to meet the audience's needs. Please submit your news items to eycinfo@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Stay connected with CambsEYC online

This email was sent to eycinfo@cambridgeshire.gov.uk using Microsoft Dynamics on behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council.

New Shire Hall, Alconbury, PE28 4YE