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

News Round-Up

 July 2025

There are two versions of the EYFS framework, one for:  

The changes from September 2025 are being made to strengthen the EYFS safeguarding requirements. The main changes to be aware of are:

• Amendments to promote safer recruitment, including

• A requirement for safeguarding policies to include procedures to help ensure that only suitable individuals are recruited.

• Requirements to obtain references.
• New expectations to provide reference.

• New requirements for providers to follow up if a child is absent for a prolonged period of time, and amendments to ensure providers hold additional emergency contact details.
• New requirements to ensure safer eating.
• The creation of a safeguarding training criteria annex and a requirement for safeguarding policies to include details of how safeguarding training is delivered, including how practitioners are supported to put it into place
• Amendments to ensure that early years students and trainees are required to have paediatric first aid (PFA) training for them to be included in ratios at the level below their level of study.
• New requirements to support whistleblowing.
• Amendments to ensure that children’s privacy during nappy changing and toileting is considered and balanced with safeguarding considerations.

You may find the following document useful: 'Summary-of-EYFS-changes-for-publication.' Size: 211KB File format: pdf

Further supporting materials for settings and practitioners are available on the Foundation Years website.

If you have any questions, please contact your adviser for support or email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

This ambitious publication is the culmination of many conversations with people and organisations who are enthusiastic about children, families and early education and health. It sets out the first steps in a decade of renewal, with government spending close to £1.5 billion over the next three years to begin the work needed. This includes expanding and strengthening family services, making early education and childcare more accessible and affordable, and improving the quality of early education and childcare to make real change and deliver stronger outcomes for our children, our families, and our society.

The DfE hope you can easily see the vital role you will play in delivering what will be a step change in this country’s focus to give every child the best start in life.

*Size: 2.4MB File format: pdf

Dr Mary Ramsay, Director of Public Health Programmes at UKSA, said: 

“Vaccinations are vital for protecting children against serious and potentially life-threatening diseases. With measles outbreaks occurring in areas of the UK and cases of whooping cough being reported, it is more important than ever that children receive their routine immunisations on schedule. While some children may experience mild side effects after vaccination, there is absolutely no medical reason to exclude a vaccinated child from a setting if they are feeling well. This practice could potentially discourage parents from getting their children vaccinated and therefore increase the risk of having outbreaks in nurseries and schools.”

DfE and UKHSA encourage you to help protect the health of children, members of staff and your wider community by checking that your attendance policy does not unnecessarily exclude children who have recently been vaccinated.

The key message:

Make sure your child has the best start to their education by starting primary school fully vaccinated. If they have missed a vaccine, it is not too late to have it, the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine can be given at any age, including to adults, and the four-in-one preschool booster vaccine can be given to anyone up to the age of ten.

Please read their MMR-vaccine-letter-to-schools-2025.docx*, it includes suggested text that you could use in your communications with parents. CPICS wants to encourage parents whose children are eligible, but have not had the vaccines, to have them over the summer holidays before the start of the new academic year.

For more information on MMR vaccines, please visit The Vaccinators | CPICS Website.

*Size: 831KB File format: docx

If you know a family with children under four years of age who may be eligible for NHS Healthy Start, encourage them the check their eligibility and apply:

• How to apply – Get help to buy food and milk (Healthy Start). 

The application can take as little as five minutes. Once families have successfully applied, they will receive a Healthy Start card with money on it to use in some shops towards milk (cow’s and formula), fruit and vegetables.

A range of fun and enriching experiences are on offer across Cambridgeshire, during the summer holidays, which include a healthy meal, and snacks provided. Each eligible child can book up to 64 fully funded hours across all holiday schemes, subject to availability. 

The HAF programme, runs from Thursday, 24 July 2025, to Friday, 29 August 2025. For further information, please contact HAF@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

The dedicated webpages will provide you with good practice examples and advice to ensure you deliver the best early years practice in your setting. 

Our first page will help you meet your statutory requirements and good practice principles in relation to nutrition for children in the early years. We have collaborated with our colleagues in Public Health to ensure that the information you can access on these pages is reliable in terms of good early years practice and is evidence and research based.

We hope you enjoy exploring our new Learn Together page for Physical Development and we look forward to publishing more guidance soon.

The aim of their new Community Outreach Service is to collaboratively support and develop the skills of parents of children from birth to five years, and those leading community groups for families with children from birth to five years.

TTiC will be visiting parent and toddler groups across Cambridgeshire to chat with parents and carers about simple, effective ways to support their child's early communication, language, and literacy development.

The Community Outreach Service will be available to Cambridgeshire early years community groups supporting families with children from birth to five, that are constituted charities, community, or voluntary organisations, Cambridgeshire Libraries, and Cambridgeshire Child and Family Centres.

To find out more about this new service offer, join the online Community Outreach Service: Launch event on Monday, 18 August 2025 from 1 pm to 1.30 pm. Please complete the registration form to book a place. If you have any queries, please email helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Further information about the Community Outreach Service will be shared in the coming months, in the meantime, follow the TTiC Facebook page for updates.

This year’s theme, Story Garden, is all about children exploring the magical connections between stories and nature.

Children can sign up for free, at their local or mobile library, to take part in the challenge. During the summer holidays children need to read at least six library books of their choice, and collect the six special Story Garden stickers, to complete the challenge and receive a certificate and a medal.

The library service has thousands of amazing books to choose from, and the first sticker will be available to collect from Saturday, 19 July 2025.

Pop into your local library for more details or visit the Summer Reading Challenge website.

Families can enjoy a wide range of activities to keep everyone entertained. From sports, arts and crafts, and outdoor adventures, to wellbeing sessions and community events, there will be plenty of fun and healthy ways to stay active this summer.

For information on activities happening near you, visit the Get Activated campaign webpage, and follow the hashtag #GetActivated on your favourite social media channel.

Whilst the warm summer weather brings lots of opportunities for fun in the sun there are also additional hazards for children. Whether it is a sunny day at the park, a splash in the pool, or simply running around at playtime, there are important safety measures to keep in mind. 

You can find lots of useful information on staying safe and accident prevention from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Children’s Health team, including:

• Safety around water.
• Safety during play.
• Safety in the sun.

The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) have created a free summer safety display pack with educational posters on common accident risks.

Make sure to also check out the CAPT summer safety pages for tips to help prevent injury this summer:

• 6 dangerous products to avoid this summer.
• Staying safe on holiday.
• Summer safety tips: 8 reminders to keep children safe this summer.

You can also get lots of tips for a safe and fun family summer holiday by following @CambsPboroCYP on Facebook and Instagram.

This includes understanding their individual needs and the transition arrangements that have been put in place to support a smooth and successful start to school.

Please complete the brief Early Support Transition Arrangements Microsoft Form for each child. It should take only a couple of minutes to fill in and will help the team build a clear picture of the support required, as well as the lead professional arrangements currently in place.

Your input is valuable in helping us ensure that every child receives the right support at the right time. 

Please note that the form does not automatically collect your name or email address unless you choose to provide them.

programme, and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision within Cambridgeshire.

The service offers one-to-one support for families with children and young people from birth to 25 and can help with:

• Finding childcare.
• Understanding childcare funding options.
• Childcare for children with SEND, and the SEND Local Offer. 

The FIS also manage the Cambridgeshire Childcare Directory.

Their advice is free, confidential, and impartial. If you would like to receive any posters or leaflets about the FIS, they can provide them on request in either digital or hard copy format.

Contact Sarah Storey - FIS Team Lead,

Lisa Watson, Families Information Coordinator, 

Tracey-Ann Grant, Childcare Brokerage Adviser – SEND.

Email fis@cambridgeshire.gov.uk, telephone 0345 045 1360, or connect with CambsFIS on Facebook. Please like and share their page.

• Birth to three early years.
• Business and governance.
• Childminders.
• Communication, language, and literacy.
• Curriculum, pedagogy, and practice.
• Early childhood qualifications.
• Equalities and inclusion.
• Forest school.
• Holiday activities and food (HAF) programme.
• Leadership and management.
• Observation and assessment.
• Our best world.
• Safeguarding and child protection.
• Schools.
• Special educational needs and disability (SEND).
• Supporting wellbeing and mental health.
• Wraparound and playwork.
• 12-hour paediatric first aid.

Take advantage of training discounts, up to 40% off listed course prices, by signing up for the Membership Offer. Many of the membership packages include credits, which can be exchanged for places on essential (mandatory) courses free of charge.

The DfE are looking for staff who:

• Work in Reception classes.
• Are either teachers or teaching assistant.
• Can share their views on Early Years Child Development training.

The goal is to understand how relevant the training is to Reception roles and whether it helps staff identify when a child may need additional support with their development or learning.

Your feedback will directly inform improvements to the training and help better support the Early Years workforce.

For further information, please contact daniel.owens@education.gov.uk.

The role is open to early years leaders, teachers and teaching assistants who are currently working in an Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding setting. We are looking for recruits to be advocates of high-quality EYFS practice and to share their knowledge and skills with others in the sector on a voluntary basis.

For more information, an informal conversation or the application pack, please contact Anna Igglesden, Early Years Improvement Adviser, at anna.igglesden@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Private, voluntary, and independent early years setting-based practitioners, please contact Lucy Frain, Quality Improvement Co-ordinator at lucy.frain@cambridgeshire.gov.uk for details.

Please note the closing date for receiving applications is Monday, 8 September 2025.

The Do something big website links to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Find a job website, directing thousands of potential applicants every week to early years jobs in the UK. Providers wanting advertise roles on the website can do so for free. – There are helpful video tutorials on how to post job adverts available to watch on the Find a job service - Employer help - YouTube channel.

CambsEYC has developed a Sustainability toolkit to support schools and early years settings in delivering a climate action plan, implementing a Sustainability Lead, the toolkit is available on the Learn Together webpage, Our Best World.

For additional support developing and progressing your climate action plan, the DfE are offering free interactive workshops this summer to guide you to identify key actions, engage colleagues, and access support to integrate sustainability into your provision. To secure a place, visit Action for Climate by Sustainability Support for Education | Eventbrite.

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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.

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