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

News Round-Up

 October 2024

Early years practitioners are encouraged to help raise awareness of NHS vaccinations and when to have them, along with the annual flu vaccination as we move into autumn and winter. The NHS webpage immunising preschool children against flu provides information about the vaccine programme for preschool children and how children can get vaccinated.

Vaccines are the most effective way to prevent many infectious diseases. They protect the people in our family and community by helping to stop diseases spreading to people who cannot have vaccines, such as babies too young to be vaccinated and those who are too ill to be vaccinated. Vaccination is the most important thing we can do to protect ourselves and our children against ill health.

Walk-in clinics in Cambridgeshire are available with no pre-booking required. See the Vaccinators | CPICS website for the current clinic dates and locations.

This initiative supports schools to ensure school staff are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to care for children and young people with asthma and be able to respond effectively if a child has an asthma attack or an increase in asthma symptoms.

Specialist CYP Asthma Practitioners can offer an adapted programme to support practitioners in early years provision, working with children who have been diagnosed with asthma or preschool wheeze. The support and advice they offer to settings includes policy and procedures, training on what asthma is, symptoms, triggers, and how to respond.

If you feel this support is relevant to your early years setting, email ccs.cypasthma@nhs.net to find out more information.

Schools can find out more via Asthma Friendly Schools.

The card allows them to buy essential nutritious foods and collect vital vitamins.

Healthy Start vitamins support pregnancy and breastfeeding, along with vitamin drops suitable for babies and young children from birth to four years old.

Please encourage your families to visit Healthy Start for more information.

The Christmas HAF Programme is looking to fund family experiences, holiday schemes, events and trips during the holidays, subject to minimum programme requirements, for eligible children or young people. For further information contact HAF@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Group-based settings and schools with questions around early years expansion can view guidance developed by a team of experienced advisers with a wide range of expertise in the following categories:

• Business and Governance
• Pedagogy and Practice from Birth to Three-Year-Olds
• Safeguarding and Child Protection
• SEND
• Recruitment and Retention
• Information for Parents

If you are a provider looking to expand your provision and have questions, contact your Early Years Adviser. Alternatively, email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. Childminders, contact your PACEY support officer, or email childminding@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

• Create a new category of childminder (childminder without domestic premises) who work entirely from non-domestic premises.
• Increase, from three to four, the total number of people that can work together under a childminder’s registration (including the childminder)
• Give childminders and providers of childcare on domestic premises (CODPs) more flexibility, allowing them to spend more time operating outside of domestic premises, such as a community hall or school.
• Increase the number of people needed for CODPs to operate from four or more to five or more people providing care. Please note, that CODPs that were registered, or applied to register, before Friday, 1 November 2024 can continue operating with four or more people.

The DfE’s 'New Flexibilities for Childminders' article provides a further overview of the changes and helps to answer FAQs. For more support, contact childminding@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

The Chancellor has stated that up to 750 state-funded schools with primary-aged pupils will begin delivering free breakfast clubs from April 2025. Funding will enable schools to provide free breakfast clubs for their pupils in the 2025 summer term, as part of a test-and-learn phase to inform the delivery of a national rollout.

The local authority has a duty to secure enough early years and childcare places and is currently developing many new places as part of early years and childcare expansion. We must collaborate to ensure that sustainable places are created in the right areas and do not disrupt the current early years and wraparound market.

Schools considering applying for these opportunities are encouraged to seek local information and specialist advice on how these programmes could work for their school(s) from the earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

They recognise that checking an individual’s qualifications is an important part of hiring and staffing in settings, and they want to offer more support to early years managers who check qualifications as part of their role.

The DfE is looking for early years managers to try out a potential new online service and give their feedback. If you would like to take part, sign up for 'Check an early years qualification'.

This programme is designed to equip staff with essential skills to deliver early intervention and targeted support for children and young people aged from birth to 25.

Key benefits:

• Expertise in early intervention, safeguarding, and conflict resolution
• Practical support strategies for young people with complex needs
• Gain expertise in person-centred approaches, referral management, and mentoring.

The next cohort will begin the week commencing Monday, 6 January 2025, the application cut-off point is Friday, 22 November 2024.

The free online training aims to provide a greater understanding of child development, giving practical advice for supporting children in early years settings. The training can be paused and restarted at any time and a certificate of achievement is awarded on completion of each module.

They have also published new DfE’s early years SEND assessment guidance and resources on the help for early years providers platform.

They support a child-centred, strengths-based approach to assessing children’s needs and sharing a child’s progress with parents, carers, and professionals. There is practical advice, as well as tools and downloadable resources for assessing children with SEND, capturing their voices, and setting targets for progress. 

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

Dates and times:

• Thursday, 24 October 2024 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm and 5 pm
• Monday, 11 November 2024 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, and 12 pm
• Wednesday, 20 November 2024 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm and 5 pm
• Thursday, 28 November 2024 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, and 12 pm
• Tuesday, 10 December 2024 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm and 5 pm

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

See the Learn Together website for more support with SEND. 

The aims of the course will support practitioners to:

• Gain knowledge on the impact of gender stereotypes.
• Develop an understanding of how to break down gender stereotypes in practice.
• Recognise and respond to children's interest in gender.
• Learn how to share the impact of gender stereotypes with parents.

This course takes place online via Microsoft Teams on Thursday, 7 November 2024 from 10 am to 11.30 am, and will be repeated, again via Teams on Tuesday, 4 March 2025 from 7 pm to 8.30 pm.

To book a place, please visit booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development, Equalities and Inclusion.

sets out the actions that they will make to the early years sector in response to what they heard from professionals, children and learners, parents, carers and the public.

Some of the changes include:

• Reforming our early years inspection and regulatory framework
• Working with the government to introduce report cards
• Supporting the government’s plans to meet the demand for childcare places
• Asking the government to review the childcare register, especially to tackle fraud in the early years system
• Sharing our insights to drive improvements in the early years sector

You can find out more about how Ofsted will change by reading the consultation outcome.

Amendments to wording reflect how the inspector will consider the context of the setting, including where relevant the ongoing impact of COVID-19. Additional wording updates align with part two, and part three of the inspection handbook.

Revisions were also made to the Good and Inadequate grade descriptors for Quality of Education.

View a summary of changes for detailed information.

The EY2 form is crucial for individuals taking on legally responsible roles within Ofsted-registered childcare organisations, including companies, charities, partnerships, and committee-run childcare settings.

Key advice includes ensuring all information is accurate, having a valid DBS certificate, and using the correct unique reference number (URN). The blog also stresses the importance of written confirmation from outgoing nominated individuals and being listed on Companies House or the Charity Commission if applicable. For more detailed information and step-by-step guidance, read the full blog post 'Who needs to submit an EY2 form, and tips for completing it' .

The report focuses on the progress of preschool children in four key areas: literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design. It underscores the need for a high-quality early years curriculum to ensure all children, especially the most vulnerable, receive the best start in life.

The research highlights the importance of strong foundations in literacy and mathematics for lifelong benefits and the role of expressive arts in fostering creativity. It also stresses the need for practitioners to understand child development to plan effective learning steps.

Read the full report for more insights and detailed findings.

Taking place between Friday, 7 March 2025 and Sunday,16 March 2025, British Science Week is an ideal opportunity to promote science within the early years. Science encourages investigation and problem-solving, helps children develop an understanding of the world around them, and can help promote children’s ambitions for STEM-based careers in the future.

The British Science Week organisation webpage is full of activity ideas to promote science and has supportive tools for planning a Science Week event. Make sure to visit the site for more information about the grants and the option to apply before the cut-off point on Tuesday, 5 November 2024.

Early years practitioners in need of some inspiration for their classroom or setting can access lots of free activity ideas and additional resources from the official website.

For more songs and rhymes to share with young children, Rhyme Time for All provides a bank of nursery rhymes, and Makaton signs, translated into 15 different languages, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Farsi-Persian, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

• Equips practitioners to collaborate with parents to give them the knowledge, skills, and confidence to create positive home learning environments. 
• Fun, engaging, inclusive and accessible for all, low or no cost approach. Enables practitioners to gain an understanding of the REAL approach, and identify ways to include it in everyday practice, whilst sharing it with families, building confidence and knowledge to support the home learning environment. 
• Emphasis on meaningful communication and literacy that children make sense of and enjoy, as part of their everyday lives.
• Provides practitioners with a resource pack to support implementation, including the ORIM framework as an evaluation tool. 

There is available funding for course costs and a £70 bursary towards staff costs, please read the funding information to find out about the eligibility criteria and application process.

Book via booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development, Communication, Language and Literacy.

The orders are sent out directly from the BookTrust warehouse. 

Allocations are limited, and French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish languages are not in supply. However, if you have signed up for an early years and childminders’ library membership card you should be able to borrow books in these languages for your setting’s book corner. 

BookStar packs can still be ordered for children identified at their ASQ checks as having delayed fine motor skill development. Please check with parents/carers that their child has not already been given a pack by the staff conducting the ASQ check. 

Order forms will be sent out as follows: 

• Autumn term (October 2024) Huntingdon.
• Spring term (January 2025) East Cambridgeshire, and Fenland.
• Summer term (April 2025) Cambridge City, and South Cambridgeshire.

BookTouch (Sight impaired) and BookShine (Deaf) are given out by Sensory Support Service staff as part of their work with SEN families. 

For further information email Bookstart@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

To help keep children safe this season the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) have some key safety tips and free resources for you to share with families:

• How to keep children safe this Halloween
• Diwali safety poster
• Firework safety tips from Fireman Sam
• Firework safety: Lessons for little ones
• How to buy fireworks safely UK: A Fireworks buying guide
• Firework safety tips: How to have safe fireworks at home
• Firework safety advice hub: Safe fireworks for families

Help the families you work with keep safety in mind this Diwali and Bonfire Night by reading and sharing CAPT safety advice.

Water Bead Warning

Trading Standards are urging schools and nurseries to not use water beads.

Water beads start exceedingly small and grow when placed in water. This might seem an interesting experiment, which produces a slippery and fun product in the end. However, water beads pose a profoundly serious risk of choking, suffocation, and internal blockages if accidentally swallowed.

Trading Standards are warning about the risks of water beads following a Product Safety Alert issued by the Office of Product Safety and Standards.

Your News

Shelford Childcare wins the 'Childminding Business of The Year' award at the Nursery World Awards 2024.

Shelford Childcare, based in Great Shelford, is thrilled to announce that it has been awarded the prestigious Nursery World’s Childminding Business of the Year Award for 2024. The award was presented at a ceremony in London by Ben Faulks (BBC’s CBeebies Mr Bloom) and Early Years Consultant Rebecca Martland.

Founded in 2012 by Joanna Palmer, Shelford Childcare has grown to include two registered childminders, Joanna Palmer, and Karen Brown, along with Level 3 assistant Emma Lawrence and additional cover staff. This dedicated team enables the childcare service to operate 50 weeks a year, catering to up to 12 children daily in a home-like environment.

Shelford Childcare provides care for children aged from birth to five years, offering funded childcare places and support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The team works closely with parents to secure Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) when needed.

The staff at Shelford Childcare are committed to supporting families requiring extra assistance, collaborating with various agencies such as social care, local schools, preschools, speech and language specialists, and physiotherapists. This collaborative approach ensures that all children thrive and progress during their time in the setting and through transitions.

Children at Shelford Childcare enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, including visits to recreation grounds, woodlands, and local walks where they can watch trains pass by. They also engage in community interactions, such as visiting allotment holders and delivering cards to neighbours on special occasions like World Friendship Day.

The team regularly participates in professional development training and explores innovative ideas to adapt to the evolving needs of each group of children. Small group and one-on-one sessions are planned to help staff understand each child’s interests and tailor experiences that foster curiosity through play-based activities. Children observe the natural world, such as watching tadpoles and frogs in the setting’s pond or witnessing the transformation of butterfly eggs into caterpillars and then butterflies.

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

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