EYRG Minutes 15 October 2024
Early Years Reference Group Minutes: 15 October 2024, 02:00 - 3:30pm via Teams
Present
Council:
- Helen Gibson - Early Years Lead -Chair
- Jo Chan - Early Years Teacher Consultant
- Kev Taylor - Early Years Funding, Sufficiency and Compliance Lead
- Keziah Dewing - Payments Manager
- Rosie Boardman - Improvement and Inclusion Lead for Early Years (South)
- Felicity Pepper - Entitlements Officer
- Amanda Richards - Early Education & Childcare Development Officer
- Karen Winfer - Accountancy Support Team Leader
- Karen Greenan - Early Years Sufficiency & Market Development Consultant
Early Years Sector
- Sharon Shilling - Our Pride Our Joy
- Michelle Lindley - Sandytots
- Philip Siddell - Humpty Dumpty / PVI Rep on Schools Forum
- Natasha Richards - Wolstanton Kindergarten/ Cheadle Kindergarten
- Tim Hopkins -Humpty Dumpty
- Megan McComiskie - Colwich Preschool
- Sally Lynch - Oaklands Nursery
- Sharon Keane - Childminder
- Jo Di Castiglione - Greenhall Nursery
- Helen Townsend - Hey Diddle Diddle
Apologies
- Rob Lawford - childminder
- Sarah McCormick - Little Owl Childcare
- Debbie Nash - Family Hub Continuous Improvement Partner
- Vicki Green - Childcare Sufficiency Data Officer
- Sadie Shenton-Jones - Dollymixtures/PVI Rep on Schools Forum
- Julie Wetton - Sandytots
- Jayne Waterman - Little People Nursery
- Becky Haynes - Codsall Community Nursery
- Cllr Mark Sutton
Minutes and matters from last meeting
Kev Taylor and Helen Gibson fed back to Department for Education concerns about schools taking over wraparound provision, once they had been set up. This was echoed by other local authorities
Early years Financial Incentive -questions were included in the latest Early Years Sufficiency Survey.
Jo Chan explained that the incentive payment would not be made to any employee who doesn’t complete their 12 weeks. Therefore, National Insurance and tax deductions would not be an issue.
Kev fed back to HMRC about not paying for the first 4 weeks of childcare costs should the person not remain employed. One provider reported that families’ Universal Credit claims are being rejected after 4-6 weeks and that fees are accruing for the family in that time. Families report that their claims are rejected due to meals being included in the invoice. This may prove to be more of an issue with the further expansion of entitlements from September 2025.
Action: Helen Gibson/Kev Taylor to raise again with DfE.
Minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.
Early Years Forum / Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund / Screening Tools for under 2’s
Rosie Boardman shared a PowerPoint presentation to the group, outlining the changes to the Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding, Early Years Forum and introduced the screening tool for under two’s.
Rosie explained that work was ongoing with wider Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) team and Health professionals to produce an accelerated pathway for those children with complex medical needs. Criteria is currently being agreed.
Triage is a new temporary process to ensure children and settings are accessing support at the right time. Settings will be signposted to support sooner before coming to Early Years Forum. Children no longer need to be known to forum to access SENIF. Capacity in the Area SENCo Team has grown, meaning children can be seen much more quickly, sometimes within a week.
Children can continue to receive SENIF for the autumn term following starting school to support transition. Further
funding is available through the Enhanced Assess Plan Do Review (EAPDR) programme.
As part of ongoing review, early years are working with Education teams on the EAPDR pathway. As part of this, a Working group will be set up to review what other support is available to the sector.
Action: Rosie Boardman to share more information about EAPDR pathway.
One provider commented they had noticed the Area SENCo capacity had certainly improved over the last 12 months.
The Graduated Response - Support in Settings
Wraparound Project Overview / Capital Grant Applications
Kev Talyor shared PowerPoint presentation (attached) to update the group on Wraparound project, Capital grant applications, school based nurseries and breakfast clubs.
One provider reported that the calibre of applicants for jobs and level of qualifications is really poor and they are struggling to find suitable staff, particularly at this late stage.
One provider pointed out that there is no additional funding available for additional members of staff to provide 1:1 care for children with additional needs in wraparound. Providers are having to supply this at their own cost. This has previously been raised with the DfE
Action: Kev Taylor/ Helen Gibson to raise this again with the DfE.
One provider suggested some case studies on capacity planning for September 2025. Two providers in the group have volunteered to be part of this.
Action: Kev Taylor to contact Natasha Richards and Tim Hopkins to discuss further
One provider expressed concern regarding the new Government policy that Statutory sick pay will be covered by employers from the first day of employment, in addition to the National Insurance increase; this could massively impact small businesses and their sustainability
Action: Kev Taylor/Helen Gibson to feed this back to DfE.
Finance-Karen Winfer reported they were getting lots of enquiries from schools about whether they can accept rising 3’s and not waiting until the term after they turn 3, as parents have a working parent code. This will have a bigger impact in the summer term.
Sufficiency update
Karen Greenan shared headlines from Summer 2024 Childcare Sufficiency additional questions analysis:
- 96% of providers are now offering full day care
- More than 80% of group childcare providers operate more than 30 hours per week.
- Nearly two thirds of early years providers including childminders open between 7.30 and 8am.
- Less than a third of providers stayed open until 6pm and later.
- ¾ of providers offer Think2; those that don’t are mainly school based provision.
- 10% of children under 2 attend full time and 11% of those aged 2.
- For children under 2 years on average children attend for 2.5 days a week. For those children aged 2 years this increases to 3.5 days per week.
- 456 providers including schools, childminders and day care providers offer wraparound for primary school aged children.
- Over half of providers have recruited new staff in the last 12 months with a further 17% in the last 12 months.
- Over 40% of providers intend to recruit within the next 6-12 months.
- Reasons providers gave for not using the Golden Hello included:
- Felt it was unfair to existing staff.
- Recruiting an apprentice.
- Only a fixed term/temporary contract.
- May encourage staff to only stay until the 12 weeks to get payment.
- Do not know enough about it.
- Want staff to want to come for the right reasons.
- Part of a chain or academy trust and recruitment is done centrally.
- A third of providers are currently advertising positions.
- Almost two thirds of providers would be offering the new entitlements. However, only a third of providers based on school sites said they would offer at least some of the entitlements.
- The new entitlements includes under 2’s and two year olds which most schools will not be offering.
- Of the 144 providers not currently offering two year old provision 80% would continue not to, most were based on a school site.
- Almost a quarter of providers who do not currently take 2 year olds had received enquiries from parents.
- 43% of providers with under 2’s have concerns about being able to accommodate existing children with the expansion of entitlements. 39% of those with 2 year olds had similar concerns.
- Based on the new entitlements providers priorities are employ more staff and a plan to take on more two and three year olds.
- 71% of academies, 65% of governor run, 59% of private provision and 58% of voluntary run had claimed DAF in the past 12 months.
- Around 40% of providers employ additional staff to support with SEND but a quarter say they cannot afford to even if needed.
- 62% of providers had concerns about children’s behaviour. 80% say that children’s speech and language is behind expected levels. 75% said that lack of concentration was an issue 64% have difficulty in responding to instructions. 71% said that children find it difficult to share toys. 74% of providers said that children were slower to potty train.
Plans to reinvigorate HLM / Myth-buster videos
Information on ‘Mythbuster’ videos is included in the minutes as this was not covered during the meeting:-
Five short ‘Mythbuster’ videos are available on the relevant pages of the Staffordshire County Council website:-
Sector updates:
From early years settings - feedback and updates were provided within each agenda item.
From Staffordshire County Council:
Early Education Funding (EEF) Payment consultation closes on 22 October. Proposal is to move EEF payment date from third Friday to the first Friday of each month. The option with most votes will be applied from April 2025. One vote per setting.
Information on Staffordshire Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) change of name is included in the minutes as this was not covered during the meeting:-
Staffordshire Police, Staffordshire County Council and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board have agreed to rename the SSCB as a Partnership. From 18 September 2024, the Staffordshire Safeguarding Children Board has changed to Staffordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (SSCP). Business will continue as usual.
Any other business
None
Next meeting 24 January 2025