E Early years hubs

arlyyearsstronger practice hubswill provide advice, share good practice andoffer evidence-based professional development forearly years practitioners.

The hubs are part of theearly years educationrecovery supportpackage which also includes theearly years experts andmentorsprogramme.

The early years strongerpractice hubs programme is supported by theEducation Endowment Foundation andthe National Children’sBureau

Early yearsstronger practice hubswill be funded fortwo years and will support other nurseriesand childmindersintheir areatoadopt evidence-basedpractice improvements,by: establishing localnetworks of early yearseducatorstoshareknowledge andeffectivepractice proactively sharing information and advice on evidence-based approaches –for example,throughnewsletters, blogs and social media acting as apoint of contact forbespoke advice,and signpostingtoother fundedsupport working with theEducationEndowment Foundationtoselect evidence-based programmes to fund andmakeavailable to nurseriesand childminders

The first roundofapplications forhubsclosed on 23 September 2022. Hubs aremade up of aleadgroup-based setting andupto four additionalpartners. Some hubsmay add additional partners to their partnership.

Furtherdetails will be made available about howearly yearseducatorscan access support fromthe hubs andmoreinformation about stronger practice hubs is available on the National Children’sBureau’swebsite: https://bit.ly/3TWCBhZ

The SENDand AlternativeProvision (AP) Green Paper, initially due by theend of 2022, has been delayed until 2023

Followingchanges in leadershipatthe DfE,new education secretary,Gillian Keegan, wrote to the sector to promise aplanfor improvements earlyin the newyear. Thepaper willset out the Government’s response to the three-month consultation in 2022, alongwithnew national standardsfor provision.