Welcome and introduction
Dear Early Years and Childcare Providers.
I do hope that you are all as ‘okay out there’ as you can be, in what I know and acknowledge is a time of significant change and challenge. I have been in the early years and childcare world for 35 years now (and I know that some of you have been for more - even much more! – than that) but I can honestly say that I have never known the level and pace of change, and the challenges within that, to be quite as it is right now.
We know that the Government’s new Statutory Guidance is probably top of the list. Please be reassured that we Kent County Council {KCC} and The Education People {TEP} do want to be as fair and supportive as possible as we implement its requirements, whilst we concurrently do what is required of us, often by statute.
Ofsted is, of course, currently out for consultation on ‘Improving the way Ofsted inspects education’, which in summary is ‘Ofsted asking parents, carers, professionals and learners what they think about our proposals to improve education inspections and new report cards for providers’. It is always good to take every opportunity to have our say. The survey closing date is 28 April 2025
Still on national issues, in case you haven’t yet heard this, on Thursday 20 February, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs Programme has been extended until March 2026. You will be aware that since Stronger Practice Hubs were launched in 2022, the Kent Early Years Stronger Practice Hub (KEYSPH) has been led by Discovery Nursery (run by TEP), working with partners Northfleet Nursery School, Gemma MacLachlan (childminder), Smarties and Oaks Nurseries. After careful consideration, Discovery Nursery as the lead setting (TEP), has taken the decision to not continue in this role after March 2025 due to capacity constraints.
In discussion with its partners however, and further to agreement from both the National Children’s Bureau and the DfE, we are pleased to share that Northfleet Nursery School will take over as the lead partner and the Hub will
continue. Northfleet Nursery School has been actively involved in the KEYSPH since its inception and is very well placed to take over its leadership.
As if these significant national changes were not enough, you will be aware that the implementation of KCC’s Early Years Review is now well underway. I hope that you have all been able to keep up with email communications and/or were able to attend one of the Briefing and Networking Sessions in February.
I am sure you will be aware that, in the context of KCC’s commissioning decisions and savings plans, the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Programme is moving from being delivered via face-to-face workshops to being an online programme. More information about this will follow in due course. Furthermore, with effect from the end of March 2025, TEP’s access to and use of the Aldington Eco Centre will come to an end, hence we will cease to deliver any services out of the Centre. Thank you to all of you who have attended the ESD Programme over the years and/or have patronised Aldington.
Once again can I say thank you to all of you for everything you continue to do in your setting, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month …etc. As we approach Easter, I hope that it will be a blessed time for all of you and your children and families.
Take care out there.
Yours, as ever
Alex Gamby
Assistant Director 0 – 5 and Out of School Provision
Kent Early Years and Childcare Provider Association
The Kent Early Years and Childcare Provider Association met on Monday 24 March. It welcomed Charlotte White, Manager of Repton Manor Nursery as the Ashford Early Years Groups Representative.
There were two main agenda items.
• The current Ofsted consultation ‘Improving the way Ofsted inspects education’, in response to which the Association agreed it was going to submit a joined-up response
• The new government Statutory Guidance and associated Kent Provider Agreement Addendum, in relation to which the current challenges were discussed. The Association agreed that it wished to reconvene to continue these discussions.
The next scheduled meeting of the Association is in June, however in the context of the above, there will be one before that.
National news and updates
Changes
to Early Years Foundation Stage
(EYFS)
Safeguarding Requirements: September 2025 What you need to do
From 1 September 2025, all registered early years providers must follow the new EYFS Framework. Whatever your role and type of setting you work in, you’ll need to be working to the new framework.
Ahead of then, make sure you understand what is changing and how this might impact your practice.
The consultation outcome can be found on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) safeguarding reforms page. This sets out the new EYFS wording and will help you understand the changes you will need to make.
This vodcast explores the upcoming EYFS Safeguarding Reforms that have been made after the recent consultation on proposals to strengthen safeguarding requirements for early years settings. Olivia McNeil (Senior Policy Advisor –
Department for Education {DfE}) provides further information and explanations behind each of the safeguarding changes.
From September 2025 the EYFS Safeguarding Requirements will be strengthened. Find out about some of the changes related to your setting from this printable poster.
(content taken from the Foundation Years website)
Cyber security toolkit for small businesses
The National Cyber Security Centre is offering invite-only beta access to My Cyber Toolkit, a free service to help small businesses protect themselves online.
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BBC Tiny Happy People
Please help BBC Tiny Happy People provide valuable support for early years speech and language needs. This research will inform the improvement and development of resources for the children and families you work with.
BBC Tiny Happy People are collaborating with Sherbet Research. The aim of this survey is to gather information on whether you are using BBC Tiny Happy People resources with families, which resources you are using, when, and how. They would also like to hear whether there are any barriers and your suggestions for improvement. Please complete their quick survey (under 10-minutes)
All responses are anonymous and will be combined with the views of Early Years Professionals across the UK.
The survey now closes on Sunday 30 March.
Here is the link for the survey if you work in a SLT team
Here is the link for the survey if you work in EYS education and childcare.
Kent news and updates
New free entitlement capital funding
In the December Early Years and Wraparound Update, we informed you that Kent County Council (KCC) and The Education People (TEP) had decided to treat Expressions of Interest (EoI) for place development in rounds, with round one closing on 20 December and round two opening in January. The funding of places has now been allocated to providers from the first round. However, there continues to be many areas where the development of additional places is still required and particularly for the under twos.
If you are thinking of or indeed developing new places for children aged two and under and would like to see if you can apply for funding, please make contact to enable us to discuss your place development further.
Group providers please contact your Childcare Sufficiency Officer or SufficiencyandSustainability@theeducationpeople.org If you are a childminder, please contact childminding@theeducationpeople.org
Are you a member of an early years collaboration?
All early years providers are different and unique but share a common ground. We all strive to provide the very best care, support and education opportunities within our settings, and share the same aspirations and expectations for the children in our care to reach their full potential.
Children should benefit from all providers working in partnership with each other sharing the best practice, to continuously improve together. One way to achieve this is to be a member of a Kent collaboration.
What is a collaboration?
A possible definition for an early years collaboration is: ‘a group of early years providers, working together in proactive, respectful and equal partnership for the greater good of, and best outcomes for, all the children and families they collectively serve’.
Why be in a collaboration?
Early years can be a lonely place, our sector has faced many challenges in recent times, and we are experiencing change. A collaboration can provide you with a
support network, a sounding block and knowing you are in it together can make things a little easier.
Collaborative working has many benefits a few examples include:
• sharing common challenges and issues in a safe environment
• sharing training and pooling resources
• sharing good practice
• communication emails, WhatsApp groups, sharing updates and keeping each other in the loop
• different types of providers networking and sharing experiences
• access to System Leadership Funding (conditions apply).
Lisa Evans MBE, Manager of Abacus Nursery, Leader of the Shepway Rural Collaboration and a well-known individual in the Kent Early Years and Childcare Sector, explains why she thinks it is worth being part of a collaboration.
Types of collaborations
The majority of existing collaborations are formed locally and meet face-to-face regularly. However, providers are not constrained by district boundaries and collaborations are free to set their own limits on how many providers are involved, there must be a minimum of four to claim System Leadership Supplement (SLS) payments
Another option is a virtual collaboration, meetings can be hosted online, with communication and support via WhatsApp and email for example.
If you are interested in joining a collaboration and/or think you would like to be a leader or just would like to know more. Please contact Lucy and Helen to discuss further by emailing eycollaborations@theeducationpeople.org
Focus on childminders
Working in partnership
Thank you to all the childminders that have responded with feedback in relation to how you work in partnership with other settings.
The EYFS Statutory Framework (3.76) states that ‘Providers must enable a regular two-way flow of information with parents and/or carers and between providers, if a child is attending more than one setting’.
This partnership working is consistently being referred to on childminder Ofsted reports. Some of the recommendations are listed below.
• Develop partnerships with other settings that children may attend, to promote continuity in their learning and development.
• Strengthen information sharing with other professionals involved in caring for children.
• Enhance the links with other settings that children attend to help provide a consistent approach to learning and development.
Conversely, we are also seeing some statements on Ofsted reports that highlight effective working with other settings.
• The childminder finds out what the children are working on at pre-school. They supplement what they are learning at their home. This provides children with consistency in their care and learning.
• Partnership working with other settings that the children attend is effective. For instance, the childminder works closely with the local preschool to support children with transitions and their next steps in learning. They provide a consistent approach to their learning goals and engages the children in meaningful conversations about their experiences outside of their care.
• The childminder shares information effectively with nearby schools to ensure children are well supported going to school. They liaise closely with
nearby settings to ensure continuity for children. They have effective partnerships with other agencies to provide support for families where needed. This supports children to make good progress in their learning and development.
Childminders have shared a range of positive experiences of working closely with other settings, some of which are listed below.
• I am on first name terms with all the pre-schools’ key workers and management.
• We communicate mostly via email.
• Both settings are connected to each other’s online journals, and we regularly comment on observations and information posted on there.
• We hold monthly meetings, face to face or via Zoom
• We have shared children and work together with LIFT meetings.
• I recently had a very positive conversation with a minded child’s keyperson.
• We don’t share written information but liaise verbally at drop off and pick up.
• When I collect a child from pre-school, we have a chat about what she has been doing, and what she is working on. This is generally weekly.
We recognise that many of these examples relate to the relationship building when a childminder is responsible for taking and/or collecting a child from another early years setting.
We acknowledge that all early years providers are under increasing pressure with recruitment and other challenges, and it can be frustrating when requests for information are delayed or unanswered. However, we want to work across the sector to reduce the number of Ofsted recommendations for childminders relating to partnership working and would like all providers to consider the following:
• Do you ask parents about other providers that children attend when they first start with you?
• Do you regularly review this information?
• Do you make it clear to parents that this is important information to share with you if their child joins another setting later?
We are working with Kent Children and Families Information Service (Kent CFIS) to include this information for parents on their childcare advice pages.
• Do you gain parents’ permission for liaising with other professionals when they first join your setting?
• Are you able to find out the name of the childminder, manager, the child’s key person and the name of other staff as needed, for example the SENCO?
• Do you have a set email or letter that you send to other settings? The Childminding Team has created one that can be used – just email your adviser.
• If you do not gain a response from your enquiry, could you ask parents to provide you with information they receive from the setting, such as the name of the keyperson or any summaries of development, for example the Progress Check at age Two?
• Does the setting have a website or social media pages that you could look at and perhaps share with the child?
Finally, if any settings have other ideas, please do keep sharing with us by emailing childminding@theeducationpeople.org
Good practice
Forging Family Partnerships
The Early Years and Childcare Service hopes that the Forging Family Partnerships booklet and posters sent to you at the beginning of the year have been useful in your school, setting or childminding provision. It would be fantastic to hear about how they have been used and any ‘wow moments’ as a result, please email us your experiences. EYCImprovementservices@theeducationpeople.org
For those of you who attended the accompanying face-to-face or online workshops there was certainly lots of lively discussion and sharing of ideas. Many of you shared unique and wonderful ways you engage families and share their children’s learning. I hope that all attendees were able to take ideas and action plans back to their school, setting or childminding provision to help support tackling any barriers they may be facing.
Here are a couple of the ideas shared during the workshops
‘Tea and tissues’ session, held for anyone needing a little support after dropping their littles ones off, but especially for those new parents struggling to leave them for the first time. A 20-to-30-minute opportunity to chat with the manager, or other families, over a cup of tea and a biscuit at the start of the session.
Providing parent learning resources for parents to discreetly help themselves to. Similar to activity bags, but with a parent learning card included, which explains how children learn and giving strategies and ideas to help parents understand the importance of the home learning environment and what may help them to fully engage in their children’s learning and development.
A ‘sound’ foundation – making the most of storytelling and shared reading to support children’s pre-phonic development
Think back to a moment when you have had the opportunity to wallow in a story with a small group of children. It is magical is it not?!
Warm, shared and playful encounters with story books, from the very earliest age, really matter. Finding the joy in reading motivates and hooks young children with literary activities and the process of learning to read.
But do we fully recognise how collaborative storytelling and shared reading contribute to young children’s pre-phonic experiences?
Picture the scene
Two pre-school children are looking at the story book ‘Tanka, Tanka, Skunk’ by Steve Webb, which is a setting favourite. They are chanting the story from memory to a rhythmic beat of their own creation. More children are drawn to join in, and a sensitive practitioner becomes an active participant in the children’s retelling of the story. Before long the children are tapping out the syllables of the
different animals using body percussion to refine the beat of their rhythmic chant.
Moments like this happen in every setting on a daily basis and contribute to young children’s broadening communication and language skills, but do we always recognise the full contribution that this makes to a child’s pre-phonics skills?
A sound foundation
Early book sharing and storytelling is so important for later language and literacy. The foundations of phonics, being able to decode the patterns of sounds in printed words, lie in children’s developing ability to distinguish and play with environmental, instrumental, spoken sounds and language.
The world of stories is full of sounds, tuning in with babies and children to what they hear and pointing out familiar and unfamiliar sounds helps them notice and attend to the sounds around them.
We need to give young children and babies lots of exposure to active storytelling experiences so that they begin to notice and manipulate the range of sounds that they hear. Their developing brains need lots of opportunities to hear and explore sounds, rhythms and oral language to support their dexterity in finding and making patterns of sound. Storytelling and sharing stories provide a meaningful context for children to practice recognising and manipulating the sounds of language in fun and engaging ways.
How can stories be used to support pre-phonic development?
To support young children to develop their pre-phonic skills through storytelling and shared reading experiences, the following strategies are helpful.
• Exploit book sharing and storytelling to allow for dynamic engagement between educators and children – it is a social experience!
• Make the most of story illustrations. A key pre-phonic skill that young children need to develop is good visual discrimination and memory. Before children are able to see the similarities and differences between letter shapes, we need to provide
lots of opportunities for young brains to visually distinguish and remember visual content – picture books are perfect!
• Storytelling and shared reading are audible experiences. Stories provide opportunities for children to tune into sounds, to develop sensitivity to what they hear, and to begin to discriminate between sounds. Interactive story telling is a great way to achieve this. Rhyming and rhythmic texts support young children to discriminate sounds. The ability to identify rhyming patterns in an audible way, gives children experience of listening and joining in, breaking down words into units of sounds or syllables. These are fundamental aspects of developing children’s phonological awareness.
Evidence informed practice
We are seeing a growing number of settings utilising evidence informed practice to help shape their provision. This is a really good way to help early years educators build their confidence and skills to introduce strategies and approaches into their practice. If you are looking to enhance your story sharing and story-telling practices to support children’s pre-phonic development this is a great place to start.
The EEF’s Preparing for Literacy: Improving Communication, Language and Literacy in the Early Years Guidance Report makes several recommendations which represent ‘lever points’ where there is useful research evidence about communication, language and literacy teaching that educators can use to make a difference to young children’s learning.
Recommendation 2 is key. It clearly shows that developing approaches to early reading is such an important foundation for developing children’s phonological awareness.
Download the recommendations poster
As a starting point remember that this is not a stark standalone recommendation. There is a wealth of resources that can help you on this journey including the early years evidence store for literacy.
The DfE’s Stronger Practice Hub Programme’s Evidence Store has been designed to support work with all early years providers. It is truly a universal resource for everyone.
The materials are accessible and provide a summary of evidence-informed approaches to help educators to understand and reflect on their early literacy practice. The approaches illustrated focus on:
• interactive reading
• teaching sound
• teaching sound manipulation
• teaching sound-letter mapping
Alongside the document there are also film clips of educators in action which can provide inspiration for all of us working with young children. These approaches can be used flexibly to match developmental needs and encourage emerging interests and understanding of young children.
In summary
Sharing stories and storytelling needs to be highly valued in the early years to ensure that children can foster a love of books from an early age. It is also crucial that educators and parents understand the early stages of reading development so they can make story time a priority. When children are given plentiful opportunities to share stories with interested adults, their language, communication and comprehension skills naturally develop, providing a strong and secure foundation for their phonics learning.
Dingley’s Promise: Having Difficult Conversations with Families training course
The focus in early years is very much about working in partnership and forging relationships with families. Sometimes as an Early Years Practitioner it is necessary to have difficult conversations with families, for example if a child is not making the progress you expect in their learning or behaviour.
Dingley’s Promise training Having Difficult
Conversations with Families can help you to plan for those conversations and reinforce your practices. It is funded for Kent providers by Comic Relief.
Please view Dingley’s Promise blog for more information.
Information for families
Barriers for claiming working parent entitlement
A barrier for parents accessing the working parent entitlement is that they may not have photo ID. Without photo ID parents/carers are at a disadvantage, using online services is much more difficult, it can prevent them from voting or applying for a DBS check, preventing employment for example. Passports and photocard driving licenses take time to apply for, the forms can be difficult and are costly and some families just cannot justify the expense
When applying for the Working Parent Entitlement , HMRC requires parents to prove their identity. To do this parent require photo ID such as a current passport, residence card, work permit or photocard driving license.
It is still possible to apply, however without access to photo ID the process is longer, so parents must allow plenty of time before deadlines to make their application.
Parents without photo ID will need to begin the process online as far as they are able to proceed and then to contact the Childcare Service helpline on 03001 234 097.
Parents without photo ID can instead use their UK bank account details and HMRC tax record to prove identity. This involves answering security questions
online about things like mobile phone contracts and bank accounts. The questions asked are based on their credit records.
In addition to the credit check, if necessary, a visit to a local Post Office with an in-branch ID identification service may be required. In branch they will scan any documents you can provide such as bank statements, utilities bills, payslips etc. They may also take your photograph.
Parents and Carers can access the Post Office EasyID app which is free to use and download. It can be used to prove your age and identity throughout the UK. It’s accredited by the UK’s national Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS). It’s been approved by the UK Government as proof of identity for things like criminal records checks and proving your Right to Work when starting a new job.
Briefing and networking sessions
Our regular early years and childcare briefing and networking sessions provide a good opportunity to keep your setting and staff up to date and to network with colleagues from other settings.
Why not book a place on the next round of sessions and benefit from the opportunity to network and hear important updates? In line with provider feedback and to maximise ability to attend, these sessions will continue to be held virtually via Zoom, and you can access your place by clicking on the titles below.
EYC Briefing and Networking – North Wednesday 18 June 2025 4 – 6pm
EYC Briefing and Networking – West Tuesday 10 June 2025 4 – 6pm
EYC Briefing and Networking – East Thursday 12 June 2025 4 – 6pm
EYC Briefing and Networking – South Wednesday 11 June 2025 4 – 6pm
We are also running an additional evening briefing and networking session with eligible childminders and out of school settings in mind, who may find it difficult to attend the weekday afternoon sessions.
EYC Briefing and Networking –Childminders and Out of School Tuesday 17 June 2025 7.30 – 9.30 pm
Contact us
Alex Gamby Head of Early Years & Childcare
Threads of Success
Threads of Success Recruitment Hub
Alex.gamby@theeducationpeople.org
https://www.theeducationpeople.org/ourexpertise/early-years-childcare/threads-of-success/
https://www.theeducationpeople.org/ourexpertise/early-years-childcare/recruitment-hub/
Sufficiency and Sustainability sufficiencyandsustainability@theeducationpeople.org
Education for Sustainable Development esd@theeducationpeople.org
Improvement and Standards eycimprovementservices@theeducationpeople.org
Equality and Inclusion eyinclusion@theeducationpeople.org
Collaborations eycollaborations@theeducationpeople.org
Childminding childminding@theeducationpeople.org
Workforce Development earlyyearsworkforce.ask@theeducationpeople.org
Kent Children & Families Information Service kentcfis@theeducationpeople.org
KCC Management Information miearlyyears@kent.gov.uk
KELSI http://www.kelsi.org.uk
Schools E-bulletin http://www.kelsi.org.uk/working_in_education/news.aspx
