Year: 2021

Many of you will recall the previous review that we held a few years ago to consider the early years funding. It has been decided that, in the light of the pandemic and concerns around school readiness, increasing numbers of children with SEND and changes to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, now is a good time to review how the funding Devon County Council (DCC) receives is distributed to providers.

Disability Access Funding (DAF) is funding for early years providers to support children with disabilities or special educational needs. It aids access to early years places by supporting providers in making reasonable adjustments to their settings.

A guide for childcare settings around the process for reporting a suspected or confirmed outbreak of a gastro-intestinal infection.

Updates include: ‘Use of the NHS COVID-19 app in education and childcare settings’; ‘Education recovery support’; ‘Protective measures for holiday or after-school clubs and other out-of-school settings for children during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’; ‘Guidance for parents and carers of children attending out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ and ‘Reported coronavirus (COVID-19) notifications by registered early years and childcare settings’.

In response to our recent focused inspection and peer review of our MASH we have made some small changes to how you share concerns about a child.

Operation Encompass will be extended in Devon to early years providers and Children’s Centres in the next few months. If you would like to be included in Operation Encompass then you will need at least one ‘Key Adult’, usually the DSL, to have completed the Operation Encompass online ‘Key Adult Training’.

If your child has been prescribed and received equipment to support them, then we want to hear about your experiences. We’re hosting an engagement session on Zoom on Tuesday 22 June, and we’d love for you to join and give your feedback about your experiences. The event will take place from 10.30am to 11.30am. 

Mind Your Words (children and young people’s mental health) is a free eLearning tool designed for professionals working with children and young people.

We have recently reviewed our process for notifying settings of overclaims/conflicts with regards to Early Years Funding. Previously we have sent messages via the Provider Portal but to simplify the process these will now be sent by email to the registered email address. The email will include the initials of the child and details of the overclaim. Please can we ask you to keep a look out for these emails, check your junk/spam folder and action as soon as possible.

As part of the EYSEND Partnership, I CAN is pleased to be offering training to early years SENCos, managers and early years practitioners to enable excellent support for SLCN in early years settings.