Early Years and Childcare Service – meet the team

For General Enquiries email: eycs@devon.gov.uk

  • Early Years and Childcare Service Lead

    Sam has worked for Devon County Council for over 30 years. An important part of this broad-ranging role is to ensure that there is sufficient, high quality early years education and childcare in Devon so that families can go to work and children can thrive and develop during the most crucial early years. Sam oversees a number of different teams, as outlined below.

    Sam’s focus is on building relationships with the early years and childcare sector, developing a continuously improving service that responds and supports settings and practitioners. Whatever the challenges we are facing, we are facing them together.

    Sam welcomes your thoughts and ideas on what we can do better.

    Samantha Chapman, Head of Service for the Early Years and Childcare: Samantha.Chapman@devon.gov.uk

    Samantha Chapman

  • Early Years and Childcare Advisors

    Early Years and Childcare Advisers (EYCAs) are an experienced and qualified team who work closely with the Early Years Consultant team. They provide a holistic overview of themes relating to the day-to-day management and quality of your provision and are responsible for ensuring that all children and families have access to high quality early years and childcare provision that is flexible and affordable. EYCAs support all settings to develop an accessible offer to parents to enable them to take up their full government funding entitlement while supporting settings business planning to assist in long term sustainably.

    EYCAs provide advice and guidance to all new and existing Ofsted registered childcare settings including Childminders to support them meet a range of areas from registering with Ofsted, Safeguarding, Management to Recruitment and Retention. We acknowledge that the Early Years and Childcare sector is very diverse, therefore, the EYCA team will work closely with a setting to develop tailored timely support in order to improve outcomes for children.

    Support provided by EYCAs:

    • Safeguarding and welfare requirements
    • Leadership and Management (including support for new managers)
    • Financial and sustainability support
    • Recruitment and Retention
    • Developing your business model
    • Pre-Ofsted suitability of new premises visit

    Exeter and East Devon

    Locality Manager: Nikki Phillips: nikki.phillips@devon.gov.uk or 01392 385394

     

    Images left to right: Nikki Phillips; Kerry Thorne; Nik Wills and Alexa Gill.

    North and Mid Devon

    Interim Locality Manager: Nikki Phillips: nikki.phillips@devon.gov.uk

    Images left to right: Pat Harrett; Neil Copland.

    South and West Devon

    Locality Manager: Sue Bolt: sue.bolt@devon.gov.uk or 01392 384046

     

    Images left to right: Sue Bolt; Helen Stephenson; Sharon Gehringer.

  • Early Years Consultant Team

    The Early Years Consultants are all qualified teachers and experienced EYFS specialists with a range of knowledge across the EYFS curriculum, and an understanding of the pedagogical approaches of early years teaching and learning. The Early Years Consultants can support your schools and settings to develop effective EYFS provision through high quality consultancy, training and professional development services, and enable schools and settings to consider current thinking and creative approaches to meeting the needs of all children.

    The team also provides the Area SENDCo role for all early years settings in Devon. This includes ensuring that setting SENDCos can effectively meet the needs of all children, supporting them to meet the national and local requirements of the SENDCo role.

    To ensure that there is equity of access to services for all children in receipt of Early Years Education Funding (EYEF) the Area SENDCo role also includes support for academy and maintained nurseries as well as governor run provision.

    Early Years Consultants support schools and settings with:

    • Managing and leading the EYFS
    • Observations of teaching and learning
    • Planning the indoor and outdoor learning environments
    • Provision of an inclusive learning environment
    • Supporting EYFS staff meetings
    • Crafting an EYFS curriculum advice
    • SENDCo support with inclusion

    Early Years Consultant Team Lead – Anne Hudson: anne.hudson@devon.gov.uk
    Lead Advisor for Learning and Development – Julie Adams: Julie.Adams@devon.gov.uk 

    Early Years Consultants:

    Tamsin Robertson: Tamsin.Robertson@devon.gov.uk (Exeter, Tiverton, Culm Valley, Tavistock)
    Louise Carter:Louise.Carter@devon.gov.uk (Exmouth, Sidmouth, South Dartmoor,Teign Valley)
    Julie Paddick: Julie.Paddick@devon.gov.uk (Axe Valley, Exeter, Honiton, Ottery St Mary)
    Karen Salter: Karen.Salter@devon.gov.uk (Clyst Vale, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot)
    Sally Rice: Sally.Rice@devon.gov.uk (Bideford, Torrington, Holsworthy, Okehampton, South Molton, Chulmleigh)
    Carolyn Huxtable: Carolyn.Huxtable@devon.gov.uk (Barnstaple, Braunton, Ilfracombe)
    Sarah Murts: Sarah.Murts@devon.gov.uk (Ivybridge, Totnes, Woolwell)

    Images left to right: Tamsin Robertson; Louise Carter; Julie Paddick; Sally Rice; Carolyn Huxtable;

  • Early Years Complex Needs Service

    The EYCN Service is an education-based service for children with significant or complex developmental delay in two or more areas of development. One of these areas must be cognition (acquiring knowledge or understanding).

    Devon Early Years Complex Needs Service is affiliated to the National Portage Association (NPA) and is based on the principle that parents and carers are the key figures in the care and development of their child.

    Our aims are to work with families and children so that they are able to learn together, play together, participate and be included in their community.

    Support offered:

    • Regular home visits by EYCN practitioners, providing parents with strategies, and ideas to support their child’s development based on difficulties described and identified
    • EYCN Practitioners support families to plan agreed goals, and these are broken down into small, manageable steps giving opportunities for learning new skills and celebrating success.
    • Setting Support (preschool, nursery, childminders) – Early Support Advisory Teachers (ESATs) will provide strategies, skills and ideas to setting staff to support the successful inclusion of children with complex needs. ESATs will contribute to and guide parents and settings to request an Education Health and Care Assessment.
    • Community Support – EYCN Service support families to access community groups for example those delivered by children’s centres, including step by step groups and groups that are led by the EYCN Service. We also offer support to groups that are local to families for example in a local library and virtual drop-in sessions.

    Early years – specialist support – Education and Families (devon.gov.uk)

    contact: to follow

  • Early Years and Childcare Workforce Development

    The Workforce Development Team can support all early years and childcare practitioners in Devon with the following:

    • Recruitment: supporting early years and childcare providers to advertise early years job adverts
    • Training: supporting early years and childcare providers to access training opportunities on the DEL training website

    For General Enquiries email: eywd@devon.gov.uk

    Workforce Development Administrator, Natalie Elston: natalie.elston@devon.gov.uk or 01392 383844

    Image: Natalie Elston.

  • Early Years and Childcare Data and Sufficiency

    Key roles:

    • We analyse data and write the Childcare Sufficiency Annual Report for parents and County Councillors to see how we are meeting the duty to ensure there is enough high quality, inclusive, accessible and affordable early years and childcare provision
    • We monitor and report on the take up of funded hours and places (universal entitlement, extended entitlement, 2 year old funding, EYPP, DAF, Inclusion Funding) so the Early Years and Childcare Advisers (EYCAS) can support providers to improve take up. This is also reported back to the Department for Education
    • Our work takes into account changes to the local population, postcodes, new housing developments etc. We also monitor and report on Ofsted outcomes in early years and childcare settings and schools where they manage nurseries and governor run preschools. The Ofsted data informs the work the EYCAS and Early Years Consultants (EYC) do as part of Early Years One process to improve quality
    • The surveys sent to providers and parents about the supply and demand of and for childcare come from our team. We also consider the ages of children, whether they have SEND and what childcare is needed to different working families and where
    • The 2info@devon.gov.uk and childcareinformation-mailbox@devon.gov.uk are managed by our team
    • We send out the invitations to families that may have an eligible 2 year old directing them to the Citizens portal to check their eligibility. We also send out follow up communications if parents have not taken up a place or not checked their eligibility.

    Fran leads on the development of early years provision in schools, nursery admissions and policy within the service. She also oversees and manages the communications to providers.

    Early years and Childcare Sufficiency Lead: Fran Butler: fran.butler@devon.gov.uk or 01392 383000

    Early Years and Childcare Data Analysts:

    Assistant Management Information Officer (Early Years and Childcare):

     

             Gemma Nicholas

    Images left to right: Fran Butler; Wayne Pearce; Gemma Cockerham; Nicholas John.

  • Early Years Entitlement Funding Team

    We process and administer the Early Years Entitlement Funding for 2, 3 & 4 year olds. This includes the universal (15 hour) entitlement, Extended Entitlement (30 hours), Early Years Pupil Premium, Disability Access Funding and SEN Individual Inclusion Funding. We have approximately 700 funded providers and 10,000 children that are funded each term.

    We provide an Early Years Funding Helpdesk that is usually available from 9.00am to 4.00pm, Monday – Friday. This is primarily for providers to contact us if they have any queries or questions with regards to Early Years Funding.

    We process applications:

    • from new providers wishing to register to accept the Early Years Entitlement Funding
    • for children who may be entitled to 2-year-old funding
    • for Disability Access Funding
    • for children who may be entitled to SEN Individual Inclusion Funding.
    • We also provide administrative support to our locality teams.

    Contact:

    Providers can contact us by telephoning the Early Years Funding Helpdesk on 01392 385530 or by email eyef@devon.gov.uk

    • Marie Stone: Early Years Accountant
    • Louise Smith, Early Years Senior Administrator and Funding Co-Ordinator
    • Karen Baker, Early Years Support Officer
    • Jessica Penn, Early Years Support Assistant
    • Phi Huynh-Baldock: SEN Administrator

     

    Images left to right: Louise Smith; Karen Baker; Jessica Penn.

  • Holidays, Activities and Food (HAF) Programme

    I am currently co-ordinating the DfE Holiday, Activities and Food Programme for Devon. The HAF programme provides enriching activities and hot meals for children who are eligible for Benefit related Free School Meals.

    Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme – Education and Families (devon.gov.uk)

    Early Years Locality Manager and HAF Co-ordinator, Melissa Filby: melissa.filby@devon.gov.uk or 01392 388461

    Image: Melissa Filby.

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