It seems hard to believe that we are already into the summer term. The sunny weather and longer, lighter days are very welcome. It feels like a good time for another update on the work of our Early Years and Childcare service.
\nOur team has grown and changed.<\/p>\n
Since I started in my role 2 years ago, we have been working hard to develop our service and secure strong leadership across the service.<\/p>\n
Tamsin Robertson started her new role on 1st January as Lead Advisor for Quality and Outcomes having been an Early Years Consultant for almost 15 years. Her focus areas are supporting the quality of teaching and learning across the EYFS and ensuring that our settings are supported well in relation to delivering a high quality curriculum, she will have a specific focus on children who are disadvantaged and underserved to ensure that we improve the gap between their outcomes and those of their peers; a particular challenge in Devon. In addition, she is continuing to support settings and schools but now has fewer numbers due to her leadership responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Also, in January we welcomed two new Early Years and Childcare Advisers to the team, Katy Vallance who is covering North Devon and Beth Trantham covering Ivybridge and Tavistock.<\/p>\n
As you will be aware the Government has set up a programme to ensure all children can access wraparound childcare at school from 8am – 6pm during term time and we are delighted to welcome Tania Skinner back to the team to support this work.<\/p>\n
Finally, I am going to move across to the SEND Statutory Team for the next 9 months to provide leadership capacity to continue to drive the improvements that have been started in relation to the Statutory responsibilities of the Local Authority. I will continue to have a strategic oversight of the early years services, but Nikki Phillips will be stepping up to support the day-to-day operational delivery of our work and support the leadership team to maintain momentum of all our current expansion activities.<\/p>\n