Early Years and Childcare Update - 13 March 2025

Welcome to this week's Early Years and Childcare update!

This week's update includes information on:

Please feel free to share this update with anyone you think would benefit from accessing this content. 

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact familyinformation@birmingham.gov.uk

Provider Portal Sign Up Reminder

As you should hopefully be aware the Early Years and Childcare Team are launching a new Information Portal for providers called the Nexus Provider Portal on Thursday 20 March 2025. 

Many providers have already nominated a Nexus Provider Portal user. If you haven’t already done so, then please do this today using our online form. You can have accounts for up to 4 people within your organisation. 

The introduction of this portal will enable us to:

  • strengthen the information that we collect from you to support our sufficiency data
  • improve the information that we can provide to parents and third parties when they are looking for childcare options
  • contact you more efficiently.  

For detailed information and benefits related to this change for your provider type, please monitor our emails.

If you have any queries about the Nexus Provider Portal, then please contact FamilyInformation@birmingham.gov.uk

Safeguarding Updates

Mini Eggs

It’s that time of year again when mini eggs are lining the shelves. But did you know that they’re the perfect size and shape to completely block a small child’s airway and choke them? Or that their hard shell can make it difficult to dislodge with standard first aid techniques?

That’s why they aren’t recommended for small children.

Download our free choking fact sheet for more top tips.

Safer sleep for babies

Sadly, around four babies a week die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). That’s why we’re supporting Safer Sleep Week this March. It focuses on busting baby sleep myths, understanding baby sleep patterns and coping with sleep deprivation as a parent. Visit Lullaby Trust to learn more.

A baby’s airway is very delicate and it’s possible for it to become blocked, narrowed and or folded, making it difficult for them to breathe. The Lullaby Trust has developed new resources and a video focusing on airway protection. 

Disguised Compliance

NSPCC Learning has published a Why Language Matters blog and a Learning from Case Reviews briefing on the use of the term ‘disguised compliance’ and the implications for practice. The blog explores why the term can be misleading, unhelpful and blaming. It highlights how professionals should more clearly describe caregiver behaviour, build relationships with families and assess caregiver capacity to change.

Read the blog: Why language matters: how using the term ‘disguised compliance’ can be problematic‘
Read the briefing: 'Disguised compliance’: learning from case reviews

Channel 4 Documentary with Birmingham Children’s Trust

Channel 4 is producing a current affairs documentary that follows frontline social workers from Birmingham Children’s Trust. The documentary aims to provide an accurate portrayal of their work, highlighting the complexities of decision-making and the vital role of multi-agency safeguarding.

This is an opportunity to show school’s invaluable role in the day-to-day safeguarding of our children, and the team is hopeful for support in being able to show this.

Please see here for more details and information.

For inquiries, contact filming@truevisiontv.com or 07725 828699

Early Education Entitlements:

Early Years Pupil Premium and Free School Meals

If you wish to claim a Free School Meal for any eligible 2-, 3-, or 4-year-olds, you must ensure that you are delivering their early education entitlement place in line with the terms and conditions of funding which state:

'8.35. The Council will provide funding for Free School Meals (FSM) for eligible 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds. To access a FSM the child must be attending their EEE funded entitlement for a minimum of 5 hours during core hours (9am to 3pm), and parents/carers must be in receipt of specific benefits. (See Appendix 5). Please note children who are eligible for a FSM are also eligible for early years pupil premium (EYPP) therefore the Provider can claim for both for eligible children. If the provider cannot deliver a FSM as detailed above then they should just claim EYPP.'

This means that if a child only attends a morning session (e.g. 9am – 12pm) or only attends an afternoon session (e.g. 12pm – 3.00pm) you cannot claim a free school meal.

Parents can generate a code here.

If a child is eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) they are also eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP). You can claim EYPP regardless of whether you are able to offer and claim a free school meal.  

EYPP can be claimed for all eligible children aged 9 – 23m, 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds.  FSMs are not available for 9-23-month-olds.

For enquiries please contact: earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

New Owners and Directors

If you have a change in the ownership of your childcare setting your EEE registration is no longer valid – even if the staffing/children do not change. If ownership changes you must inform earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk as soon as possible before the change happens as it will affect your payments. A change in ownership means that you get a new Ofsted registration number, and this means that you have to have a new portal set up and a new Impulse ID with us and we cannot release payments to the old registrations.

Please ensure that you contact us as soon as possible so that we can send the new owners a new registration pack for completion and return to avoid any delay in the release of Early Education Entitlement. All EEE payments will be held until the completion of a new registration is completed so it is imperative that you act quickly.

WellComm Data Collection 

We appreciate your continued submission of WellComm screening results. Based on the feedback collected through the data collection form, Early Years Consultant visits, and input from our Developing Local Provision (DLP) teams, we have made several enhancements to streamline the form completion process and created an improved WellComm data spreadsheet, thereby facilitating easier collation and sharing of your screening results.

WellComm Data Spreadsheet

The WellComm Data spreadsheet is intended to assist in collating your WellComm screening results. The spreadsheet includes instructions for its use, a page for entering all of your children's screening results, and an automated analysis page. This analysis page offers a comprehensive summary of the data required for completing the WellComm Data Collection Form. Using the spreadsheet is optional, as you may have already developed your own, and it is for your use only and not to be returned to us. We ask that you share your screening data through the online data collection form.

WellComm Data Collection Form

We have updated the form to ensure that it only includes questions pertinent to the ages of children in your care. A new question has been added regarding the number of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who have been screened using an alternative assessment tool. The form now comprises six age-specific sections, ranging from 6 months to 5 years. These sections focus on clarified children's statuses as red, amber, or green, along with their progress. Detailed explanations are provided under each question to clarify these terms. The Excel analysis sheet, in the attached spreadsheet, will answer all questions asked on the data collection form for children screened with WellComm.

We kindly request that every early year’s provider returns their Spring Term WellComm screening results by Friday 11th April 2025.

To complete the survey, please click here.

We will be holding online sessions to demonstrate how to use the WellComm data spreadsheet and complete the data collection form. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and be signposted to practical support if required. Please use the booking links below for your preferred date.

If you would like support with using WellComm to screen children or with the WellComm data spreadsheet and form if you are unable to attend one of the sessions, please contact your local DLP team or email eyduty@birmingham.gov.uk

Early Years and Child Care Recruitment Assistance

Broaden the reach & increase the visibility of your job openings as an Early Years provider, EEE provider, Childminder, Out of School (OOS), and Maintained Nursery School (MNS).

Collectively the ‘How to Love Your Job’ Channel 4 series, which focused on highlighting Careers in Early Years and has garnered over 1.9 million views on YouTube at the time of writing. Each episode directed viewers to the Early Years Careers website to search for roles in Early Years and Childcare through their Finding a Job page. The end of the series has created this opportune moment to remind you of the Government’s free Find a Job service for recruitment assistance.

To broaden the reach and enhance the visibility of your job postings, it is advisable to add your vacancies to the Find a Job database. To list your job adverts, create an employer account by clicking the following link and navigating to the 'Create Account' button.  However, please ensure that you list your vacancies under the ‘Education and Childcare’ category.

‘Create Account’ Technical Support for Employers:

  • Access employer ‘Find a Job’ help here.
  • Access video tutorials on how to post job adverts and manage your employer account here.

Early Years and Childcare Vacancies in Birmingham:

View current vacancies in Birmingham.

For enquiries please contact: EYDuty@birmingham.gov.uk

DSL and Safeguarding Support Network

For the attention of Out of School (OOS) and Holiday Playschemes. 

This session is aimed at setting managers and DSLs (Designated Safeguarding Leads) who work with children aged over 5. The focus for the session is – Importance of Recording Concerns, let's have a conversation and the Safeguarding Self-Assessment Tool.

These are repeat sessions. The first session was held on 11th February 2025. If you wish to attend again, you are more than welcome!

For enquiries please contact: EYDuty@birmingham.gov.uk

This entry was posted by Jessica Wykes on 12/03/2025.

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