This week's update includes information on:

• Provider Portal Sign Up Reminder
• HUB for Providers and Schools
• Wraparound Childcare Funding Application
• Early Education Entitlements
  • Working Codes Summer 2025
  • WellComm Data Collection
• The Early Years Financial Incentive Application Deadline
• Early Talk Boost
• DfE Childminder Roadshow

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

HUB for Providers and Schools

The HUB is a one-stop shop for all childcare providers currently available resources relating to the new childcare entitlements and wraparound care programme.

You will find a vast range of information and resources to support you running your childcare business including templates, case studies, blogs, and vlogs and lots more!

Look for resources on:

• Business Planning
• Capacity Development
• Finance and Funding
• Marketing and Promotion
• SEND
• Staff Recruitment
• Supply and Demand

Take a look and visit the HUB today!

Wraparound Childcare Funding Application

After the successful completion of 2024 application, we are pleased to announce that there will be a second opportunity to apply for funding in summer 2025.

We will be accepting funding to support providers with the following to increase wraparound care sufficiency in Birmingham:

• Creation of places: Create both new before school provision and after-school provision - where there is currently no provision.
• Extend hours: Extend the hours to meet full wraparound definition (8am to 6pm) - where you already provide wraparound, but it does not meet the 8am to 6pm expectation.
• Expand provision: Introduce before school provision or after school provision – where you have existing provision in place to meet the full wraparound definition.
• Expand places: Increase wraparound places - you already offer wraparound at capacity and want to expand due to unmet demand.

Combination of above types will be considered in order to best support providers in creating/expanding their offer to meet the full wraparound definition.

We will be accepting applications from the following providers:

• School-led provision delivered by school staff on a school site
  • Operates on school premises, managed by staff employed directly by a school. The provision is open to all children in that school.
• Private provider-led provision, on or off school site
  • Operated and delivered by staff employed by a private provider. If based on a school site, the private provider may rent space from the school to be able to operate provision. Provision could also be operated on another site rather than on school premises.
• Community/cluster model
  • A community-focused model with children from multiple schools attending provision on one site. This could be operated by a lead school, a private provider, a community organisation, or any other appropriate body.
• Childminders
  • Delivered by childminders (registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency), which schools and local authorities’ signpost to. This could consist of a group of childminders working together on a single site or childminders working individually from their homes.
• Early years providers
  • Delivered by early years providers which may take school aged children during wraparound hours. For example, a local nursery or a pre-school operating on or off a school site may run the provision before and after school hours.

We will be delivering some information sessions the week commencing the 7th of April 2025.

Look out for further updates via the School’s Noticeboard and in the Early Years and Childcare updates.

Early Education Entitlements

Working Codes Summer 2025

Please ensure you have checked codes ready for summer term, before children start.

Working Entitlement codes for 9 months, 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds

(501******** / 400******** / 114********)

Please check your parents’ Working Entitlement codes before confirming places. If you have parents that may be entitled, they need to apply now.

For existing parents, it is good practice to encourage them to remain within their validity dates. Parents can do this by reconfirming their code every 12 weeks. Please remind parents towards the end of term to do this.

Whilst parents are responsible for maintaining their codes on their childcare accounts with HMRC, we would expect providers to be informing parents and reminding them to apply or reconfirm within the deadlines. You will need to check your parents’ codes on Portal.

For the summer term, you are looking for a validity start date on or before the 31st March 2025.  For parents who have reconfirmed late and fallen out of the grace period or parents who have made late applications after the 31st March 2025, this will result in codes not being eligible for summer term 2025. 

Children from 9 months old affected by this will not be funded for the Working entitlement 15 hours. Any 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds will only then be entitled to the Universal 15 hours only.

There may be a very small number of families eligible for 2 year funding under the current disadvantaged eligibility criteria who may also be eligible for the 15 hours working entitlement. These parents can only claim 15 hours in total and cannot claim both elements. These parents should be encouraged to remain on the current disadvantaged entitlement because once eligible they remain eligible regardless of their circumstances.

Please refer parents to Childcare Choices for further information on Working Entitlement.

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.

• Friday 14th March, 10am – 11am 
• Wednesday 19th March, 2.30pm – 3.30pm 
• Friday 21st March, 9.30am – 10.30am 
• Monday 24th March, 6pm – 7pm 

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

The Early Years Financial Incentive Application Deadline

For the attention of all EEE registered providers and Maintained Nursery Schools.

What is EYFI?

The Early Years Financial Incentive (EYFI) is a recruitment grant that was introduced by the Department for Education in Spring 2024. This grant offer is for eligible recruits who have permanently joined Birmingham’s early years sector on or after the 3rd of May 2024.

Who can apply?

If you are a Birmingham provider that offers Early Education Entitlement (EEE) places, you are eligible to apply for a grant of £1000 plus tax/NI to pass on to eligible recruits. Here’s more information regarding eligibility:

• New or Returning: Eligible recruits must either be completely new to permanently working in the Early Years sector or returning to permanently work in the Early Years sector after a minimum 6-month gap between their current permanent early years role and their last permanent early years role. 
• Eligible recruits must be employed on a permanent contract.
• Eligible recruits must have started their permanent early years employment on or after 3rd May 2024.
• Eligible recruits must spend at least 70% of their contracted hours working directly with children in their early years. 
• Eligible recruits could be unqualified or qualified practitioners.

Examples of recruits who may meet eligibility, subject to also meeting the above eligibility criteria:

• A recruit who was previously temping, inside, or outside of the early years sector, prior to securing their current permanent early years role.
• A former apprentice who has passed their apprenticeship and is now permanently working in the early years sector.
• A permanently recruited childminder’s assistant (recruited on or after 3.5.2024 and subject to the eligibility criteria highlighted above).

How to apply?

Complete and return the application form before the end of Monday 31st March 2025. Your application should be submitted to EarlyYearsSeminars@birmingham.gov.uk

Please see here guidance for filling out this form.

Please note: You only need to complete the sections of the application form that have been highlighted in yellow.

Early Talk Boost

This training is FREE and funded by Birmingham City Council, suitable for Birmingham EEE Funding Registered Day Nurseries, Nursery Schools and School Nursery Classes.

Early Talk Boost is a targeted intervention aimed at 3-4 year old children who need help with talking and understanding words, helping to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. The programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of 6 months, after a nine-week intervention. 

Children selected to take part in the intervention will attend three sessions per week during circle/story time, each lasting 15-20 minutes delivered by an early year’s practitioner. The sessions activites include the foundation skills in speech, language, and communication that children need for learning and understanding new words, as well as having conversations. The training is delivered face to face and each setting will receive 2 boxes of Early Talk Boost resources.

The sessions take place at 9.30am – 3.00pm with a 20-person capacity:

• Friday 4th April 2025, Edgbaston Family Hub (Doddington Children’s Centre), 28 Doddington Grove, Birmingham, B32 4EL
• Thursday 10th April 2025, Erdington Family Hub (Lakeside Children’s Centre), 22 Lakes Rd, Birmingham, B23 7UH
• Thursday 1st May 2025, Wyndcliffe Primary School, Little Green Lane, B9 5BG
• Tuesday 6th May 2025, Perry Barr Family Hub (Rookery Children's Centre), 60 Mount Pleasant Avenue, B21 9QA
• Wednesday 21st May 2025, Wyndcliffe Primary School, Little Green Lane, B9 5BG
• Thursday 22nd May 2025, Erdington Family Hub (Lakeside Children's Centre), 22 Lakes Road, B23 7UH
• Friday 6th June 2025, Erdington Family Hub (Lakeside Children's Centre), 22 Lakes Road, B23 7UH
• Monday 16th June 2025, Selly Oak Family Hub (Chinnbrook Children’s Centre), 213 Trittiford Rd, Birmingham, B13 0ET
• Friday 20th June 2025, Perry Barr Family Hub (Rookery Children's Centre), 60 Mount Pleasant Avenue, B21 9QA

Please fill out the Microsoft form to choose your preferred date and location.

DfE Childminder Roadshow

Join DfE’s Early Years Team for an online roadshow event for Childminders working in the early education and childcare sector on Wednesday 26th March at 18:30 - 20:00.

This event is a great opportunity to help shape this government’s plan for change and hear about the strategy and activity underway to meet the pillar in its Opportunity Mission to give children the Best Start in Life. You will have a chance to engage with DfE colleagues on the work we’re doing to meet the expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025 and share your ideas, concerns, and challenges. 

The event will include an overview and update from the Department for Education and give those joining the opportunity to share experiences and views in virtual roundtable discussions.  

 Click here to register.