Early Years and Childcare Update - 15 May 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

Nominate a Provider Portal User

As you may already be aware, the Early Years and Childcare Team has launched a new Information Portal for providers called the Nexus Provider Portal. 

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

Please note: Completing this form does not immediately create your account. After we verify the nominated user form, we will send you a link to create your Provider Portal account.

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

Childcare Works Webinars

Childcare Works free webinars for Early Years and Wraparound providers and schools.

Childcare Works will be running informal, friendly and informative live sessions to support all Early Years and Wraparound providers and schools where they can find out more about the wealth of resources, guidance and information available to support

Join one of the upcoming Childcare Works live sessions: Find out more and sign up here. 

Wraparound Childcare Funding Application

Reminder: Wraparound Care Grant Funding applications are LIVE and will remain open until 30th May 2025.

Access the application form here.

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 full wraparound definition.

We will be accepting applications from the following providers:

  • School-led provision delivered by school staff on a school site: Provision that 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: Provision that is 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: Provision 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: Provision 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

Links to supporting documentation can be found below:

Look out for further updates in the School's Noticeboard and in the weekly Early Years and Childcare Updates.

For any queries in the meantime, please contact the team at WAC@Birmingham.gov.uk

Early Education Entitlements 

Headcount Information

Headcount day is – Thursday 15th May 2025 and this is when the EEE Portal will open for you to submit your headcount claims.  All funded children must have started with you on or before headcount date, but you will have from the 15th until 22nd May to submit your claim. 

Summer term is 13 weeks.

To make sure that you can submit your claim as smoothly as possible, please make sure you have done the following before headcount opens:

  • The appropriate contact has portal access
  • All children’s details are accurate and ready to enter onto the EEE Portal
  • All overrides are requested the day before portal opens

Please also ensure:

  • All codes for disadvantaged 2-year-olds, working 15 or 30 codes have been checked and are eligible before allowing children to start
  • Existing children’s codes have been reconfirmed before the start of term

If you need to contact us for any support, please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk and remember to include your name, your setting name and your setting ID.

Please ensure that all eligibility override requests are submitted no later than Wednesday 14th May.

DSL Meeting Links June 2025

For the attention of EEE Providers, Childminders, and Out of School (OOS).

Please find below links to sign up to June’s DSL Meetings for Early Years and Childcare. Please only sign up for one session:

At this session we will be covering any Safeguarding Updates, Early Help and the updated safeguarding training requirements in preparation for the changes in September.

Inclusive Practice in Wraparound Provision

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

The National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN) has developed training for wraparound providers on behalf of Childcare Works to enhance inclusive practices in wraparound provision. A series of ten videos have been created to support inclusive provision and address the needs of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). 

Inclusive Practice in Wraparound Provision - childcareworks.org.uk

Creating Inclusive Provision Toolkit - A toolkit for providers of Wraparound Childcare, Breakfast Clubs and Holidays Activities and Food Programmes.

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 activities 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:

  • 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
  • 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.

This entry was posted by Jessica Wykes on 14/05/2025.

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