Noticeboard

Noticeboard - 21 March 2024

This week's Noticeboard includes information on MMR Vaccination, End of Financial Year Procedures 2023/24, Early Education Entitlement, SENAR Service contact details and more. Wishing you all an enjoyable break over the Easter holidays.

Included in this week's noticeboard:

Measles (MMR) Vaccine Reminder for Parents/Carers

As the Easter holidays approach, this is an ideal time to get up to date with the measles (MMR) vaccination.

Schools will have received a letter from Public Health encouraging the uptake of the MMR vaccine and which can be forwarded to Parents/Carers to provide important information and act as a reminder.

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact the Health Protection team at HPteam@birmingham.gov.uk, or for more information visit Measles - NHS

End of Financial Year Procedures 2023/24

Please note that the final date for submitting year end accruals is Friday, 19 April 2024, and we’d appreciate your support in advising all staff involved in the closedown process.

If schools have any queries in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact the team at SchoolsAccruals@birmingham.gov.uk

With many thanks for your continued support - School Finance Team

2023-2024 Year End Accruals – Guidance and Documentation (Non-CHB/EPA)

At the end of each financial year, the Chief Finance Officer has the responsibility for preparing the annual accounts for the City Council, this includes consolidating school accounts.  

Accruals posting have a deadline for submission 19th April 2024.

The DeMinimus of £1000 has been set, and all accruals must have evidence attached.

Full guidance on Year End Accrual Procedures for Non-CHB and EPA schools can be found at the following link:

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads/download/6606/year_end_accruals_2023_2024_-_guidance_and_documentation

For any queries please contact: Schoolsaccruals@Birmingham.gov.uk

2022-2023 – Final Carry Forward Balances (CHB & Non-CHB)

At the end of each financial year, the Chief Finance Officer has the responsibility for preparing the annual accounts for the City Council, this includes consolidating school accounts.  

The final balances are within the excel documents through following the below link, you will need to know your school code when accessing the document.

Full guidance on 2022-2023 carry forward final balances can be found at the following link

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads/download/6607/final_carry_forward_balances_for_2022_-_2023

For any queries please contact: SchoolsYEAccountsClosedown@Birmingham.gov.uk

Early Education Entitlement

2 Year Funded Place

Are your 2 year olds ready to access a funded place for April 2024?

Please make sure that you have taken the following steps so that your 2 year olds are ready to access their funded place from April:

Working Entitlement - www.childcarechoices.gov.uk  

  • Have parents who are eligible for working entitlement applied for their codes? They must have their eligible code by 31st March at the very latest to access a place from April.
  • Have parents who are eligible for working entitlement given you, their code? Encourage parents to give you their codes as soon as possible so that you confirm if they are eligible.
  • Codes will start 114 / 500 / 501 / 400
  • Providers must validate the codes on ECS - it is really important to validate all codes as soon as possible so that you can identify any issues

Disadvantaged Entitlement - Help paying for childcare: Free Education and Childcare for 2-year olds

  • Parents can apply for their code, or you can apply on their behalf with permission.
  • There is no deadline to apply for the code other than parents must give you a code before they start a place with you
  • Codes will be a mixture of 5 numbers and / or letters
  • Providers must validate the codes as soon as possible on ECS to check that the codes are eligible.
  • If the codes are not eligible you must view evidence and submit an eligibility override request form (found on EYMIS)

All children - please make sure you have used the new parental declaration form for all existing and all new children for summer term.

Please prompt all your parents to be ready for April!

Parental Declarations

The Early Education Entitlement (EEE) Parent Declaration Form has now been updated to reflect the new entitlement offers that are being introduced from April 2024 – September 2025.

Please use the revised form for all funded 2, 3 and 4 year olds accessing a place from Summer term 2024 onwards.

The Parent Declaration Form is used to determine where funding is paid, for example in the case of a EEE audit or when investigating duplicate claims. It is therefore imperative that the form is completed with parents, so they understand what they are agreeing to.

The declarations need to be signed each term (you must not agree more than one term in advance) and state clearly what term and what hours are being agreed. Incomplete forms can result in loss of or claw-back of funding.

The Parent Declaration Forms can be found on EYMIS: www.ted-birmingham.org.uk

  • Username: PVI2 (please note this is a capital i not the number one)
  • Password: PVI2year (please note this is a capital i not the number one)

If you have any queries please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

30 Hours Places for Foster Children

Foster parents can apply for 30 hours extended entitlement for their 3 and 4 year old foster children, if they are in paid employment outside of their foster care role.

These applications cannot be made via the usual route of the Childcare Choices website and have to come directly to the local authority. The foster carer or social worker should email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk for an application form. The Social Worker and Birmingham Virtual School Advisor have to be in agreement that the application is in the best interests of the child.

The same deadlines apply - they must have a code by 31st March 2024 in order to access 30 hours from April 2024 for Spring term. If you are aware of any looked after children that might be eligible for 30 hours extended entitlement, please signpost them to earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

As with all 30 hours codes you will still need to validate the code on ECS before agreeing the 30 hours start date. You must do this by entering the code on ECS and then check the validity start date of it to make sure it is eligible for the current term: https://www.cloudforedu.org.uk/oefe/birmingham/la/schools  

Further information about 30 hours and validating codes can be found on EYMIS: www.ted-birmingham.org.uk

  • Username: PVI2 (please note this is a capital i not the number one)
  • Password: PVI2year (please note this is a capital i not the number one)

If you have any queries regarding 30 hours extended entitlement, please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

SENAR Service Contact Information

If schools need help and support from the SENAR service please don’t forget you can find out the contact information for your assigned officer here: SENAR - Local Offer Birmingham. This information is updated weekly to ensure contact details remain fresh and schools can reach the right person first time.

Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Birmingham City Council & Birmingham Community Safety Partnership are working to reduce and prevent the occurrences of violence and abuse against women and girls, strengthen the support available for victims and survivors and improve responses to reports of violence and abuse.

Almost 25% of women in England and Wales aged between 18-74 experienced abuse before they turned 16 years old. We want your opinions on how we can work together to end this.

Male allyship is a powerful tool in ending violence against women and girls, and we’re keen to hear from the men and boys across Birmingham too.

Please make your views known by following this link to complete the survey – survey closes on 28 March 2024. 

Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) Plus School Nursing Service

FAO: SENCO/Head Teacher

Do you need additional School Nursing input? If so Birmingham Community NHS Foundation Trust can help.

Through its Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) Plus (Traded Services) School Nursing service it can provide additional education focused services that supplement the NHS ‘core’ school nurse service.

The link between educational attainment and positive health is well documented; however sometimes schools find that incidence of health-related needs amongst their pupils requires more clinical support. We offer schools the opportunity to buy additional dedicated school nurse time to address health needs that lie beyond the scope of the core service.

School health topics that we provide support for include:

  • Curriculum input focused on health and wellbeing.
  • Issues arising in school that may have a link to health.
  • Dedicated support addressing a school’s wider health related challenges.
  • Liaison with GP’s Health Visitors and other professionals.
  • Health education and promotion activities.

To find out more about how BCHC Plus (Traded Services) can benefit your school, pupils, families and staff, please contact our BCHC Plus team on 0121 466266 or email bchc.bchcplus@nhs.net 

Jerusalem Trust’s Small Grants to Schools Scheme

FAO: RE Leads

The Jerusalem Trust’s Small Grants to Schools Scheme supports the teaching of Christianity within Religious Education. The scheme operates by providing schools with grants of up to £600 to purchase resources for use in RE lessons.

The scheme is open to state funded schools in England and Wales, and more information can be found at www.regrants.org.uk

Services for Education - Training Opportunities

Teachers and Assessment Leaders New to Year 2 – Preparing for the Essential Assessment Processes at the End of KS1 (Centre Based) – Wednesday 10th April 2024: 09.00-16.00. In today’s climate of non-statutory assessments at KS1, how do we ensure that our pupils remain on track, and that we assess accurately, fairly and in line with national expectations?  Let our experienced moderators and advisers ensure that your pupils remain on-track with accurate assessments as they leave KS1 Book here

Assessment Briefings for Senior Leaders (Online) - Wednesday 17th April 2024. This course will provide senior school leaders with essential information, guidance and updates regarding Statutory Assessment and key assessment issues at both local and national levels. 08.00-10.00 Book here and 14.00-16.00 Book here

Interim Writing Moderation at KS1 – For Year 2 Teachers (Centre Based) Thursday 23rd April 2024. This shared moderation will be an opportunity for Year 2 teachers to ensure that assessments of writing are secure. Although now non-statutory, it is best practice to continue using the 2019 KS1 Teacher Assessment Framework to maintain rigour and make robust and accurate judgements at KS1 Book here

Update for Existing DSLs on Safeguarding and Child Protection (Centre Based) – Wednesday 22nd May 2024: 09.00-12.15 Book here

This entry was posted by Jaspal Shambi on 19/03/2024.

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