Foundation Years July 2024 Bulletin

DfE updates

• New Secretary of State for Education & Ministers
• Education Secretary Begins Push to Recruit 6,500 New Teachers
• Reminder for Early Years Providers to Check Eligibility of Working Parent Entitlement Codes
  

• Survey on Childcare Entitlements Expansion

• Early Years Evidence Store Physical Development Module Now Live
  

• The Early Years Conversation Project – Now Recruiting Across London
  

• BBC Tiny Happy People

DfE updates

Ahead of the autumn term, and with the further expansion of childcare support for eligible working parents, we would like to remind early years providers to check and validate codes ahead of a child taking up a place. 

This requirement is set out in statutory guidance. Providers should work with their Local Authority (LA) to follow this guidance and check codes are valid once received from a parent. 

Why is this important?  

Checking a code is valid via your provider/LA portal:  

• Ensures the provider receives funding for that place  

• Ensures a parent can take up a place for their child from September and understand their monthly childcare costs  

• Provides an early indication of whether parents can find and take up a place  

• Provides early indication of potential sufficiency issues within local areas  

We recently invited a group of early years providers to take part in a survey sharing your views about the delivery of childcare entitlements expansion from April 2024. This survey is delivered by IFF Research – our evaluation partners.   

If you have received an invitation, we strongly encourage you to take part. This is an opportunity for you to help shape current and future childcare policies. The findings will help us implement meaningful changes that will benefit you and other providers for the next phases of roll-out and beyond. 

We are aware there are other requests for similar information from other research at DfE; we review what we ask for in each request to ensure we can use the valuable information you provide as broadly as we can across a variety of programmes. We encourage you to engage with all research requests as they each contribute to our work differently.  

Our partners at IFF will always make it clear they are asking you to take part in research on behalf of us at DfE. 

If you have any questions, please email project manager gabriela.rodriguez@education.gov.uk. 

The Education Endowment Foundation has added a new theme to the Early Years Evidence Store as part of their ongoing collaboration with the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme. The content is designed to support early years educators to put evidence-informed approaches into practice. 

The physical development theme explores how early years educators can support young children’s physical development and promote opportunities to be physically active. 

It focuses on three approaches: 

• Teaching the skills needed for movement and handling 

• Promoting physical activity 

• Teaching the skills for mark making and letter formation 

Existing themes include communication and language, personal social and emotional development, early maths and early literacy. Do share and promote the link with those you think could benefit.  

Stronger Practice Hubs can offer support on adopting evidence-informed practice in your Early Years setting, including how to use the Evidence Store. Contact your nearest Hub for more information (details here).  

We’re pleased to announce that the Early Years Conversation Project is now open to early years settings from all local authorities in London. 

This professional development programme supports staff in early years settings to develop practical strategies to enhance children’s communication and language skills.  

Settings can take part free of cost as part of a research project that will explore how the programme supports children’s language development.    

Register your interest by completing this short form.