Last night I attended St Andrews Lower school with many other Early Years Practitioners to have a briefing session led by Heather Knox from the Central Beds Early Years Development team.

The evening started off with a session from the local NHS team led by Raheel Anwar about their project entitled keeping children out of A and E.

The aim of this project is to reduce the unnecessary attendance of children in Accident and Emergency, a lot of children are automatically taken to A and E for Lower Respiratory tract infections when they could be realistically treated at home by parents/GP’s.

To deliver the project GP’s and local practices will be offered an intensive refresher course in Paediatric care covering the areas that seem to be referred. They will be looking at the data to see what practices refer more and offering more training and support. The Health visitors will be offering parental support and training using Advice sheets to support the parents which have red, amber, green sections. These sheets are now in the child’s red book.

All this will increase an awareness of local options ie where to go for help prior to getting to A and E, reduce demand on services so that those that need to be seen are seen quicker than at present, and empower parents and carers with better knowledge.

Joanna, a health Visitor from Biggleswade then spoke about the three day course she attended prior to being able to take part in the project. She talked about the information contained on the Advice sheets such as what constitutes a Red area which would indicate that a hospital visit is necessary, whereas an amber would indicate a visit to the GP/health visitor.

We were all able to take copies of the sheets home so we could see what the advice was.

Next came the talk about the EARLY YEARS PUPIL PREMIUM (EYPP) by Heather Knox

What is the EYPP?

It was announced in March 2014 by Government that this premium already in schools would be introduced into the Early Years from April 1015. It will provide Preschools, Nurseries, Reception classes and childminders with additional support for disadvantaged 3 and 4 year olds. There is specific criteria that needs to be filled by the families circumstances in order to obtain the additional funding..

Why is it being introduced?

There is a discrepancy between children who receive Free school meals and those that don’t with regard to their level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Also noted is that in the Affluent areas 82% of Early Settings are good/outstanding as opposed to the 68% in less well off areas.

It is felt by providing good quality Early Years Education that it will make a huge difference to these children and their families and will have a long lasting effect for those children throughout their schooling life and their future.

As with the NEF the children are eligible from 3 years old, the EYPP will follow the children and can be used in 2 settings. The parents do not have to use all of their 15 hours. Not all 2 year olds who receive funding will be eligible for this EYPP, although most will be. It all depends on the criteria set out by Government. Providers must have god/outstanding grading from Ofsted in order to receive the EYPP similar to the NEF.

The EYPP must be used to improve the quality of Early Years Education and the outcomes for the eligible children. So it could be used to add additional resources-this could be toys, equipment, books for staff etc, attend training/meetings, consultancies such as speech language therapists and much more.

Ofsted

The settings in receipt of the EYPP need to be able to demonstrate to Ofsted how they have improved outcomes for the children in receipt of the EYPP. This could be showing how they are looking for patterns and outcomes in children’s development and and targeting the support they need; being able to articulate to Ofsted the overall progress of the children and how the setting is narrowing the gap and raising aspirations for the child and their family; show how they use the quality tools and self evaluation to reflect on their practices and and ensure consistent and ongoing improvement.

What we need from parents

In order for us to access this extra funding we need their date of births and National Insurance numbers. This is so that when the forms go to Central Beds they can be checked to ensure those that are entitled to the EYPP will get it.

This system is very new and those on the pilot studies only started them in Jan 2015 so results from their management of it hasn’t come out as yet. This is going to be a trial and error throughout this initial period, having said that the opportunities that it gives to settings will be great as there will be more financial support which will enhance the already super provisions we are providing in Central Beds.