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EYCC Noticeboard

Early Years and Childcare Update - 10 July 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 . 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.

Summer Safety

Stay safe this summer.

Whilst the warm summer weather brings lots of opportunities for fun in the sun there are also additional hazards for our young people. Our brand new summer safety page has top tips to keep children safe this summer.

Find out more here: 

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025

Published: Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 (For information version, July 2025).

The Department for Education have published the latest version of Keeping Children Safe in Education for 2025. You can access this here: 

Online Safety Act

The Online Safety Act 2023 in force from 25th July 2025. 

The Online Safety Act 2023 introduces stronger protections for children online, including a legal requirement for all pornography sites accessed in the UK to have effective age verification in place by 25th July 2025. Major sites have agreed to comply using tools such as facial age estimation and ID checks. Ofcom will enforce this duty and can fine or block 番茄社区 that fail to meet the standard.

The Act also requires platforms to carry out risk assessments, apply age-appropriate controls, and remove illegal content such as child sexual abuse material, grooming, and incitement to violence. Platforms must now consider how their design, including algorithms, anonymity, and livestreaming, may expose users to harm. Schools should ensure staff are aware of these changes and review how online safety is addressed through curriculum and safeguarding procedures.

In addition to age verification, the Act introduces new criminal offences. These include cyberflashing, epilepsy trolling, and encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, which are now illegal even if done anonymously. It is also a crime to share deepfake pornography or send false information with intent to harm. Laws on non-consensual intimate images have been strengthened to cover threats to share, and images altered using AI. DSLs should help ensure these risks are understood by staff as safeguarding issues and addressed in training and policy. 

You can find out more of the Ofcom website here:

The Internet Matters website has a useful article here:

DfE Research Opportunity

Please share the following opportunity with parents or carers.

The Department for Education would like to speak to parents or carers of children aged between 0-5 years old.

We would like to understand more about how you find different information to help support your child/children.

This would include a 50-minute interview with 2 members of DfE staff. The research interviews can happen on Teams at a time to suit you, or face to face at a place close to you.

We are hoping the research can be conducted throughout July/August. If you think you may be able to help, please click the following link to complete screening questions: 

If you would like more information, contact the researcher Anna Robson at anna.robson@education.gov.uk

Early Words Together

Early Words Together by National Literacy Trust is a DfE approved programme that aims to support the communication, language, and early literacy of young children aged 3-4 through evidence-based activities which lead to improvements in their home learning environments. The programme is delivered to small groups of families over 6 weeks, led by practitioners and volunteers. It empowers parents to develop and enrich the home learning environment and support their child's early language and literacy.

Programme Aims

  • Support communication, language, and early literacy of children aged 3–4 through evidence-based activities.
  • Improve confidence and understanding of children’s language development.
  • Support sustained positive changes to the home learning environment (HLE).
  • Foster partnerships between practitioners and families, and across local systems.
  • Close the language gap among children of different socio-economic classes.

Programme Objectives

  • Close the language gap among children of different socio-economic statuses.
  • Improve HLE as parents feel empowered as their child’s first educator.
  • Foster educator-parent partnerships.
  • Build practitioner networks using evidence-based strategies.
  • Raise community expectations for children’s communication, language, and literacy (CLL) development.

Programme Content

  • One-day practitioner training by the National Literacy Trust.
  • Toolkits with six detailed session plans.
  • Project management support including training, implementation, QA, and network facilitation.
  • Volunteer training for peer support.
  • Pre- and post-surveys for evaluation (provided by the Trust).

Benefits

  • Parental Engagement: Improved communication and mutual understanding between parents and practitioners.
  • Parental Awareness: Parents learn the importance of play and conversation.
  • Home Learning: Parents gain ideas and confidence to support learning at home.
  • Child Development: Improved school readiness and classroom outcomes.

This training is FREE and suitable for all 番茄社区 Early Years Providers, EEE Funding Registered Day Nurseries, Nursery Schools and School Nursery Classes, Childminders, Family Hubs and Children’s Centre settings.

Please complete the expression of interest form below to apply for a place on the Early Words Together programme by National Literacy Trust. Please note that spaces are limited, with capacity for only 30 settings to participate in 番茄社区. The programme is funded by the DfE's Family Hubs initiative and all resources for families will be provided at no extra cost. To take part, your setting must have adequate space for families and children to work together. The programme is expected to begin in Autumn term 2 and continue through Spring term 2026. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please feel free to share the .

Early Education Entitlement

Autumn Estimates Submission

The EEE Portal is now open for you (PVI providers) to submit your estimates for the Autumn term. The portal will be continuously open until midnight Sunday 13th July, however technical support will only be available during normal office hours Monday – Friday. For advice and support please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk stating your setting name and ID.

The estimate claim is so that you can tell us how many children you think you will have for Autumn Term (September – December) so that your 80% interim payment can be calculated for group care or your monthly payments for Childminders. Please only count confirmed children otherwise you may be overpaid and would need to repay us the money. Remember to include existing children that are staying with you for Autumn Term as well as new children in your estimate claim.

If parents of 2-year-olds are eligible for both the disadvantaged offer and the working entitlement, they can claim both, 15 hours for each entitlement.

Your named EEE contact will have been sent an email with all the details on and a step by step guide.

Please note: 

  • Group care – if you do not submit an estimate claim now and children start with you in September, we will pay you 100% of the money in December after you have submitted a headcount claim on the EEE portal at headcount date in October.
  • Childminders – if you do not submit an estimate claim now and children start with you in September, this will be reflected in the following monthly payment.

Key Dates Autum 2025

As we start approach a new term, here are some useful facts and key dates for Autumn 2025 term.

Interim payments for PVI nursery settings*:

You will receive your interim 80% payment week ending 5th September 2025.

If you did not submit an interim claim, you will receive 100% at the end of term.

*Childminders receive monthly payments

Headcount day: Thursday 2nd October 2025

  • A 9-month child must have turned 9-months on or before 31st March
  • A 2-year-old for funding must have turned 2 on or before 31st March
  • A 3-year-old for funding must have turned 3 on or before 31st March

Working codes must have been applied for or reconfirmed on or before 31st August in order to be eligible and valid for Autumn term. Any codes applied / reconfirmed on or after 1st September will not be funded.

A child must have started attending with you on or before headcount day in order to be funded for this Autumn term. Please check with your parents that they have not attended elsewhere, to ensure you receive the funding.

End of Term: You will receive your final 20% funding for Autumn term week ending 5th September 2025.

WellComm Data Collection

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.

Thank you to the day nurseries, childminders and preschool playgroups that have shared their WellComm screenings on their EEE portal headcount submission in May. You will not be required to fill out the online WellComm data collection form as we already have your screening data.

If you are a school, maintained nursery school or PVI setting that has not shared your screening results on the EEE portal please complete the summer term WellComm data collection form.

The deadline for the form to be submitted is Thursday 31st August 2025.

To complete the survey, please click .

WellComm data collection sessions

We will be holding 4 online sessions in July to demonstrate how to use the WellComm data spreadsheet, complete the data collection form and prepare for sharing your WellComm screens on the EEE portal from the autumn term. 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.

Early Talk Boost

This training is FREE and funded by 番茄社区 City Council, suitable for 番茄社区 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 two boxes of Early Talk Boost resources.

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

2 NEW DATES:

  • Wednesday 13th August 2025, Edgbaston Family Hub (Doddington Children's Centre), 28 Doddington Grove, B32 4EL
  • Monday 18th August 2025, Erdington Family Hub (Lakeside Children's Centre), 22 Lakes Road, B23 7UH

Fill out a Microsoft form and choose your preferred date  

This entry was posted by Jessica Wykes on 09/07/2025.

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