News
Expired First Aid Certificates can be extended until 30th September 2020
The Health & Safety Executive have stated that if you hold a first aid certificate that expires on or after 16 March 2020 and cannot access requalification training because of coronavirus you may qualify for an extension until 30th September 2020. To qualify for the extension, you must be able to explain why you haven’t been able to requalify and demonstrate what steps you have taken to access first aid training, if asked to do so. … read more
Early Years Funding Update
Funding for the Summer term Local Authorities have received funding for the current half term as usual from the Department for Education (DfE) but they are spending it in different ways. … read more
Financial Support for Childminders
Charging parents while not working If you have a voluntary arrangement with parents that they will continue to support you financially while you are closed, either due to shielding or as a consequence of the ‘test and trace’ system, this may continue. However, any agreement must be voluntary because you cannot require a charge if you are not offering a service and the CMA are actively pursuing providers who have wrongly charged parents while not offering a service. You should ensure your policies and contracts reflect this – you will find more information and guidance on writing your contracts and policies here. … read more
British childcare industry bounces back as demand doubles
Slowly but surely, we are now moving out of lockdown, and after a couple of hard months for many parents and providers, our internal data indicates the childcare industry is bouncing back. … read more
More than half of parents have seen their children’s behaviour deteriorate during lockdown
With schools not opening fully until September at the earliest and the majority of pupils already having spent more than three months at home, we decided to survey members of our Facebook page to find out if their child(ren)’s behaviour had changed during lockdown. … read more
The Revised EYFS 2020
The DfE have responded to their consultation on the changes to the EYFS educational programmes and early learning goals (ELGs) and have issued a new early adopter version of the EYFS. … read more
Updated DfE Coronavirus Guidance
The DfE have updated their early years guidance. … read more
The most educational kids programmes revealed
TV can be our best friend, it can help keep kids occupied, calm them down, entertain them and it can educate them. However, in today’s world with more ways of watching screens than ever before, it is understandable that some parents may be concerned that their children are consuming too much television. … read more
An update from Ofsted for our members
As the UK's largest childcare platform with over 2 million members, we are pleased to be able to share this exclusive update from Ofsted about registration and inspection visits … read more
Findings of CMA investigation into the Early Years sector published
During lockdown, we reported that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) were investigating reports of businesses failing to respect cancellation rights and this included early years providers and nurseries … read more
