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EARLY YEARS EXPANSION NEWSLETTER (1) – 10th January 2019
Moving forward with plans for delivering 1140 funded hours across Highland by 2020 it is important that we update staff on proposed plans and share information as regularly as possible. With this in mind it is proposed to send out a monthly newsletter updating on work of the project team. To put the expansion plans into context this initial newsletter will be a bit more detailed than future publications and it is hoped that it will keep everyone with an interest in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Expansion plans in Highland updated and well informed;
2018 was a busy year for the ELC Expansion Team, we had to resubmit our financial template to the Scottish Government back in March and this had implications for our initial plans to phase in additional funded hours. It meant a shift from the originally intended incremental increase to 760 hours eventually delivering 1140 hours across all of Highland in August 2020, to identifying and working with staff teams across seven sites to deliver 1140 hours by August 2018. Timescales for this were tight as we only received final confirmation of our government funding in April. Each identified site was established as a project team working hard in the final school term to be ready to deliver in August 2018. Initially uptake on hours was low in some settings but ongoing conversations with families have seen the demand increase significantly and by Christmas all settings had at least a 60% uptake of the full 1140 hours.
ELC Expansion Workshops- In line with the budgetary directive the workshops scheduled for the autumn term were cancelled to reduce travel wherever possible. We had initially planned to share information on expansion plans via a webcast early in January but felt that regular monthly newsletters were a more appropriate platform and this initial newsletter outlines our proposed plans to share information over the coming months. We will be updating the Early Years Expansion page on the Council website, setting up generic email addresses for any queries or questions (that will be managed collectively by the Area Early Years teams), developing our use of social media platforms and collating Expansion information to be available on Glow all of which will assist the project team in ensuring that information is shared with you in a timeous manner.
It is our intention to deliver further workshops using the Webcast platform. To get a consistent message on Expansion plans our plan is to set up a webcast in Inverness with meetings linking in across other areas in Highland. This will ensure the message is consistent and allow staff to meet up at a local level which from feedback from previous workshops we know is important to allow sharing of good practice and information sharing. Feedback from you around your thoughts on this approach would be welcome or if you feel regular newsletters will be sufficient. A date will be set up around Easter to deliver our first Webcast.
Early Years Expansion staffing update: We have now appointed three ELC Commissioner’s (Angela Bain in the North, Hayley Cameron in Mid and Hayley Brown in the South) and we will be re-advertising for the post in the west. These posts are the fundamental link at an operational level to ensure we are moving forward with expansion plans to ensure every child in Highland is able to access their statutory entitlement. They are also crucial in the future commissioning of services in order to meet the requirements of the new ELC National Standard
We have appointed Nicola Fraser as Project Co-ordinator to assist area staff with dining and catering plans for the project. Food is a nationally recognised huge impacting factor on expansion planning. Nicola will have a Highland wide remit and will work closely with the catering officers and ELC Commissioners to prioritise creative solutions to manage the dining component of delivering 1140 hours.
We now have seven Scottish Government funded Additional Graduates in post across our six identified sites and they have been meeting regularly to develop this exciting new role. These posts are intended to support children in the most deprived areas in order to reduce the poverty related attainment gap and the outcomes for children around these posts will be closely monitored by the government.
We are also working with our colleagues in Learning and Development to ensure we have sufficiently trained staff to support additional Modern Apprentices as we begin to expand the ELC workforce in readiness for delivering 1140 hours. Moving forward we plan to strengthen the quality team to continue to deliver High Quality ELC provision as factored into our initial Delivery Plan.
Proposed 1140 sites from August 2019: Over the past few months we have been working with Area Care and Learning Managers to ascertain sites that will be ready to deliver 1140 hours from August 2019 as a phased approach to delivery. Conversations are currently ongoing with managers and head teachers of identified sites and we hope to produce a detailed list of the sites by early February and with this in mind we have asked that Nursery Enrolment is set for week beginning 25th February.
To support staff in the identified sites we are currently developing a ‘How to Guide- A guide for settings moving to delivering 1140 hours. We are also pulling together good practice and lessons learned from the sites now delivering 1140 hours and this information will be available prior to Enrolment week.
Outdoor Provision: Highland has been identified as one of 8 Local Authorities to work with Inspiring Scotland who are a charitable organisation funded by the Scottish Government to drive social change. They have lots of experience of developing creative approaches to outdoor ELC provision and will be supporting us in here in Highland to develop innovative approaches apt for Highland with so much open space available on our doorstep. We will shortly be sending out a Survey Monkey Questionnaire around current staff experience of working and training in the outdoors and look forward to your responses which will assist us in developing training in this area.
Governance of the Project: The ELC Programme Board continues to meet on a fortnightly basis and is the forum for decision making within the project. It is informed by monthly meetings of the four area boards and regular meetings of the multiagency ELC Partnership Group. The Care Learning and Housing Committee will be regularly updated on expansion plans.
As you can see the work of the team is extensive and through regular monthly newsletters, future Expansion Workshops arranged using Webcast and contact via local early year’s staff we endeavour to keep you updated on plans and developments of the Expansion Programme as we move towards full delivery by August 2020.
We will shortly be setting up generic email addresses for each area and if you have any questions or comments on Expansion please contact us as follows:
Jennifer Campbell, Project Manager Early Years Expansion