Early Years Quality Improvement Team's Weekly Bulletin

Keep in touch

Email: earlyyearscentre@lancashire.gov.uk

Telephone: 01772 539058

Web site: Early years support and training - Lancashire County Council

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LancsEarlyYears/ and http://www.facebook.com/groups/lancsearlyyears/

Advertise your job vacancies for free: Recruiting and managing staff - Lancashire County Council

Are you a new manager at your nursery setting?

Congratulations on your new role!  Please let us know by completing this quick form: New PVI Nursery Manager

This will ensure that the member of the team supporting your setting knows who you are and can support you.

Your sector representatives

Please contact your PVI representatives on the Early Years Consultative

Group, Rafael Schiel rafael@giantleapchildcare.co.uk or Sharon Fenton sharon@risingstarslancaster.co.uk if you have any comments or questions that you would like them to take forward to the County Council on your behalf.

Something to do this week ... Review your knowledge of the role of Children's Safeguarding Assurance Partnership (CSAP)

Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership -

CSAP works in partnership to ensure that the multi agency safeguarding arrangements in Lancashire:

• Champion the rights of children and young people to be safe, healthy and achieve their full potential, focusing on multi-agency prevention, early help and intervention to keep families together.

• Make a positive difference to the lives and wellbeing of children and their families to be proactively safeguarded from harm, abuse and

neglect.

• Actively listens and responds to the voices of children, young people and their families and the workforce who support them.

• Hold ourselves and each other to account for our combined responsibility, providing high challenge and high support.

• Embed a learning culture to implement system improvements, enhances practices.

By working together in our communities, CSAP ensures that there is a range of flexible, localised services which are responsive to children, young people and families’ needs and provide the right level of intervention, at the right time, by the right person. This approach will help to build purposeful relationships which help develop effective interventions and support for children, young people and their families at an earlier stage. 

The CSAP dedicated Reporting a concern page is available from the Main Menu above and provides a range of options for reporting any concerns about a child according to locality. In order to use this, you will need to make an account on the system. It is good practice to set this up now so that if you need to make a referral through the system, you already have the log in details available to you.

The CSAP website provides resources and tools such as Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership - 7 Minute Briefings which are a useful tool for staff meetings or refreshers for childminders. They cover a broad range of subjects, which are on an easy to view single page for easy printing.

The Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership - Toolkits available on the website give more in-depth information around subjects such as domestic abuse, early help or bruising in babies and children. These can be used for a deeper focus on safeguarding.

On the CSAP website you will find the document working-well-with-children and-families-pt-1-2-v6.pdf which is a guide for everyone who works with children and their families in Lancashire. It gives an overview of the levels of need that children and families might experience through their lives and broadly who should respond to these needs and how.

Best start in life

Best Start in Life Collect and share the latest card for practitioners working with 2 year olds.

The topic this week is 'environmental sounds' (card 20) and 'EAL' (card 21). The cards are attached for you to use in your setting and share with parents.

Watch this short video to find out more about our Best Start in Life Campaign and how your setting can get involved.

Help improve the provider entitlements process

DfE are conducting research to gather feedback on early years professionals experiences of delivering the following entitlements:

• the working parent (9 month - 4 years)

• universal 15 hours (3 - 4-year-olds)

• the early learning for 2-year-olds entitlement

They would like to hear about your experiences and needs for delivering entitlements to understand how to improve the experience in the future. They are looking to speak to early years professionals, particularly childminders, involved in the process of childcare entitlements, those who process finances relating to these entitlements and support parents with understanding entitlements.

We would love to show you our potential ideas for how to improve the entitlements process to get your thoughts and feedback in a 60-minute session:

• When: June and July 2026

• Format: Online session, or potential options for in-person or a phone call

• Incentive: £40 Sessions will include a one-off discussion with a researcher, where you will be shown prototypes and ideas for potential future entitlements processes. We will also ask you to share what your current experience is like. Your insights will play a key role in improving the experience of delivering entitlements across the country.

• Sign up here: Help improve the experience of delivering entitlements - Invitation for research, June 2026 – Fill in form

• Questions? Contact us at gabrielle.mitchem-evans@education.gov.uk Feel free to share with colleagues or staff who may be interested.

Funded places for the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership

From November 2026, DfE is funding places for the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) for eligible participants who secure a funded place with an NPQ provider. The NPQEYL is a programme for new and aspiring early years leaders who want to develop their leadership expertise and potential. It is available to managers of PVIs, childminders with leadership responsibilities, headteachers/leaders of school-based and maintained nurseries, alongside other early years foundation stage leaders. Registrations open on, and you can apply on 23 June gov.uk.

Funded places are limited, so early application is strongly encouraged.

Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership Newsletter June 2026

June 2026- Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership Newsletter

Lancashire Safeguarding is a multi-agency partnership established to ensure safeguarding measures are met, vulnerable children and adults across Lancashire are protected from harm & abuse and lessons are learned from case reviews and improvements identified and implemented. In this months newsletter, you'll find:

• Various training opportunities including FREE Mental Health & Prevent training

• Water Safety messages

• Safer Sleep in hot weather

• Stats & data on child deaths due to abuse and neglect

Starting reception resources

A new resource has been shared to support families with the transition to school from Starting Reception. It has seven activity ideas and might be useful to share with pre-school families in the weeks leading up to the children starting in the Reception year. There is also a reward chart to support any settings using the Potty Training Guide. (Sent with the original bulletin email)

Ofsted - your questions answered

Video: Ofsted's early years team answers your questions via Facebook Live |

June 2026 Ofsted hosted a Facebook ‘Live’ event where the early years team answered questions submitted by the audience. Topics covered included: sleep-related queries, inspection timelines and Ofsted grades. A recording of this session is available on YouTube on the link above. 

Asbestos contaminated product - HSE joint statement

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have shared a Joint Statement regarding potential asbestos contamination in sand containing consumer products and product recalls. This statement outlines the risks relating to asbestos exposure, and the zero tolerance approach to asbestos in consumer products taken in the UK. Any products that have been found to contain asbestos are subject to a recall. To date, no asbestos has been identified in supplies of playpit sand, but several products with play sand, such as arts and crafts products, are affected. Although the risks to health are expected to be low, we recommend that settings review this and the OPSS guidance regarding asbestos in consumer products, including how to dispose of recalled products.

Early years teacher degree apprenticeships

For the first time ever, those without a degree can gain Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) through the new Early Years Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (EYTDA), launching in September. The EYTDA is a 3-year course for those with a level 3 qualification, allowing you to earn as you learn, and upon successful completion you’ll be awarded a Level 6 degree and EYTS. For those who hold a level 5 Early Years Lead Practitioner qualification, you can step onto the programme in the second year.

For academic year 26-27 we’re also giving employers a grant worth over £8000 for each EYTDA apprentice in their setting to help support with employing an apprentice. If you’re interested in enrolling onto the EYTDA, please contact an approved training provider.

You can find more information in our Employer guidance, and our Employer Support Grant guidance.

Have your say on early years teaching reform

The Department for Education is launching a consultation on Shaping the Future of Early Years Teaching to reform how early years  teachers are trained and supported, with the aim of strengthening training quality, improving career pathways, and raising the status of early years teaching across all settings.

The consultation covers:

• a shared core body of early years knowledge

• future training routes and career pathways

• potential routes to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

• support through induction and mentoring

Opens: 18 June 2026

Closes: 24 September 2026

Please review the consultation document and submit your response via Citizen Space. Your insight will help shape the future of early years teaching.

The new Lancashire PEP

In September 2026, the Lancashire Virtual School are moving to a new PEP and PEP system to better meet the needs of our children looked-after, making support clearer, stronger and more joined-up. There are two training courses to attend in the Autumn which all staff involved in completing PEPs/some elements of PEPs should attend:

Click here to be taken to the dates and booking links.

Writing effective PEPs: Turning Insight into Impact - Click here to be taken to the date and booking information.