• Bring it on Brum! Summer Holiday Clubs
• Immunisations
• Early Education Entitlement - 30 Hours Information Sessions
• The New Early Education Entitlement Offer
• Ofsted/CQC SEND Area Inspection Self-Evaluation
• Early Help - Payment by Family Outcomes
• Fostering Information Evening
• Services for Education - Available Courses

Bring it on Brum! Summer Holiday Clubs

Bring it on Brum! is running FREE activity clubs in Birmingham for those children and young people aged 4-16 who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. Throughout the summer school holidays, each club runs for up to 4 weeks and each child is eligible to attend a maximum of 16 sessions.

Activities include sports and games, arts and crafts, cookery, dance and music. Programmes will vary depending on the type of provision and location of each club, but every day young people will get a nutritious meal served up for free!

Bookings for summer holiday clubs will open from Monday, 3 July 2023 at: www.bringitonbrum.co.uk.

The website will be updated regularly as new providers are confirmed so if families cannot find a suitable holiday club straight away, they should check back regularly.

Can’t attend a face-to-face holiday club? For families with children who are not able to access face-to-face holiday clubs, activity packs are also available for the summer school holiday. Packs are available one per eligible child for primary or secondary age.

Families can register for a free summer activity pack from Monday, 26 June 2023; registrations close on Wednesday, 12 July 2023 or as soon as all activity packs have been allocated. More information on the activity packs and how to register can be found at: Bring it on Brum Activity Packs

Booked but can’t attend? During some of the earlier programmes, we experienced a number of non-attendees. We would encourage parents who book activities for their children and can no longer attend, to kindly contact the provider and cancel the booking so the space can be given to another child.

For queries or further information, please contact Birminghamholidayactivities@streetgames.org

Immunisations

It’s important to ensure that children are up to date with both doses of the MMR vaccine, as a safe and effective way to protect against measles, as well as mumps and rubella. Primary and secondary schools can support by using these free to order ⁠posters and postcards to remind parents and carers to check that their child is up to date with their vaccinations.

Early Education Entitlement - 30 Hours Information Sessions

Do you offer the Extended Entitlement (30 hours) for your 3 and 4 year olds? Do you want to know more about how to manage your 30 hour applications for your parents? Are you responsible for census or parent enquiries? Are you a new member of staff and want to know more?

The Early Years team is running two Information Sessions explaining how parents can apply, how they manage their 30 hour codes and what providers should be doing in order to receive funding for them.

Sessions will last approximately 45 minutes and are taking place during the Summer term, to help providers prepare for Autumn term. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and signposting to links to help providers support parents to find information.

• Monday, 3 July 2023 – 15:00-16:00
• Thursday, 13 July 2023 – 09:30-10:30am

Simply complete the online form to secure your place, and you’ll receive an invite to the session via Microsoft Teams: Early Education Entitlement - 30 Hours Information Sessions

For any queries or further information, please contact the team at earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

The New Early Education Entitlement Offer - What does it mean for you?

As part of the Spring Budget 2023 the government announced a significant expansion to funded childcare phased in from April 2024:

• 15 hours rising to 30 hours funded places for eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to 2 years old
• Incentives to encourage the registration of new childminders
• Changes to the funding of childcare costs for eligible working parents in receipt of Universal Credit
• Proposals regarding wraparound childcare delivered in primary schools

The expansion is significant for parents but also has implications for childcare providers and the Local Authority. To this end, we are holding a series of information sharing sessions for providers to:

• Share information/intelligence
• Provide an opportunity for providers to share their initial thoughts with other providers and the Local Authority – steered by a number of questions
• Assist the Local Authority and providers shape delivery of the expanded offer moving forward.

The sessions will be held via Microsoft Teams, and will be for up to 1.5 hours, with a maximum of 50 delegates per session. To book your place simply click on the relevant link below: 

• Wednesday 5th July - 3-00pm
• Wednesday 5th July - 6-00pm
• Thursday 6th July - 11-00am
• Thursday 6th July -  3-00pm
• Monday 10th July - 6-00pm
• Wednesday 12th July - 1-00pm
• Thursday 13th July – 11-00 am

It’s important that we understand your thoughts regarding the expanded offer, so please do prioritise attending one of these sessions. It will also provide an opportunity to share information with other colleagues in the sector.

For further information, or any queries please contact earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk. We very much look forward to seeing you!

Ofsted/CQC SEND Area Inspection Self-Evaluation

Ofsted/CQC have begun a new cycle of SEND Area Inspections and, in preparation for inspection, we need to develop a self-evaluation report across all the of the partnership areas in Birmingham. You can find the new Ofsted/CQC Framework here: Area SEND inspections: framework and handbook

The focus of the inspection is very much on experiences and outcomes for children, young people and their families. Consequently our self-evaluation will need to reflect that emphasis. The focus has to be on impact – what difference are we making to the outcomes and experiences of CYP  and their families. Your views on this will be invaluable. A significant part of the self-assessment is  evaluating education arrangements for C&YP  with SEND  in Birmingham. The completed report must address the questions below:

1. What do we know about the impact of our arrangements for children and young people with SEND? What is working /what needs to be improved? The focus needs to be on the impact it has on outcomes and experiences of CYP with SEND
2. How do we know what impact our arrangements for children and young people with SEND are having? What is the supporting evidence? This includes quantitative and qualitative data, but might also include quality /monitoring arrangements – we are interested in what these are telling us about impact. It might be that you don’t currently have evidence. This doesn’t invalidate your judgment but we may need to consider how we get it as part of our improvement plan.
3.  What are our plans for the next 12 months to improve the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND? What should the priorities for development be, what would have the most impact?

A Task & Finish Group is  overseeing this work and we will want all settings and services to  contribute to the wider report.

It is likely that the main part of the self-evaluation will take place in the Autumn term, but we will be providing  more information about how we want schools to contribute in the next few weeks.

As well as supporting the drafting of the self-evaluation report, the process will also be used to identify those areas that are priorities for development, and schools’ first-hand knowledge and experience in highlighting these will be invaluable. 

If you have any questions about the area self-evaluation please contact Kevin O’Brien at kevin.obrien@birmingham.gov.uk

Early Help: Payment by Family Outcomes

Birmingham Children’s Trust and Birmingham Education Partnership are re-launching the programme of incentives for educational settings to evidence successful early help work with children and families. This will involve a payment of £250 to the school for each family case that meets the criteria:

• Family must have been worked with in the last 2 years from September 2021.
• Families must present 3 out of the 10 needs in the Think Family Outcomes Framework
• All needs, including emerging needs must have been resolved.
• Need to be supported by a whole family assessment, plan and closure form that are submitted via the ECINS Case Management Module (CMM) N.B this is not the ECINS module for Operation Encompass.

The full details of the programme are available on Birmingham Education Hub here: https://birmingham.eduhub.org.uk/content.asp?id=347

Details about how to sign up for ECINS CMM which is available to all educational settings at no cost are in the presentation here: https://birmingham.eduhub.org.uk/content.asp?id=168. This software and the training to support it is funded fully by Birmingham Children's Trust.

Support with ECINs sign up and how to navigate the system will be provided by the ECINSSupportTeam@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

For support from the Think Family data Team in identifying outcomes and understanding the Outcomes Framework please contact the Data Team:  tfdata@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

Fostering Information Evening

Thursday, 13 July 2023: 18:00-19:30 – Signing Tree Venue, 100 Ladywood Road, Birmingham B16 8SZ

This friendly and informative event will cover:

• What is fostering?
• Reasons children come into care
• The different types of foster care
• Practical requirements to become a foster carer
• The process to become a foster carer
• Foster carer’s experience talk
• The support you can expect
• Next steps… start your fostering journey!

If you believe you could offer a child or young person a loving home we'd love to hear from you and are currently fast-tracking applicants. Book your place today to learn all about Birmingham’s Biggest Family –  www.fosterbirmingham.co.uk/fostering-events

For queries or further information please contact Fostering@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

Services for Education – Available Courses

Safeguarding and Child Protection for Headteachers and Nominated Governors

Thursday, 6 July 2023: 09.00-16.00

This full-day course will equip Head Teachers/ Principles (who are not DSLs) and Governors with the information, knowledge and understanding to undertake their responsibilities in respect of safeguarding, including supporting staff members acting in the DSL/DDSL role and dealing with allegations against staff. Bookings can be made here: Safeguarding

Teacher Training Information Event

Tuesday, 11 July 2023: 14.00-15.00

Whether you are a graduate, almost-graduate or fancy a change of career, join Services for Education  for their Free online SCITT information session, where you will have the opportunity to meet some past trainees, speak to experienced staff and find out what the course entails. Bookings can be made here: SCITT

Update for Existing DSLs on Safeguarding and Child Protection

Wednesday, 12 July 2023: 09.00-12.15

This centre based course is for existing Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) and Deputy DSLs who have previously attended the two-day DSL training course. It will focus on best practice, current issues of concern and the leadership and management aspects of safeguarding. It ensures that existing DSLs and DDSLs meet their statutory obligation to have training updated regularly. Bookings can be made here: Safeguarding update.