2 Year Old Early Years Education As from September 2013 Hampshire families with 2 Year Olds are now able to self refer in order to access the Government’s free Early Years Education (EYE) entitlement. Families still need to meet the benefits criteria in order to be eligible, based on the requirements of Free School Meals (FSM). The Department of Education (DfE) has been working in partnership with Local Authorities to promote the statutory entitlement by providing contact details of Hampshire parents whose children are likely to be eligible for the 2 Year Old scheme. This represents approximately a third of those families we believe to be eligible for EYE funding from September 2013. We therefore continue to rely on our partners to refer appropriate families to the scheme in order to maximize take up and give some of our children from the most vulnerable families a stable start to education. Families will also continue to be offered support services through their local

children’s centre. For further details and request forms for referrals visit: www.hants.gov.uk/eye-eysff/2yo-offer

Parent Champions Since September 2012 until March 2013 Services for Young Children have been piloting schemes in the Havant and Fareham children’s centres cluster areas for volunteer ‘Parent Champions’. These local residents have been identified by the children’s centres and inducted as volunteers with the organisations before preparing to become Parent Champions. Their role is to make contact with other local families to find out what services they may need to access and help with signposting to appropriate organisations and agencies. The original Parent Champions

scheme was introduced by the national childcare charity, Family and Childcare Trust (formerly Daycare Trust), which concentrated particularly on supporting families with accessing childcare information and linking them with their Family Information Service. The Hampshire schemes also include information regarding early years education, home learning environment, children’s centres family support services, pathways to employment (adult learning, Job Centre Plus, etc) and volunteering. Lessons have been learnt from the pilots and induction sessions have just taking place for the next cohort of Parent Champions volunteers for the Havant (Action for Children) and Fareham (4Children) schemes.

Childcare and Family Information Team (Cfit) newsletter

For information and regular updates visit: www.hants.gov.uk/childcare

Issue 22 (July - Sept 2013)

The next edition of the Cfit newsletter will be published in October. If you no longer wish to receive this publication please email childcare@hants.gov.uk to remove your details from the Cfit contacts database.

Parent Champions (continued) Work has also started to roll out further schemes across the County with preparations being made in the areas of Hart, Eastleigh, Test Valley and Basingstoke. If you have parents or staff who can offer freely 5 hours a week (or more) to chat to families then please direct them to their local children’s centre. As a volunteer associated expenses are paid and they will be supported through their own personal development. For further details: www.daycaretrust.org.uk/pages/parent-champions.html

Cfit New Team Member The Childcare and Family Information Team are pleased to welcome Samantha Cornish, outreach worker for Fareham, Gosport, Havant and East Hampshire. Samantha comes with a wealth of information, advice and guidance experience. One of her duties to start with is to support families in accessing 2 year old early years education placements. Samantha can be contacted on 07515084138 or email samantha.cornish@hants.gov.uk.

Childcare and Family Information Team (Cfit) Newsletter

Cfit Stakeholders Annual Satisfaction Survey Thank you to everyone who completed our annual stakeholders’ satisfaction survey. It is very valuable to the service to receive feedback and your comments will continue to be used in order to develop our service delivery. To view results from the survey visit: http://documents.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/25-04-2013HQSurveyCFITAnnualStakeholders2012.pdf

Useful Resources The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has produced a toolkit for agencies to access in order to support clients with Universal Credit. The aim of Universal Credit is to introduce greater fairness to the welfare system by making work pay. It replaces a range of existing benefits with a single monthly payment and smoothes the transition into work by combining in work and out of work benefits. Universal Credit will be progressively rolled out nationally from October 2013. The toolkit and further details are available from https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit-toolkit-for-partner-organisations

The summer edition of the Hampshire Special Educational Needs and Disability Pathfinder News provides updates on the work being carried out for the Local Offer, Education, Health and Care Plans and Personal Budgets. Visit www.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/specialneeds/se7sendpathfinder.htm

Early Support is a way of working, underpinned by 10 principles that aim to improve the delivery of services for disabled children, young people and their families. It enables services to co-ordinate their activity better and provide families with a single point of contact and continuity through key working. For further details visit http://ncb.org.uk/early-support

For more information, please contact the Childcare and Family Information Team (Cfit) on 0845 603 5620 or email childcare@hants.gov.uk. To find childcare and family related services visit the Hampshire Family Information Directory at www.fid.hants.gov.uk.

For the latest news, views and helpful information visit the Childcare and Family Information Team blog! http://sfyccfit.wordpress.com/