Dear Colleagues,
Updates from the Team
Disability Access Fund 25-26
Do you know enough about DAF?
There is still just over £160,000 in our budget, with only 1 term left of the financial year. We are desperate to send this out to providers with children who receive DLA. PLEASE CHECK IF YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON VITAL FUNDING TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILDREN! Click here for guidance on how to apply.
Supporting Physical Development- training now available!
Self-led PD training is now available on the Learning Library via the School Readiness Passport – see attached flyer.
This session will support practitioners working with children aged birth to 5 to develop their skills in supporting children’s physical development skills. The training and supplementary resources will help practitioners when reviewing their current curriculum to make sure they are meeting the requirement of the physical development area of learning within the EYFS Framework.
Log in to you Passport account to access now!
Publishing Your Fee Policy – Are You Ready?
Childcare providers must publish their fee policies online by January 2026, including the costs of chargeable extras and the structure of funded hours. These additional charges must be voluntary, optional, and not a requirement to access funded hours. Invoices must be itemized to clearly show free entitlement hours versus any top-up or consumable fees. DfE suggested template attached and further useful information here.
To ensure compliance you will need to provide a link to your settings published fee policy, when answering spring term census questions. This may be your own webpage or your listing within the Family Services Directory. We are experiencing problems at the moment with the site. We will let you know when the system is fixed to enable you to update your records.
Instructions on how to register/update your FSD records here. If you need any support, please contact earlyyearsteam@northumberland.gov.uk
Updates from Partners
New Government-Backed Potty Training Guidance
Early years professionals have come together to create a government-backed potty training guide for parents. Click here to view. You may wish to share this link, or download the pdf, to share with parents who have children about to potty train. You might also find this page for providers useful.
