Early Years and Childcare Update - 01 May 2025

Welcome to this week's Early Years and Childcare update!

This week's update includes information on:

Please feel free to share this update with anyone you think would benefit from accessing this content. 

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact familyinformation@birmingham.gov.uk

Nominate a Provider Portal User

As you may already be aware, the Early Years and Childcare Team has launched a new Information Portal for providers called the Nexus Provider Portal. 

Many providers have already nominated a Nexus Provider Portal user. If you haven’t already done so, please do this today using our . You can have accounts for up to four people within your organisation. 

The introduction of this portal will enable us to:

  • strengthen the information that we collect from you to support our sufficiency data
  • improve the information that we can provide to parents and third parties when they are looking for childcare options
  • contact you more efficiently.  

Please note: Completing this form does not immediately create your account. After we verify the nominated user form, we will send you a link to create your Provider Portal account.

If you have any queries about the Nexus Provider Portal, please contact FamilyInformation@birmingham.gov.uk

Child Safety Week

Child Safety Week runs from Monday 2 to Sunday 8 June, with the theme Safety is for sharing.

Resources can be found at:

Announcement: Department for Education to Develop Free Early Years Safeguarding Online Training

The Department for Education have announced that they will be developing an onling safeguarding training package for early years providers.

This training which will cover the safeguarding training annex set to be introduced in September 2025 will be free for all early years educators to access.

We expect this training to be available Spring 2026, and we will provide further details, including how the training will be accessed closer to launch.

For more information on the upcoming changes to the EYFS, please see the

Free Holiday Clubs Available for Families in Birmingham!

Did you know that as well as free school meals during term time, children and young people can also benefit from Department for Education-funded spaces at holiday clubs in your local area?

Thanks to the Holiday Activity and Food Programme, known in Birmingham as ‘Bring in on Brum!’, children and young people can experience holiday clubs filled with fun, learning and healthy meals at no additional cost to their families!

If a child is aged between 4-16-years-old* and is eligible to receive benefits-related free school meals, they’re entitled to access Bring it on Brum! holiday clubs for free.

With a wide range of activities such as sports, arts and crafts, cooking, dance, music and more, there’s something for everyone! Plus, every session includes a nutritious meal to keep them energised and happy throughout the day.

Each club offers a unique programme depending on its location and type—there’s so much to explore

Please visit for more information.

Early Education Entitlements 

EEE Notification Form Summer 2025 Term

As per the EEE terms and conditions of funding you are required to notify us when a child stops attending and / or leaves your setting. The only time you don’t need to notify us is when they leave at their usual transition point to take up their reception class place.

The terms and conditions of funding state:

  1. The maximum absence of a child from a provision when claiming EEE funding is four consecutive weeks. Providers must follow their Safeguarding procedures when a funded child does not arrive for a booked session. In addition, providers must follow the agreed process for reporting absent and missing children aged 0-5 to the Local Authority as detailed in Section 2.94 and Appendix 2.
  2. Providers must notify the Early Years Team promptly when a child permanently leaves or is absent for four or more weeks.

Please ensure that if a child leaves or stops attending that you follow your safeguarding procedures and that you complete the Early Education notification form – which can be found on Birmingham City Council’s Document Website – » EEE Notification Form.

Headcount Information

Headcount day is Thursday 15th May 2025 and this is when the EEE Portal will open for you to submit your headcount claims. All funded children must have started with you on or before headcount date, but you will have from the 15th until 22nd May to submit your claim. 

Summer term is 13 weeks.

To make sure that you can submit your claim as smoothly as possible please make sure you have done the following before headcount opens:

  • The appropriate contact has portal access
  • All children’s details are accurate and ready to enter onto the EEE Portal
  • All overrides are requested the day before portal opens

Please also ensure:

  • All codes for disadvantaged 2-year-olds, working 15 or 30 codes have been checked and are eligible before allowing children to start
  • Existing children’s codes have been reconfirmed before the start of term

If you need to contact us for any support, please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk and remember to include your name, your setting name and your setting ID.

Please ensure that all eligibility override requests are submitted no later than Wednesday 14th May.

Speech, Language, and Communication                                               

Deadline Extension for Spring Term WellComm Data Collection

For the attention of EEE providers.

Thank you to the settings that have returned the Spring Term WellComm Data Collection Form. We appreciate that the end of term is a busy time; therefore, we have extended the deadline for submission to 4th May 2025.

WellComm Data Spreadsheet

The WellComm Data Spreadsheet is intended to assist in collating your WellComm screening results. The spreadsheet includes instructions for its use, a page for entering all your children's screening results, and an automated analysis page. This analysis page offers a comprehensive summary of the data required for completing the WellComm Data Collection Form. Using the spreadsheet is optional, as you may have already developed your own. The spreadsheet is for your use only and not to be returned to us, we instead ask that you share your screening data through the online data collection form.  

If you would like support with using WellComm to screen children or with the WellComm data spreadsheet and form, please contact your local DLP team or Early Years Consultant or email eyduty@birmingham.gov.uk

Early Talk Boost

This training is FREE and funded by Birmingham City Council, suitable for Birmingham EEE Funding Registered Day Nurseries, Nursery Schools and School Nursery Classes.

Early Talk Boost is a targeted intervention aimed at 3-4-year-old children who need help with talking and understanding words, helping to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. The programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of 6 months, after a nine-week intervention. 

Children selected to take part in the intervention will attend three sessions per week during circle/story time, each lasting 15-20 minutes delivered by an early year’s practitioner. The sessions activities include the foundation skills in speech, language, and communication that children need for learning and understanding new words, as well as having conversations. The training is delivered face to face and each setting will receive 2 boxes of Early Talk Boost resources.

The sessions take place at 9.30am – 3.00pm with a 20-person capacity:

  • Wednesday 21st May 2025, Wyndcliffe Primary School, Little Green Lane, B9 5BG
  • Thursday 22nd May 2025, Erdington Family Hub (Lakeside Children's Centre), 22 Lakes Road, B23 7UH
  • Friday 6th June 2025, Erdington Family Hub (Lakeside Children's Centre), 22 Lakes Road, B23 7UH
  • Friday 20th June 2025, Perry Barr Family Hub (Rookery Children's Centre), 60 Mount Pleasant Avenue, B21 9QA

Please fill out the  to choose your preferred date and location.

Safeguarding Self-Assessment Audit

For the attention EEE providers (not MNS), childminders, and OOS.

The Safeguarding Self-Assessment Audit submission date has been extended until 30th May 2025 to allow those that have not already completed to do so. Thank you if you have already submitted your response.

Two workshops to support with completion have been arranged and you can register to attend on one of these sessions using the links below:

Alternatively, please contact EY Duty at EYDuty@birmingham.gov.uk

The workshops will run through the on-line assessment and give opportunities to ask any questions.

This entry was posted by Jessica Wykes on 24/04/2025.

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