13 December 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2016

As you will be aware, the DfE issued a revised edition of the statutory guidance for schools and colleges, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2016 (KCSIE) with an implementation date of 5 September. It is essential that Designated Safeguarding Leads, School Leaders, Governing Bodies and proprietors are aware of the expectations for Early Years settings, schools and colleges and are able to demonstrate and evidence that they are fulfilling their statutory obligations. This includes policies being updated to reflect the most recent guidance and published on the school website.

The Education Safeguarding Team has recently published a revised Self Review Tool, which can be found here. The aim of the document is for senior leaders and governors to feel confident in their school’s safeguarding procedures and practice and to ensure all the requirements in Keeping Children Safe in Education 2016 are being met. Key questions are asked in the review tool, with space for supporting evidence to be uploaded and areas of improvement identified.

A few recent Ofsted inspections have raised issues about a school’s non-compliance with the most recent Keeping Children Safe in Education 2016, and about arrangements for ensuring that staff training is up to date on Prevent, child sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation.

For example in one case it was reported, “Governors do not have a strong grasp of their strategic responsibilities and are not compliant with current legislation in important areas of their work. For example, they have not kept their safeguarding policy up to date. “

In another case the section on safeguarding states: “The arrangements for safeguarding are effective but there are areas in need of improvement. Leaders and governors have not ensured that staff are kept fully up to date with information about keeping children safe….and plans are in place for further training.”

We have noticed some inconsistency among Lead Inspectors on this issue, with some taking a more rigorous approach to inspection judgements for leadership and management where there are shortcomings in safeguarding policy and staff training.

Can I ask you to please ensure that the policy on the school website is up to date and that staff training is in hand to ensure compliance with the latest statutory guidance.

For more information please contact Claire.Ray@kent.gov.uk, Principal Officer, Education Safeguarding Team.

Early Years National Funding Formula

Earlier this year, the Government consulted on a new Early Years National Funding Formula and on the 30 November the Department for Education (DfE) published its response to this consultation.

Disappointingly there has been no change to the proposed new Kent funding rate of £4.48 per hour for the free 15 hours of early education and childcare. This is effective from 2017-18 and is a decrease of £0.05 per hour from the current £4.53. This will impact on providers in Kent, as we believe it will make it harder to achieve the 30 hours free entitlement for parents because many providers may not be able to afford to deliver it.

The qualifications supplement, which in the consultation was being removed, is now being retained. This is helpful, especially for nursery class and nursery school providers which tend to have staff that are more qualified.

The final change is in relation to Maintained Nursery school protection, where we see the additional lump sum protection extended until 2019-2020 and the commitment to review maintained nursery school funding beyond this point.

Move to New Funding

No change has been made to the level of pass through funding to Early Years providers. In 2017-2018 local authorities will have to pass through 93% of Early Years funding to providers and in 2018-2019 this will be increased further to 95%. The remaining funding is to cover the costs of the central Early Years Service.

Support for Children with SEN

As proposed in the consultation there will be a new Disability Access Fund (DAF) and eligible children who meet the DAF criteria will receive £615 per annum.

In addition, all local authorities will be required to have an SEN inclusion fund. In Kent we feel that we already fulfil this requirement with SCARF funding.

Funding for Two Year Olds

There has been no change to two year old funding from the proposal in the consultation that sees a universal increase in funding of 7.1%. Kent will see its rate increase from £4.93 to £5.28 per hour.

All of these changes need to be implemented by the 1 April 2017, which is a challenging timetable. Data will be collected between 9 January and 3 February to inform the new funding formula. Letters will be sent out in March to providers to confirm the funding.

For more information please contact Simon.Pleace@kent.gov.uk, Finance Business Partner, Education and Young People’s Services.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services