Early Years Universal CPD Package
Useful documents and tools to support Early Years
The Early Years Universal CPD Package is a suite of comprehensive, evidence-informed professional development resources and programmes designed to support early years practitioners across Kent. Developed in response to sector feedback and local needs analysis, this package offers a wide range of training opportunities aligned with national priorities and local strategic goals. It aims to further enhance the quality of early years provision by equipping educators with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to meet the diverse needs of children and families.
The package is delivered in collaboration with trusted providers including The Education People, Dingley’s Promise, the Specialist Teaching and Learning Service, and Autism Education Trust. It includes a blend of self-paced e-learning, virtual sessions, in-person workshops, and interactive webinars, ensuring flexible access for all settings.
Key Benefits
- Evidence-Based Practice: Training is aligned with local and national frameworks, ensuring high-quality, research-informed content.
- Targeted Support: Focus areas include Communication & Language, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Neurodiversity, Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) and Physical Development—addressing the most pressing needs identified by practitioners.
- Flexible Delivery: A mix of e-learning, virtual, and face-to-face formats aims to allow settings to engage in CPD in ways that suit their operational needs.
- Inclusive and Accessible: The package supports inclusive practice through effective training on SEND, complex needs, and emotional regulation, helping practitioners better support all children.
- Professional Growth: Opportunities for progression are embedded throughout, including further training for SENCOs, leadership in inclusion, and targeted areas.
- Collaborative Learning: Networking opportunities and themed communities of practice foster peer learning, resource sharing, and innovation across the sector.
- Local Relevance: Content is tailored to Kent’s early years landscape, including guidance on local processes such as the SENIF request form, the Local Offer, and the Integrated Review at Two.
Themes within the package is structured around two key tiers:
- Universal Programme: (PDF, 244.6 KB) A core foundation of funded training that practitioners are encouraged to complete with no additional charges. These modules provide essential knowledge and skills aligned with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and reflect effective practice across the Sector. Every universal level programme is accessible and available to all early years providers, including childminders and practitioners are expected to have undertaken the universal programme as good practice.
- Enhanced Offer: (PDF, 296.9 KB) A suite of targeted and advanced CPD opportunities designed to deepen expertise, support specific roles (such as SENCOs or Inclusion Leads), and address more complex or specialist areas of practice. Some of these programmes may incur a subsidised cost.
This tiered approach ensures consistency in foundational knowledge while enabling personalised professional growth and development.
Additional guidance, information and resources
Resource | Format | Details | Provider |
Introduction to the Local Offer for EY Providers
| 1 hour online module | To support registered settings to understand what the term ‘Local Offer’ means, where it comes from and their legal obligations around their responsibility to publish their own Local Offer. This course will support providers to reflect on their current offer for children and families with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and enable them to write a ‘family friendly’ account of that, using the 12 questions template on the Kent Children And Families Information Service (CFIS) website’. | The Education People |
Disability Access Fund All You Need to Know | Webinar | This recorded webinar provides an insight into the Disability Access Fund. The webinar contains the voices of early years providers, how they have used the funding themselves and the impact it has had on the children and families. | The Education People |
Early Years Pupil Premium
| Webinar | Webinar to support understanding on the criteria for Early Years Pupil Premium, the process of applying and ideas around the ways in which the additional funding can be spent. | The Education People |
Kent’s Approach to the Integrated Review at Two | Webinar | Detailed explanations are provided on the process to ensure early years providers are pro-active with implementing it to meet the needs of young children and families in Kent. | The Education People |
Small Steps of Progress Tracker , Support Plans refreshed SENIF request form | Webinar Click on this link for a series of videos | Recorded webinar to introduce and familiarise practitioners on how to complete the new Support Plan, use the new Small Steps of Progress Tracker, and complete the refreshed SENIF request form, which includes improved functionality, and streamlined evidence requirements. | KCC’s Early Year’s SEN Support and Inclusion Team |
SEN Inclusion Funding (SENIF) form | Webinar | A recorded workshop which focuses on the information required when completing the 5 sections of the SENIF Request Form, including the needs of the child and how SENIF will be used to support the child in the setting. | KCC’s Early Year’s SEN Support and Inclusion Team |
Additional services
Children with a Social Worker - Advice for Education Provisions via Virtual School Kent |
All children have the right to an education and regularly attending their school or education setting is vital for their academic progress, wellbeing and wider development. For children with a social worker, it also offers them a protective factor – offering a safe space to access support, ensuring that children are visible to and supported by professionals, and helping them to achieve the very best of outcomes. Access further information and support for this cohort of children, for example the Resilience Hub, SEN Hub, trauma and attachment resources etc. via Virtual School Kent: Advice for Education Provisions | Virtual School Kent |
The Education People Early years & childcare - The Education People |
The Education People's Early Years and Childcare Service provides a comprehensive suite of training, support, and resources designed to help early years practitioners, childminders, and childcare providers deliver high-quality care and education. Key Features Threads of Success: A comprehensive programme offering training, visits and resources, tailored to support professionals at every stage of their development. Training Formats:
Resources: Practical tools and materials to inspire and support workforce development.
Additional Services:
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Kent And Beyond Early Years Stronger Practice Hub (KBEYSPH) Kent and Beyond Early Years Stronger Practice Hub | Stronger Practice Hubs |
The Hub provides support and advice to improve quality in early years settings by sharing good practice and offering evidence-informed professional development for early years educators. Each Early Years Stronger Practice Hub supports other early years settings regionally to improve outcomes for children in their local area across the EYFS, but specifically focusing on areas of development identified as local priorities, including but not exclusive to: personal social and emotional development (PSED); communication and language, and early literacy and maths.
Tales Toolkit – repeat of 5 training sessions learning about the importance of oral storytelling. Maths Champions – the hub will facilitate expressions of interest for this professional development programme Under Two’s physical development - Case study linked to work with Dr Jools Page and Helen Battelley looking at the physical development of children under the age of two. |
The Pod Children's Therapies - The Pod | Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust |
Provided by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHNFT), The Pod has been developed by Children’s Therapies Service, supporting children and young people to develop their skills to their full potential, so they can participate in everyday activities. The service works in partnership with children, their families and any other important people in their life.
The Pod gives access to films, resources and links that can help children achieve their therapy goals. This includes: Care Coordination - This is a service for babies and children who present with an identified developing condition or disability. Neurodivergence -Neurodiversity is the wide variety of ways we think, learn, feel and process information. Occupational Therapy - Supporting children and young people to participate in everyday activities and occupations. Physiotherapy - Supporting children and young people with physical difficulties to reach their full potential. Speech and Language Therapy - Supporting children and young people with communication, eating and swallowing difficulties to reach their full potential. |
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Early Years | EEF |
The EEF provides a comprehensive, evidence‑informed suite of resources to support high‑quality early years practice. Their Early Years work brings together the best available research on effective approaches for children aged 2–5. Their resources include the Early Years Toolkit, Evidence Store, and a range of guidance reports designed to help practitioners improve learning, development and outcomes. Key Features Early Years Toolkit: A clear, accessible summary of research on approaches that improve early learning. It presents evidence on:
Early Years Evidence Store: A practical, illustrated resource showing what evidence‑based practice looks like in real settings.
Practices are shown through examples, videos and implementation guidance. Early Years Guidance Reports EEF’s guidance reports summarise research and offer practical recommendations. These include:
Professional Development and Implementation Support EEF also provides articles, videos, examples of practice and newsletters to support ongoing professional learning and the adoption of evidence‑informed practice in early years settings. |