Service Level Agreement 2024-2025 – Southampton Maintained Schools – Early Years Advisory Teachers and Early Years & Childcare Development Team
SLA
Introduction
The Early Years and Childcare service sits within the wider Education service and offers specialist support to Early Years and Childcare Providers, including Year R, Schools, and Out of School provision.
The Early Years Advisory Teachers are qualified teachers with extensive experience in both teaching, curriculum and leadership in the Foundation Stage. They provide high-quality, tailored support for the Early Years Foundation Stage thereby contributing to raising attainment and achievement for children, both in Schools, Nurseries and PVIs. They are also Area SENDCos and offer support and guidance on how to deliver the best provision and support for children with Special Educational Needs in the Foundation Stage. There is an ever-growing number of children in schools and settings with additional needs. The complexity levels of these children is also increasing. Mainstream educational settings are receiving a higher number of children with EHCPs and this is impacting the level of support that can be given. This may mean settings require extra support to further explore practice and provision to meet these ever-changing needs.
Early Years and Childcare Development Workers, all of whom have many years of experience within this area, provide high-quality tailored support around provision for nursery children, including two year olds, welfare and care, and play requirements. They ensure Early Years and Childcare places are flexible, accessible and sufficient. The team can advise on Nursery Education Funding, and also support Out of School provision delivered by schools and on school sites.
Service options
These service options are designed to provide a comprehensive service delivery model. Services can be purchased by individual schools, or by clusters of schools.
Work includes: direct work in schools, planning and preparation time, liaison with staff and other agencies, review meetings, record completion and related administrative and travel time.
In the event of a staff member reporting in sick, we shall endeavour to rearrange the school visit to a convenient date.
Where a school has purchased time, the early years’ service will make every effort to offer work appropriate to the needs of the school within this timeframe. It is the responsibility of the school to ensure that the purchased time has been used by the end of the academic year. We regret that purchased time cannot be carried forward. In the unlikely event that the Early years’ service is unable to deliver work that has been negotiated, we may consider carrying a small amount of purchased time over on a case by case basis.
In the event of a further lockdown situation, or if similar restrictions are imposed that limit face to face contact, we will continue to offer a purchased service to schools as far as possible. We will work creatively to offer work appropriate to the needs of the school for example: virtual consultation, online/virtual training. Schools will therefore continue to be responsible for ensuring that their purchased SLA time is used within the academic year.
The service works with schools to offer support and training around:
Early Years Advisory Teachers
- Head teachers and Leadership teams in evaluating the quality of Early Years provision
- Practitioners, including newly qualified teachers new to the Early Years Foundation Stage
- Transitions into and out of Year R.
- Teaching and learning approaches in the Early Years
- Developing the environment, both indoors and outdoors
- Developing parental partnerships
- Utilising relevant data to inform pupil progress in Early Years Foundation Stage
- Governors in developing their Early Years understanding
- Supportive reviews to identify needs and plan improvements
- Observation, assessment and planning in the Early Years
- Coaching Leaders, Teachers and Practitioners in the Early Years Foundation Stage
- Supporting moderation of judgements
- Support in monitoring quality of teaching
- Ensuring Year 1 provision meets the needs of children not achieving GLD
- Implementing individual SEND support, including supporting with EHCP request for assessment, training for children: working with identified needs
- Bespoke SEND training based around the needs of your Year R cohort
- An Early Years SEND review
- Support to SENDCos/teachers/TAs to meet the needs of children with EHCPs
- Support and training to TAs and one to one support workers
- Introducing SEND interventions and strategies
Development Team
- Preparation for Ofsted inspection of Early Years and Out of School provision
- Developing the environment, both in and outdoors, for Early Years and Out of School provision
- Leadership team and Practitioners around existing Early Years and Out of School provision
- Supporting expansion of existing Nursery or Out of School provision
- Governors in developing their Out of School understanding
- Development of new Out of School or Early Years provision
- Rental calculations for onsite provision
- Facilitating mediation with private and voluntary Early Years and Out of School providers
- Nursery Education Funding
Each intervention will include:
- Planning meeting with school staff to agree joint objectives of intervention
- Ongoing liaison with school staff and other agencies as appropriate throughout intervention
The school will meet with the Early Years Advisory Teacher and/or Early Years and Childcare Team member regularly, to review the activities undertaken and progress towards any agreed targets.
Pricing
The services detailed here are available to buy as follows:
| Description of support | Price |
|---|---|
| 6 days of 6.5 hours support package (spread across year) | £2,240 |
| 6 days of 3 hours support package (spread across year) | £1,120 |
| Ad hoc support visit, per hour | £80 |
| Ad hoc support visit, per 3 hour sessions | £192 |
| Bespoke In-House Training Delivered at the school Maximum 25 people per training. |
£96 per hour per trainer |
The teams can deliver individual bespoke packages of training and staff development to EYFS Staff as well as Practitioners and Management involved with school-run Out of School provision. This can be negotiated with the Early Years and Childcare Service as and when required (Please see contact details below)
Service contact and performance review
The initial contact
Sally Griggs
Southampton City Council
Startpoint Sholing, Wood Close, Southampton, SO19 0SG
Email: sally.griggs@southampton.gov.uk
Tel: 023 8091 5797
If you have any comments, compliments, or complaints about the service you receive please contact:
Darrin Hunter, Early Years’ Service Manager.
Email: Darrin.hunter@southampton.gov.uk
Tel: 023 8083 2112
