Support for your childcare setting
We can offer you advice, support and resources to help your daycare setting provide the best quality childcare possible.
Safeguarding and wellbeing
- Walsall Safeguarding Partnership - Provides advice and support if you have concerns about a child. There's guidance and case studies and you can also make an online safeguarding referral if you need to.
- Walsall's Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) - The LADO is responsible for managing allegations against adults who work with children. This involves working with police, children's social care. employers and other involved professionals.
- Walsall Wellbeing Directory - The Wellbeing directory contains activities, services and groups to help all residents of the Walsall Borough live healthy, active and fulfilling lives.
Children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND)
- Walsall’s SEND Local Offer – Information, advice and support for children and young people with SEND, and for their families. There's also useful advice and resources for childcare and education providers.
Training and development
- Education Endowment Foundation - Support and resources for professionals working in schools, nurseries, and other early years settings. Includes an Early Years Toolkit, which is a summary of the best available evidence on key areas for learning and development.
- DfE Early Years Child Development Training - Free, online training provides an overview of child development and gives practical advice for supporting the development of children in your early years setting, including reception years.
- Thrive Together early years stronger practice hubs (West Midlands) - Draws on deep, wide-ranging early years knowledge and leadership, including trusted experts and partners, to share evidence-informed, practice-based research with all early years providers.
Training available from the Early Years team
We provide training and support for all registered childcare providers:
- up to three visits per year from your allocated Early Years Improvement Officer
- a yearly funding audit
- termly briefings to receive information and updates to support you to meet your statutory requirements
- designated Safeguarding training and update training
- additional support for settings who are assessed by Ofsted as not having met the expected standard
- a weekly newsletter regarding national and local updates and signposts training and professional development
Key documents
- Early Years Foundation Stage (Statutory Framework) - The standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5.
- Early Years Inspection Handbook - This handbook from Ofsted describes the main activities that inspectors undertake when they carry out inspections of early years providers in England.
- School Inspection Toolkit - This toolkit describes the main activities carried out during graded, ungraded, and urgent inspections of maintained schools and academies in England. It applies to school inspections under the education inspection framework (EIF)
- Development Matters - For all early years practitioners. It can help you to design an effective early years curriculum, building on the strengths and meeting the needs of the children you work with.
- Birth to 5 Matters - Provides comprehensive guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which has been updated to reflect recent research.
