Improvement Support Programme (ISP)

Services for Young Children (SfYC) works in partnership with all approved early years education (EYE) and school-aged childcare providers to ensure they are delivering high quality services to the families in their communities.

The Vision

Hampshire County Council is required to ensure that every child within Hampshire has access to high-quality childcare and education, which meets their individual needs. SfYC is committed to working with, and providing support to, childcare practitioners enabling them to be self-managing and to deliver childcare provision which makes a positive difference to every child.

Other statutory duties include:

  • responding to Ofsted outcomes below expected standard.
  • to ensure there are sufficient childcare places.

The Improvement Support Programme (ISP) has been created to ensure these responsibilities are met.

What support is available?

SfYC has a range of resources available to advise, guide and support EYE funded and school-aged childcare providers to ensure the best outcomes can be achieved.

The ISP process is a voluntary, supportive process which is implemented following Ofsted inspections; with the support offered being tailored to individual action points arising from this. Support may also be offered to providers where concerns are raised; for example, safeguarding issues, children not making expected levels of progress or those at risk of closure - these are known as “triggers”.

Alongside Ofsted report cards, SfYC strongly recommends that providers also conduct their own self-evaluation to identify areas for development and highlight the areas they are successful in.

Targeted support

Offers of targeted support will be made to childcare providers on the Early Years Register who receive a below expected standard, as this puts them at risk of not meeting the Hampshire County Council EYE funding Terms and Conditions. Providers on the Childcare Register will be offered support if they receive a not met or not compliant grading.

Providers will meet with the SfYC Local Development Team virtually via MS Teams to discuss how to address the Ofsted action points. This is known as an External Team Around the Setting (ETAS) meeting. The support offer will be focused on the ‘must’ action points included in the Ofsted report card, or from the “trigger”.

A timetable for the implementation of an action plan and reviewing process will be agreed at the ETAS meeting. Services to improve outcomes will also be discussed and offered to providers.

The targeted support offer may include quality improvement tools such as:

  • access to various self-evaluation tools.
  • focused support from the SfYC Local Development Team.
  • bespoke training.
Early years and childcare training and support

As well as the targeted support offered as part of an agreed ISP plan, providers can access the core support offer or choose to purchase additional support services.

The core support offer is made to all providers, including newly registered settings and school-aged childcare providers. This includes:

Additional support services can be purchased via the Early years and childcare training and support page.

If you have any further questions or queries about the Improvement Support Programme or the core support offer, please contact us using the SfYC General Enquiry Form.