Improvement Support Programme (ISP)
Services for Young Children (SfYC) work in partnership with all approved early years education (EYE) providers to ensure that they are of high quality and offer sufficient provision to the community.
- The Vision
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Services for Young Children works will early years education providers to ensure that all Hampshire children have access to the high-quality childcare and education that meets their individual needs. Services for Young Children is committed to supporting and enabling childcare practitioners to be self-managing and deliver childcare provision that makes a positive difference for children.
Hampshire County Council has the following statutory duties relating to childcare:
- to respond to Ofsted outcomes of 'inadequate' and 'requires improvement', and to any other outcomes below 'good'
- to ensure there are sufficient early years education places
- to provide moderation for the Early Years Foundation Stage
The Improvement Support Programme (ISP) has been reviewed to meet the statutory responsibilities above.
- How will I know what support I can access?
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As a result of an Ofsted outcome, we expect providers to be undertaking their own setting self-evaluation. If you need to discuss issues, developments or problems, contact your SfYC local development team to consider what advice, guidance and support will be made through the ISP process.
- What support is available?
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Services for Young Children (SfYC) has a range of resources to advise, guide and support approved EYE childcare providers to ensure the best outcomes for children in Hampshire can be achieved. To ensure resources are used effectively and efficiently, support will be offered based on the individual Ofsted action points for each provider.
The SfYC-local development teams implement the ISP process on a rolling programme when Ofsted inspections have taken place. Providers with an Ofsted grading of 'outstanding' and 'good' outcomes can access the general support available. There is also an opportunity for providers to purchase support from Hampshire Early Years Training and Consultancy.
Alongside Ofsted judgements and inspection reports, we strongly recommend providers use their own self-evaluation of their setting to identify successes and areas for development.
- General support
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The general support offer is made to all providers, including newly registered settings and those that have an ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ Ofsted inspection outcome. This includes a range of services from the following support menu:
- access to a website for childcare providers with a range of tools and self-access resources and links
- information about the local childcare market
- a suite of support seminars and surgeries with specialist members of the SfYC local development team
- support to register as a provider of early years education with funding for two-, three- and four-year-olds
- access to local provider briefings and network meetings
- access to Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) support groups and inclusion training
- support for the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
- telephone and email support
- continued professional development through a programme of training
- access to SfYC's Moodle training platform
- access to Hampshire childcare providers Facebook Group and self-sustaining networks
- advice, guidance and support from the SfYC Hampshire childcare providers blog bulletin
- free service listing via the Hampshire Family Information and Services Hub directory
- Targeted support
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Offers of targeted support will be available to childcare providers that receive an 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement' outcome, and to any other outcomes below 'good', as this puts them at risk of not meeting the Terms and Conditions of the EYE funding.
Providers that have a 'requires improvement' or 'inadequate' or any other outcome below 'good' Ofsted outcome will meet with the SfYC local development team and discuss how to address the Ofsted action points. The local development team will focus the support offer on the 'must' actions points that are included in the Ofsted inspection report or on a trigger*. The local development team implement the Improvement Support Programme process on a rolling programme following the publication of Ofsted reports. Providers will be invited to discuss how the Ofsted actions will be addressed at an External Team Around the Setting (ETAS) meeting which will be confirmed by email.
A provider with an 'outstanding' or 'good' Ofsted outcome may also be invited to an ETAS meeting following concerns raised such as a safeguarding issue, children not making expected levels of progress, or a provider at risk of closure, i.e., *a trigger. A timetable for the implementation of an action plan and reviewing process will be agreed at the ETAS meeting. Please see suggested quality improvement tools.
Providers will access services offered under the general support offer and those agreed as part of the support plan at the ETAS meeting, to improve outcomes.
A targeted support offer may include:
- access to various self-evaluation tools such as ECERs and ITERs
- focused visits from the SfYC local development team
- bespoke training
- Hampshire Early Years Training and Consultancy (HEYTC)
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As well as the general and targeted support offered as part of an agreed improvement support plan, providers may choose to purchase additional support services. For further details visit our Hampshire Early Years Training and Consultancy page to view the portfolio of high-quality services available.
- Do you have any further questions or queries about the Improvement Support Programme?