Local NewsSustainability support In preparation for the National Living Wage going up, have you looked at your cash flow forecasts and how you will be able to sustain the increase in the wages? The National Living Wage goes up in April, the new rates will be as follows:
National Living Wage Rates| Year | 25 and over | 21 to 24 | 18 to 20 | Under 18 | Apprentice |
|---|
| April 2019 (current rate) | £8.21 | £7.70 | £6.15 | £4.35 | £3.90 |
| April 2020 | £8.72 | £8.20 | £6.45 | £4.55 | £4.15 |
This is also the time to check your sustainability. Please email Praksha Bathia, Business Development Adviser at
Praksha.Bathia@leics.gov.uk and ask her to send you a sustainability toolkit. You can then complete and return it to Praksha, who can then support you if the outcome of the assessment is below 70%.
Self-esteemHealthy self-esteem positively impacts both mental and physical health and is crucial for life-long learning skills including independence, perseverance, resilience and motivation. This
infographic outlines the key influences on self-esteem and gives strategies for enhancing children's self-esteem.
Self-esteem cannot be taught discretely – it should saturate all experiences, underpinning the ethos of an inclusive setting. Children need an interesting and relevant curriculum which meets individual needs, set within an enabling environment offering mutually agreed clear limits and consistently reinforced boundaries.
Self-esteem is a crucial element of supporting an effective transition: within children's daily lives and between rooms as well as going to school. Children need to feel empowered - how do you encourage independence?
Children need attuned interactions based on warmth and consistency with adults who can be relied on. Demonstrating professional love means:
- Unconditional acceptance
- Valuing all children (e.g. schematic play – recognise, respect, facilitate)
- A non-judgemental approach (separate undesirable behaviour from child to avoid impacting self-esteem)
- Showing mutual respect
- Holding children in positive regard
Key strategies to consider:
- Model positive self-talk
- Enable success – use scaffolding to bridge the gap to learning new concepts by co-construction and sustained, shared thinking
- Provide appropriate challenge and encourage risk taking
- Promote decision making
- Enable children to feel comfortable making and learning from mistakes without fear of rejection – frame mistakes constructively, develop a positive attitude to making errors, model making mistakes
- Provide informed, considerate feedback and celebrate small steps
Early Years Communication and Interaction Team - exciting new changes within our Early Years SEND Team We are very excited to announce that our Early Years Autism Team have undergone a few changes. They are now known as the Early Years Communication and Interaction Team. The team will continue to offer high quality support to our children with a diagnosis but will also now offer support to children 'pre-diagnosis'; those with communication and interaction difficulties. The referral route remains the same, but we want to maximise the expertise of the team to support children earlier.
Provider self updateAll providers now have access to the Self Update section of the Provider Portal. If your nominated individuals haven't received their login details, please email
childcare@leics.gov.uk with your setting details (name and Ofsted URN) so this can be resolved.
The self update functionality allows you to keep the details relating to your setting up to date. This covers your contact details (email, telephone numbers, etc.), opening days/times, costs, places, vacancies etc. and providers are encouraged to check and update their details on a regular basis.
You should be aware that Self Update is not a bespoke system for Leicestershire and therefore contains a lot of information that we don't collect (for example, Travel information, School Pickups) so we would encourage you to read through the Self Update Guidance that can be found in the 'About' section at the bottom of any Provider Portal page. This detailed guide will show you which sections should be updated and any specific ways that your information needs to be entered. Please be aware that any submission of information that isn't held in our core systems or that doesn't meet the formatting specified will not be processed.
