Early Years Recovery Programme

Tender description

The purpose of this notice is to notify the market of forthcoming procurement activity relating to the Early Years Recovery Programme. The Department will be hosting a number of market warming events online events related to this programme for interested providers to input into the implementation of this programme learn more about the strands of work and associated procurements. We will be running procurements in the following strands of work to support Early Years Education Recovery commencing Q3 2021 through into H2 2022. Lot 1: The Government announced up to £153 million of new funding for training for early years staff to support the very youngest children’s learning and development as part of education recovery from the pandemic. Our investment in Early Years Education Recovery will build a stronger, more expert workforce, enabling settings to deliver high quality teaching and address the impact of the pandemic on the youngest children with a focus on the most disadvantaged areas. It will do this by: • Delivering a universal training offer together with targeted support to both leaders and practitioners to create a more sustainable, self-supporting system; • Strengthening specialist expertise and leadership in the sector by boosting practitioners’ skills to develop children’s early language and maths, as well as their personal and social development. • Improve the capacity of the early years workforce to support children with special educational needs; and • Training EY practitioners to support parents with home learning, which is one of the biggest drivers of early outcomes and also influences future attainment. We will be running procurements in the following strands of work to support Early Years Education Recovery. 1. Early years online child development training: A new, universal online child development training offer to upskill practitioners and improve knowledge of child development so they will be better able to support children in their care, particularly those whose development may have been impeded due to the covid pandemic. 2. Pedagogical and whole setting leadership support (experts and mentors): Access to support from sector experts and mentors for those settings in need of most support to help strengthen children’s learning and development. 3. Early Years Innovation Programme: Promoting innovation by providing opportunities for settings to explore innovative practice, help grow the evidence base and facilitate cross-sector sharing. 4. Phase 3 of the Professional Development Programme rollout (PDP3). Building on PDP1 and PDP2. 5. Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) training: Invest in specialist SEND expertise by increasing the number of staff with an accredited Level 3 EY SENCO qualification, leading to better identification of SEND and better support for those children. 6. Level 3 qualifications review: Provide a reformed, evidence-based Level 3 qualification. 7. Training EY practitioners to support parents with home learning (HLE): Train EY practitioners to support parents with home learning with priority given to the most disadvantaged families.