The Assisted Places scheme provides funding to support a child, who does not live within a Flying Start area, with emerging development needs by providing good quality childcare for the term or two terms immediately before they start their Early Years Education place. Funding supports children in registered childcare settings who are contracted with us to deliver Assisted Places.
Children are offered a maximum of five, 2.5 hour sessions per week, term time only.
The purpose of the placement is to identify any needs prior to the child starting their Early Years Education place. Targets and strategies are put in place to guide the placement which allows appropriate support to be provided to the child. These targets and strategies are shared with parents and the childcare setting prior to the placement starting and reviewed throughout the placement.
At the end of the placement there is a Transition Meeting, where the parents, childcare setting, early years education provider and all other people involved in supporting the child, can share up-to-date information to plan the transition to Early Years Education.
Assisted Places are targeted at children with emerging developmental needs who are usually being supported by Portage or Join in and Play teams. If a child is being supported by either of these teams, if appropriate, the Early Years Worker will request an Assisted Place. Working with parents, information will be gathered from all professionals to ensure an informed decision is agreed by all involved.
Requests for Assisted Places are discussed at a ‘What Matters’ meeting. This meeting is attended by all key professionals involved with the family. If it is agreed that an Assisted Place is appropriate, targets and strategies are agreed for the child and an Early Years Worker identified to work with the family. The family and the Early Years Worker are notified of the outcome of the What Matters meeting by email.
The family are responsible for finding a suitable Assisted Places approved childcare provider and arranging the placement, supported by their allocated Early Years Worker. The family or Early Years Worker will provide a partly completed One Page Profile to the childcare setting containing the targets and strategies under the headings ‘What do I need a little help with?’ and ‘How can you help me?’. This information would have been agreed at the What Matters meeting and helps guide the needs of the placement.
The funded childcare is only available at approved childcare settings contracted to offer Assisted Places.
Therefore, it is vitally important that your Dewis resources are accurate and not expired. If you are an approved Assisted Places provider, we will add the hashtag #CCBCAssistedPlaces into your Dewis resource description. Please do not remove this or your resource will not appear on the list. You can login to update Dewis here.
Once the placement has been agreed with the family, you must complete the rest of the One Page Profile and provide the family with a copy.
Then you need to submit an Individual Child Placement (ICP) Form. This form is used to notify us of the arrangements that have been made so that we can arrange for the funding to start. It is important that you complete this with the family present so both parties are clear what is being requested.
Funding cannot start until the ICP has been approved and the funding Start Date, End Date and Funded Hours confirmed. Both you and your childcare provider will receive an email to confirm this.
The Early Years Hub aim to process your ICP Form within 10 working days, however, during busy periods this may take longer. If the form is incomplete this may also delay the process.
The Childcare Advisor Team will also be told about the placement and an advisor will contact you and the Early Years Worker to support the placement. The Childcare Advisor will, using the One Page Profile, review the placement half way through and inform the transition meeting at the end of the placement.
! | The contractual agreement to provide childcare is between the parents/guardians and the childcare provider and should be legally enforced through the signing of a setting contract between parents/guardians and their chosen childcare provider. |
To access the ICP form you must sign in using your Caerphilly Connect account.
Login details will be sent to you by email. If you have any issues logging in, please contact the Early Years Hub.
If you part complete an ICP form, you can access it later by logging on to the Caerphilly Connect dashboard here. Here you can access submitted ICP forms (referred to as service requests) and any ICP forms in draft (forms not yet submitted).
If you have any queries or need support, please contact the Early Years Hub.
Follow us