About quality support
The Early Education Development Team are driven by the key objectives of the Learning and Inclusion Service, motivated by the goal that all children in the city are offered the best start in life, with the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Our focus is to support providers in their efforts to improve and sustain the quality of their provision through a range of methods.
Universal offer of support for all early years’ providers and practitioners
To ensure that providers are supported in maintaining quality practice, we encourage practitioners to make best use of Leicester’s Quality Improvement tools; the Q cards. Where we have previously use both the Q cards and the QIP Programme, these tools have now been streamlined and all supporting guidance, useful links and reflective tasks have been embedded within the Q cards tool kit. The Q cards are frequently updated to ensure that they are reflective of current policy and national expectations. New cards are added regularly, to reflect the trends of inspection outcomes, needs of the sector and prevalent topics. Providers are also encouraged to utilise the offer of free places on the regular Quality Forums and termly EYFS Networks, to allow providers the opportunity to extend their knowledge, engage in professional discussion and motivate change. To keep providers updated with latest news and information, a termly Workforce Newsletter is a published and distributed to the sector.
Also available to providers is a programme of continuous professional development opportunities, planned and delivered each term.
Providers judged as less than good by Ofsted
A consistent approach is applied to all providers identified as requiring support and guidance. Following a full inspection or regulatory action that results in a less that good outcome or with the issue of actions, an Early Education Development Officer will be assigned to coordinate the support offered by the Local Authority. The focus of support is determined by the actions and recommendations identified with the latest inspection report (or liaison with the regulatory inspector), the timeline set for any actions, as well as any noted areas for improvement highlighted through observations made by visiting officers. Through a partnership with the provider and any supporting agencies involved, the EED officer will be available to support with prioritising areas for development, sign posting and information sharing, to enable progress to be made.
Support for providers prior to their first full inspection
A newly registered provider will be contacted by an Early Education Development Officer, who will provide an introduction to the universal offer of support - as stated above - and to provide advice and guidance required in readiness for the setting’s first full inspection. An audio briefing is available for all providers, with information about the Early Education Development Team, the support we provide, the services they can expect from us and how best they can utilise the offer.
Contact us
Contact the Early Education Development team on 0116 454 4190 or email eedteam@leicester.gov.uk