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Audience at London early years conference

Continuing professional development opportunities

The Mayor's early years hubs each ran an active programme of continuing professional development (CPD) as part of their work to improve the quality of local early years provision.

“The way that you improve outcomes for children is by up-skilling the practitioners."

- Teaching school director

Read on for more information and resources.

CPD

  • 3852

    Early years practitioners took up CPD opportunities through the hubs

  • 995

    Early years practitioners accessed training online during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • 40

    PVIs in Newham received support from a mentor through ITERS-3

  • 4.8

    Average ITERS-3 score for Newham PVIs in 2019 - up from 3.9 in 2018

Top tips

  • CPD was identified by the hubs as key to improving quality of provision and outcomes for children.
  • CPD opportunities were widely available and free of charge to hub members - this was important in enabling providers to take part.
  • The hub approach enabled specialist expertise from across the sector to be harnessed and used to upskill practitioners.
  • The hub approach enabled practitioners to network with other professionals and learn from each other.
  • Initially, CPD was run largely through face-to-face workshops and courses. During the COVID-19 pandemic however, hubs switched to online delivery, using a range of tools such as YouTube, Zoom, Padlet, blogs and webinars.
  • Despite some challenges (such as computer access and maintaining motivation), online delivery of CPD can be very effective. It can enable practitioners to participate in training at a time and pace that suits them, as well as reducing the time needed out of settings to attend training.

Improving leadership and outcomes

  • The Working Together Hub ran Good To Great - a leadership programme for managers and owners of settings to help them improve their practice and move from a 'Good' to an 'Outstanding' Ofsted judgement. The programme was delivered by Working Together over four sessions. Have a look at their Good To Great flyer for an overview.
  • The Working Together Hub also ran a series of activities aimed at improving the quality and leadership of local provision through the use of the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS). This included a four session training course for settings using ITERS.
  • Read more about ITERS in this DDA case study or watch the video below, where one PVI setting in Newham talks about the benefits of joining their local hub - including supporting the quality of their provision through ITERS and access to a local mentor.

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Delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

  • The BEYA Hub funded their members to use an EYFS training programme run by Inclusion Expert. Training was delivered through eight online modules, allowing participants to access it from home or work, at a time to suit them. Managers from group settings could assign particular modules to individual staff members and monitor their progress. Learn more about the course.

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"EYFS Inclusion Expert was great as it's online training where the staff and I were able to work at our own pace... I used [Inclusion Expert] to support my staff after supervision meetings, highlighting areas to refresh on."

- Nursery manager

  • The Wandle Early Years Hub ran 'Equipped for Maths' - an online course for practitioners, offering knowledge, tools and approaches to deliver maths in the early years. Watch the hub's introductory video.

Supporting children with SEND

The Wandle Early Years Hub specialised in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the early years. They developed a bespoke, level 3 accredited course for practitioners to improve their ability to lead practice for children with SEND. For more info:

  • read this DDA case study
  • check out London Borough of Merton's overview of the course
  • watch the video below to hear Mark Siswick, from the Wandle Early Years Hub, discussing the hub's key achievements - including improving early identification and support for children with SEND
  • email London Borough of Merton with any questions about the course

    Other work to support children with SEND included:

    • All three early years hubs were involved in collaborative work to improve transitions for children with SEND. As part of a SEND task and finish group (more info here) they produced two key documents which you can download and use now:
      • ​​a collection of best practice principles for transition reports in the early years - all London boroughs can review the format, content and use of their current transition reports against these principles
      • a transition report template - this can be downloaded and used by all London boroughs, to support successful transition of children moving between early years settings, or from an early years setting to school
    • The Working Together Hub organised a visit for its members to an outstanding nursery with a high-quality sensory room. A number of those who attended the visit went on to set up sensory rooms in their own settings.
    • The Wandle Early Years Hub created this series of introductory videos related to key concepts and inclusive practice around SEND.
    • The BEYA Hub ran various SEND workshops for practitioners through their four mini hubs, responding to demand from hub members and utilising local expertise. For example, childminders from one mini hub requested training around identifying autism, which was delivered by a local Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo), and around food allergies, which was delivered by another childminder. This local approach proved popular, as it meant the training wasn't generic, but pitched to meet specific needs.

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    "We've discovered there is a lot of expertise in the local early years community. We asked for training in identifying autism and the hub brought in the local SENCo. It was phenomenal and very practical - things you could put into practice immediately..."

    - Childminder

    Improving social, emotional and mental health (SEMH)

    • In response to the COVID-19 pandemic (and in an extension to their original work plan) the Wandle Early Years Hub ran a series of infant wellbeing webinars, aimed at parents and practitioners. Recorded versions are available on the hub's fantastic new Nurturing Future Minds website. You'll also find a collection of other, freely-available resources to help parents, caregivers and professionals support the social and emotional learning and wellbeing of children aged 0–5.
    • Risk, Resilience and Relationships CPD was delivered on behalf of the Wandle Early Years Hub by a specialist trainer. It aimed to improve practitioners' understanding of the factors which impact on young children’s social, emotional and mental health. Read more in this impact report produced for the hub.
    • Members of the Working Together Hub were invited to attend a workshop on Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) in preparation for children returning to nursery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a SSTEW scale can help practitioners to measure children's development in terms of social and emotional wellbeing and other key areas. Read more about SSTEW.

    Leading outdoor learning

    • The Wandle Early Years Hub ran 'Equipped for Outdoor Learning' - an online course for practitioners, offering knowledge, tools and approaches to effectively lead outdoor learning in the early years. Watch the hub's introductory video.
    • The Working Together Hub ran 'beach trek' and 'forest trek' training for practitioners, supporting them to take children (and parents) outside of the nursery setting. Get in touch if you'd like more info.
    • Read DDA's case study about outdoor learning, which explores how one member of the Wandle Early Years Hub optimised opportunities for children to play and learn outdoors.

    Sharing knowledge and ideas

    • The Working Together Hub used a padlet as an online resource that practitioners could use to share their knowledge and experience.
    • The hubs all delivered large-scale conferences over the course of the programme, attracting around 3,000 attendees in total. These offered a mix of keynote speeches and workshops, covering a broad range of topics such as:
      • social, emotional and mental health (SEMH)
      • how Ofsted inspect the curriculum in early years
      • developing evidence-based practice in early years
      • developing children's metacognitive thinking
      • challenging racism in early years
      • outdoor learning
      • adult engagement in children's play
      • linking movement and play to social and cognitive development

    Visit the collaborative working page of this toolkit to find out more about how the hubs used local collaboration to improve the quality of early years provision.

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