The Early Years Team has a responsibility for ensuring that high quality early years and childcare provision is available and accessible to all families with young children.
We offer support and advice to all settings that provide early education and childcare - this includes Childminders, Private Voluntary and Independent (PVI) Early Years Settings, Maintained Nursery Schools and Infant and Primary Schools. We also provide advice to registered Out of School Clubs that offer childcare.
We support the multi-agency Early Years Strategy in Cumbria, working with partner organisations across Health, Inclusion, Early Help and the Voluntary Sector in order to improve outcomes for children across the county. This includes supporting our Children's Centres and working in partnership to develop a network of Family Hubs in partnership with communities.
We aim to listen and learn from all of our Providers, as well as directly engaging with children and families in order to help make Cumbria the best place it can be to grow up in.
The Early Years Team works with settings and schools to enable them to continuously improve their Early Years Foundation Stage quality as judged by the Ofsted inspection:
Early Years Team Manager
| Amanda Macdonald | Amanda.Macdonald@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
Early Years and Childcare Advisers
| Chris Blair | Christine.Blair@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
| Karen Cove | Karen.Cove@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
| Laura Kendall | Laura.Kendall@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
Early Years Advisers/Area SENCOs
| Mary Cooper | Mary.Cooper@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
| Heather Dakin | Heather.Dakin@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
| Sue Hunter | Sue.Hunter@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
| Rachel Ramsbottom | Rachel.Ramsbottom@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
| Margaret Thornley | Margaret.Thornley@WestmorlandandFurness.gov.uk |
Finance Officer
| Ailsa Witchell | ailsa.witchell@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk |
Children's Centres are places for children and their families. They provide support for parents and carers and help them to access other services.
The Early Years Team provide a training programme that aims to provide the early years workforce with the skills and knowledge they need to best support the young children in their care.
Courses are available for both the PVI and school sector and can be booked with School Development via SLA online.
Cumbria School Development (sla-portals.co.uk)
The Solihull parenting programme is available for FREE for all parents/carers in Cumbria and the more detailed practitioner training is also available for one year FREE of charge.
There are three courses which we hope you will want your teams to access:
Understanding Trauma - This course covers Type 1 and Type 2 trauma, the window of tolerance, going through a traumatic experience, neurology and trauma. Recognising trauma, recovery from trauma, and more...
Understanding Attachment - This course is for practitioners who want to understand more about attachment, and shows how containment and reciprocity underpin the quality of an attachment.
Understanding Brain Development - This course is for practitioners who want an introduction to brain development from the antenatal period to adolescence.
The password for all courses is WORDSWORTHPRF (valid until April 2022)
Current Early Years Training for the early years sector.
| Title | Date | Size |
|---|---|---|
 |
11/05/2020 | 424k |
|
11/05/2020 | 1055k |
|
12/05/2020 | 575k |
Children in Cumbria will have the best possible start in life through a joined up approach between families and everyone who works with young children.