Making alterations to Early Years and Childcare provision on school sites
To ensure that your school is compliant with current legislation you will need to:
•Refer to the Ofsted factsheet- Registering School Based Provision updated in February 2017 to identify whether the provision needs to be registered.
•Register the provision with Ofsted if you intend to take children under 2 years old.
•Follow a formal process if you intend to change the school’s age range by more than two years (for example, moving from a 5-11 age range to a 2-11 range).
•Maintained schools can run a nursery for children aged 2-4 years old, and can lower their age ranges by up to two years without having to follow a formal statutory process.
•An academy or free school will need to submit a fast-track request to lower its age range by up to two years. This does not require a formal business case.
•Once the decision has been taken to extend the school’s age range, schools must update Edubase.
•Be aware that where there is already a private or voluntary run early years and childcare provision on the school site, TUPE may apply to the current staff if the school wishes to establish its own provision.
•If you are planning on closing any earlyyears provision clarify the status of the lease and who the landlord is. You are unable to issue a notice to vacate the premises if the lease is not held by the school.
•Notify the ECC Early Years and Childcare team if you propose to close or transfer an early years and childcare provision on your site to ensure the Council is able to fulfil its Childcare Sufficiency duty.
•For further information relating to Early Years and childcare provision in schools please log onto Early Years and Childcare