As part of the next stage of the government’s delivery of its childcare plan, the DfE published three announcements:
The DfE introduces the national recruitment ‘Do Something Big’ campaign to highlight career opportunities in early education and childcare. The campaign will run across TV, cinema, social media, online, radio and billboard advertising. If promoting the campaign, please use hashtag #dosomethingbig on social media.
Also, a new website Do something big - Early Years Careers has been launched to provide information about careers and qualifications in early years and childcare. Providers to list vacancies on the DWP Find a Job platform following the attached DWP Find a Job instructions here.
20 local authorities were invited to join a £4.9 million pilot scheme offering £1,000 tax-free cash payments to new and returning workers in the early years and childcare sector. The pilot will run from April to December 2024 to test the impact of financial incentives on recruitment.
As part of the DfE £289 million plans, this programme looks to expand childcare for primary school-aged children from 8 am to 6 pm during term time. Four early adopters Central Bedfordshire, Bi borough (consisting of Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea local authorities), Norfolk and Cambridgeshire will start in April before the nationwide rollout in September to gather insights and refine plans.
Useful links
YouTube playlist – Our 15 second and 30 second adverts on a playlist
Be part of something Big (short version) (youtube.com)
Dropbox - campaign assets
Do Something Big-DfE Media Team
Additional Information on Applying for New Entitlement for Working Parent of 2YOs
Please see attached the following documents:
Extended childcare entitlement: eligibility codes issued dataT
DfE Education has published data showing the number of eligibility codes issued to eligible working parents of 2-year-olds so they can access the free childcare entitlement from April 2024. This data covers the period from January 2nd to January 31st. The data can be found here: Extended childcare entitlement: eligibility codes issued - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
For awareness, following the first stage of the extended childcare entitlement roll-out in April, the Department also plans to publish the number of codes issued as well as validated (at national and LA-level) as we did for the previous rollout of 30 hours in 2017.
