Bright Futures North West Early Years Stronger Practice Hub success

We are delighted to share the news that our Early Years partnership has been designated by the Department for Education as an Early Years Stronger Practice Hub, the first in the Northwest (Bright Futures NW Early Years Stronger Practice Hub). The programme, part of the DfE’s Early Years Education COVID-19 Recovery Package, aims to support settings to address the impact of the pandemic on young children, by sharing effective practice and building lasting local networks.

Lisa Fathers, Director, said: “Lime Tree Primary Academy (part of Bright Futures) was the setting that successfully led the application process, and we are really proud of our strong Early Years network across Bright Futures. We are absolutely thrilled to be collaborating with so many Early Years partners and, of course, local authority colleagues to ensure the best possible CPD and support is made available and, ultimately, so the best possible provision can be offered for young children.”

The newly designated Hubs, of which there are 13, will provide advice, share good practice, and offer evidence-based professional development for all Early Years practitioners across schools, private nurseries and childminders. The Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme is supported by both the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the National Children’s Bureau (NCB).

Stronger Practice Hubs will support Early Years settings to improve outcomes for children in their local area across the EYFS, but specifically focusing on areas of development that research informs us have been most impacted by COVID-19: personal social and emotional development (PSED); communication and language, and early literacy and maths.

Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs, will support settings to adopt evidence-based practice improvements, by:

• establishing local networks of settings to share knowledge and effective practice
• proactively sharing information and advice on evidence-based approaches – for example, through newsletters, blogs and social media
• acting as a point of contact for bespoke advice, and signposting to other funded support
• working with the EEF to select evidence-based programmes to fund and make available to settings

We would like to thank our partnership supporting the application who were:

Trafford Local Authority, Lime Tree Primary Academy, Stanley Grove Primary Academy, ESSA Primary Academy, Little Oaks Nursery, Wellfield Infant and Nursery School