Early Years Professional Development Programme

Do you work in an early years setting? Do you want to be part of an exciting programme that supports staff working in nurseries and childminders to improve the life chances of young children?

We are excited to be working with Education Development Trust to deliver the Early Years Professional Development programme (EYPDP), funded by the Department for Education. This programme will help you to support more of the 1.9 million children who struggle with talking and understanding words.

Register your interest!

If you are interested in the programme, please fill in the form by clicking the button.

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Staff working in nurseries and childminders will be trained across three modules: 

  • Communication and language 
  • Early mathematics 
  • Personal, social and emotional development (PSED)

The programme will be delivered through a blended mix of eLearning and facilitated webinars (available during the day, evenings, and weekends) to fit flexibly around busy lifestyles. The programme takes 60 hours to complete over an 8-month period. There is funding provided via your local authority to support the training.   

What does Speech and Language UK bring to the programme?
We’ve written new content for the Communication and Language module which has been approved by the DfE, Ofsted and a wide range of leading practitioners in the early years field. Our aim was for each of the e-learning modules to provide practical tips on implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum as well as help spotting those children who might need a little more support. 

Our team of experienced programme trainers have brought together skills and expertise from all the following areas: 

  • Teaching 
  • Speech and language therapy 
  • Local authority quality improvement/inclusion roles 
  • Further education early years and childcare practitioner training 
  • Ofsted inspection 

But more than anything, they’re passionate about supporting all staff working in nurseries and childminders to provide the best start for young children whether that’s through helping them improve children’s communication skills, increasing their confidence in teaching early maths or focusing in on personal, social and emotional development. 

This is what some of the learners have had to say about the modules they’ve participated in so far: 

“Thank you for your excellent, kind support in the webinars. I am really enjoying it each week and although I have worked in early years for many years now, I am finding this course very useful and gaining new ideas and strategies each week to support the children I work with.” 

Feedback from early years practitioner, Tara 

“Myself along with my supervisors from our 3 preschools have found the course insightful with new ideas and strategies that have been implemented already in our settings. This has ranged from improving our outdoor learning environment with dressing up clothes and resources having a positive impact on hot/cold spots, to developing our own monitoring tool to observe communication hot spots/cold spots, 10 second wait for response and more comments than questions for practitioners. All of which has been valuable for all of our practitioners to reflect upon in daily practice and further supporting communication and language skills for the children.” 

Feedback from early years practitioner, Cherene  

Register your interest!

Registration for cohort 3 of the programme is now open! To learn about the programme and ask any questions you may have, you can join one of the webinars run by EYPDP.

Register your interest Sign up for an informative webinar
Register your interest!

FAQs

The programme forms part of the £180 million Early Years Education Recovery Plan to address the ongoing effects of the pandemic on our young children. The programme is a great way to further your career, enhance your professional skills and knowledge as well as support the 1.9 million children struggling with talking and understanding words.  

The programme is available to all eligible settings from participating local authorities across England. 

Eligible settings offer childcare to children between 2 and 4 years of age and must meet two of the following criteria:  

  • Provide to at least one child with an Education, Health and Care Plan or Disability Access Fund indicator 
  • Provide to at least one child in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)  
  • Provide to at least one child taking up the disadvantaged two-year-old offer 
  • EY providers which do not meet the above criteria but where local intelligence suggests disadvantaged children would benefit from their practitioners receiving additional CPD support, may also be eligible. 

Participating practitioners must: 

  • Be qualified to at least level 3 
  • Be currently working with 2–4-year-olds (e.g., a manager who does not spend any time with the children is not eligible) 
  • Not have completed a previous iteration of the Early Years Professional Development Programme delivered by Education Development Trust 

Access to the programme is free. Practitioners are advised to speak directly to their local authority about the funding.  

All 152 local authorities in England are participating in the programme. 

More information can be found on the Early Years Professional Development programme website here.  

If you would like to talk to somebody at Speech and Language UK about the programme, then email us at eypdp.cohort@speechandlanguage.org.uk.