The £10m pilots will be offered in Blackpool, Derby City, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kingston upon Thames, North Tyneside, Rotherham, Somerset, Staffordshire and Sunderland.
The scheme, designed to ease children's transition between early years and primary school, will include a variety of approaches, including holding meetings between parents, childminders and early years and primary school teachers, and appointing advisors who can inform parents of the different childcare options in the area (News, 15 May).
Christine Halstead, head of early years education and childcare at Kingston-upon-Thames council, said, 'We were really excited to be selected. We put together a proposal looking at bonding and attachment right from conception and how we can help improve verbal and non-verbal communication. The DCSF will identify which parts of our proposal they liked and then we will get a project team together to look at how we will deliver it.'
Fiona Colton, early years and childcare services manager at Derby City Council, said, 'The projects we have proposed will be run in partnership with the speech and language service and will focus on language and literacy. We met with the DCSF last Monday and will tailor our proposal to their requirements.'
The Government has also published local authority funding allocations for childcare and early years support, announced in the Children's Plan, which amount to a total of £819m over three years.
The package includes £7m to help nursery staff access training and materials to help them to support children's social development, as part of a new programme called Social and Emotional Aspects of Development (SEAD).
Further information
The Children's Plan funding allocations are at www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/pnattach/20080146/1.xls.
