Transformation Fund

[Guest]

Has anyone successfully applied for and received any Transformation Fund monies yet? I have applied for it after recuiting my graduate but so far no money arriving so I cannot get this Quality Premium into operation. Just wondering if anyone has been successful in getting it and has it made a difference to their setting. How are your graduates doing in the settings and how are other staff feeling about it?

[Andreamay]

sheila have sent you a pm

[Guest]

I am considering advertising for a graduate, one to access the TF and two because I will need a new member of staff when I get my four foster children. So, any answers to Sheila's questions will be useful for me. I am also going to start a degree, which should be funded by the TF ( all but £50 ) so any experiences or info of how quickly (or not) this has been administrated to others would also be useful for me. I have expensive times ahead so need to budget very carefully.

Thanks in advance.

 

Peggy

[Andreamay]

we have a graduate and have applied still waiting to hear.

i too am going to the dgree next year.

[Marion]

Good Luck to you both with the degree .........my NNEB has applied to the TF to do her BA (she posted her form just before half term) so will let you know how it goes.

[Guest]

sorry to hijak post, but some of you have mentioned applying to do a degree funded by the TF, how does this work???, id be interetsed.... does it only work if you don't already have a degree though?

 

Dawn

Edited October 25, 2006 by Guest

[Andreamay]

If you have a member of staff with a degree already you can apply for a quality premium grant which is £5000 each year for 2 years this is to help your staff train to level 3 and above i dont think it pays for the course I think that is seperate but it pays for you to support staff to do any training.it can cover all training that isnt available thru your local surestart.

if you havent a member of staff who isnt a graduate you can apply for the other grant(cant remember its name)which is £3000 a year for 2yrs and this is basically for you to employ a graduate and their fee! However the govenment will not committ after the 2years at this time.

[Deb]

I've just received funding for 95 % of the first module of the Foundation Degree and will hopefully receive funding for the remainder as I do them each year.

 

Have also received £500 bursary presumably to pay for books etc, possibly funding the course also if not available in the future.

 

All done through our LEA, we can also claim for staff to cover us whilst doing the course through the transformation fund if necessary.

[Marion]

sorry to hijak post, but some of you have mentioned applying to do a degree funded by the TF, how does this work???, id be interetsed.... does it only work if you don't already have a degree though?

 

Dawn

 

No its through Sure Start (well it is in Durham) and its not available to qualified teachers only those going for first degree and working in child education/ care. I can't get anything for my MA

 

If you have a member of staff with a degree already you can apply for a quality premium grant which is £5000 each year for 2 years this is to help your staff train to level 3 and above i dont think it pays for the course I think that is seperate but it pays for you to support staff to do any training.it can cover all training that isnt available thru your local surestart.

if you havent a member of staff who isnt a graduate you can apply for the other grant(cant remember its name)which is £3000 a year for 2yrs and this is basically for you to employ a graduate and their fee! However the govenment will not committ after the 2years at this time.

 

This grant through the TF is for individuals rather than settings and pays course fees.........

Edited October 25, 2006 by Marion

[Guest]

hmmmm, confusing stuff!!!

 

I already have a degree in childhood studies, so my next step would be an MA (i think???)

but it seems TF doesn't cover that, hey hum!!!! LOL.... maybe my study days are over

 

Dawn

[Andreamay]

the tf will pay for you to do your eyp tho dawn and any other staff that are interested in doing their fd

[Guest]

Sure Start are funding my MA but think it is only for certain courses. They advertised the one I am doing on the Extranet with a promise of funding

[Guest]

If you have a member of staff with a degree already you can apply for a quality premium grant which is £5000 each year for 2 years this is to help your staff train to level 3 and above i dont think it pays for the course I think that is seperate but it pays for you to support staff to do any training.it can cover all training that isnt available thru your local surestart.

if you havent a member of staff who isnt a graduate you can apply for the other grant(cant remember its name)which is £3000 a year for 2yrs and this is basically for you to employ a graduate and their fee! However the govenment will not committ after the 2years at this time.

 

 

Thats how I understand the Transformation fund in Kent.

The fund was available from April 2006, but LEA's didn't get all the info until recently to be able to disseminate it. In Kent I beleive that if you started your FD or degree after April 2006 you can still apply for funding, not sure about other LEA's though.

Again in Kent the £3000, recruitment incentive is for as it implies, recruiting a graduate ( relevant EY degree) but only 49% of the £3000 can be used towards salary, the other 52% is for developing the setting. Only available for 2 years. as is the quality premium as you have stated.

 

If I were you dawn I'd contact your early years department ( Training and professional development)

 

Peggy

 

have you spotted my maths error, and to get EYPS I will need to have GCSE maths

 

Peggy

[JacquieL]

Tut tut Peggy. Mind you I always suspected that I was placed in Reception all those years ago because my Maths is terrible and it was a longstanding joke in school that JacquieL can only cope with numbers up to 10 (you see i still use my fingers - shock horror)

[Marion]

hmmmm, confusing stuff!!!

 

I already have a degree in childhood studies, so my next step would be an MA (i think???)

but it seems TF doesn't cover that, hey hum!!!! LOL.... maybe my study days are over

 

Dawn

 

My NNEB has the degree in early childhood studies and is now doing her BA with QTS?) she qualifies for the TF. So as Peggy suggests its worth asking. Some MA's also qualify for TF help too unfortunately my area only offers supports for students studying at one university at the moment.

 

Sure Start are funding my MA but think it is only for certain courses. They advertised the one I am doing on the Extranet with a promise of funding

 

Caroline are you doing yours at Northumbria? Beckyann from the forum and Durham is doing hers there too. I decided on the course offered by Sunderland just to be contrary and Sure Start wont fund that this year, but say they may help in the 2nd year(fingers crossed)

Edited October 26, 2006 by Marion

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies -andreamay, I agree with everything you said- have not sussed out how to reply to a PM- is there any guide how to do these things and blogs etc!!!???

 

I think different LEAs are interpretting different ways. As I understand it there is the Recruitment Incentive £3000 for 2 years to recruit your graduate, then £5000 for 2 years if you have the graduate already in place or take one on and in my area there is a seperate pot of money for training level 3 and above. I have been told there is finance available for my manager to progress to level 5, 6 of my staff are proceeding to level 4 (including me). This has been agreed by them but no money has yet been exchanged. For me I believe in "Growing your own" and hopefully they will stay while going through their training. 2 are going through Open University, one through University of Sunderland and 4 through Northumbria University. I will let you know how we get on.

 

My biggest problem is the job role of the graduate -where in the structure should they be. I am thinking about deleting existing posts. I am still looking for a graduate if anyone wants the position!!! How and where are you slotting them in your structure? See Vacancies posts.

[Guest]

My initial thoughts for the Graduate post I want to fill is on the lines of FS moving to EYFS Officer / co-ordinator type role. In other words responsible for ensuring quality delivery of the curriculum in the context of combining care and education as intrinsic of each other. I think the research done by the CWDC shows that graduates will improve the educational outcomes for young children so therefore this is what I see their main role to be.

I do believe that one of the conditions ( in Kent) of receiving the TF for recruitment is that the recruited graduate has to gain EYPS within a certain time frame ( can't remember if it was within 2 years of appointment) .

Obviously these changes will have to be reflected in our employment / recruitment policies, job descriptions etc.

We were advised to contact our Early years department recruitment advisor, who can advise on how to word advertisments, etc.

I also have to take into consideration that I made staff redundant in August, so I do need to appoint new staff with different job titles, descriptions to those who were made redundant.

 

I just wish that different LEA's didn't have different criteria's ( which this topic responses appears to indicate ) and that the whole process, criteria etc was the same and clear across the whole country.

 

I do also believe that the TF is capped by central government, in other words they cannot use it for anything other than what it is intended for. How the LEA's divide the total amount between different training needs I suppose may differ within different counties, ie: more degree's required than level 3's ( and vise versa) in different areas.

 

Peggy

 

ooh, we were also told that if someones training can be funded by surestart, then they do not have access to the TF, and similarly childrens centre's cannot access the recruitment or premium fund. Don't quote me on any of what I have said, it is just how I personally understood and remembered a lot of information given on a very informative afternoon a few weeks ago, lots of info to digest, so some of my comments may be wrong.

Best advise is to ask your local administrators of the fund.

 

peggy

[Guest]

Hi Marion,

 

Yes I'm doing my MA at Northumbria- must be mad to take on the extra work but will hopefully be interesting!

 

Its a shame Sure Start won't fund you, from reading one of your posts on a different thread the course sounds very similar in content so don't really understand why they are discriminating between courses but then again I still havn't worked out how Sure Start minds work, even after the last 5 years!

 

Beckyann- will be good to see/ meet you at the next meeting.

[Marion]

Hi Caroline

 

I've been thinking about doing my MA for the last 2 or 3 years (and putting off) This year Ive been working with the SEAL team on professional goals and mentioned it was something I wanted to do and within a week Im signed up as a late applicant! (both of us are mad I think) I did look at Northumbria and Newcastle but decided on Sunderland for no other reason than I did my BEd there. As you say they look very similar so I guess the three of us can share experiences.