Since opening applications for our Practitioner Insight Panel (PIP) we have had over 300 professionals respond to our request to join our the panel that will help us scope our new, free bite-sized training resource EY smart, by helping to develop and user test the format and content as it is created.

Given we have had such an amazing response we have now closed recruitment and are looking at how best to accommodate all the people who have kindly offered their support. PACEY will be in touch in due course to let you know the next steps.

Continuing with the project, today we had the first meeting of our project steering group. Its members include:

• Wendy Ratcliff (Ofsted’s Senior Manager for Early Years)
• Henna Jawaid (Team Leader: Early Years Standards, Assessment and Outcomes at the Department for Education)
• Vicky Walsh (Registered childminder and PACEY Trustee)
• Dr Amy Page (Deputy Operations manager for the Salvation Army’s early years settings and PACEY Trustee)
• Penny Tassoni (Early years author, training consultant and PACEY President)
• John Parry (Senior Lecturer, Early Years at the Open University)
• Chloe Webster (Registered childminder and PACEY member)
• Gemma Halliday (Improvement and Development Manager, Social Care Wales)
• Project Account Manager, Ufi Charitable Trust

At the first meeting, the steering group covered formal business such as agreeing its terms of reference and took time to reflect on the wide range of digital CPD available within early years as well as other sectors, to identify the formats and approaches that may work best for busy practitioners.

^{Picture, some members of the steering group (l-r): Annabel Hardy-King (Project Manager), John Parry (Senior Lecturer, Early Years at the Open University), Dr Amy Page (Deputy Operations manager for the Salvation Army’s early years settings and PACEY Trustee), Liz Bayram (PACEY Chief Executive) Vicky Walsh (Registered childminder and PACEY Trustee) and Wendy Ratcliff (Ofsted’s Senior Manager for Early Years).}