From January 2024, eligible working parents can apply for 15 hours of childcare for their two-year-olds. The deadline for applications is Sunday, 31 2024.
To qualify, each parent needs to work and earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the national minimum/living wage, with an adjusted net income under £100,000 per year.
Starting Monday, 1 April 2024, working parents can access more support with childcare costs, including 15 hours of childcare per week for two-year-olds. Eligible services include nurseries, childminders, clubs, home care workers, and play schemes. For more information and to apply, visit the Childcare Choices website.
To help support communications with parents about the new entitlements from April the government has updated its guidance and resources. The DfE has published: Free childcare for eligible working parents for children aged from 9 months and above in foster care [Size: 219KB File format: pdf]
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The Easter HAF Programme runs from Tuesday, 2 April to Friday, 12 April 2024, offering eligible FSM pupils up to 16 hours of free attendance at participating holiday schemes. Parents and caregivers received vouchers by email/text on Friday, 1 March 2024. Additional eligibility criteria can be found on the website.
Please help support the programme by displaying the Easter HAF Programme poster [Size: 554KB File format: pdf].
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The Healthy Start scheme is a valuable resource for eligible parents and carers, offering financial assistance to purchase healthy food and milk for their young children.
Those who qualify receive a Healthy Start card, which is preloaded with funds every four weeks, allowing them to buy essential nutritious foods and collect vital vitamins.
Healthy Start vitamins are available to support pregnancy and breastfeeding, along with vitamin drops suitable for babies and young children from birth to four years old.
Please encourage your families to visit Healthy Start for more information.
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The Cambridgeshire Families Information Service (FIS) provide information, advice and guidance to families across Cambridgeshire.
They manage the Cambridgeshire Childcare Directory and offer one-to-one support for families with children and young people aged 0 to 25.
Their advice is free, confidential, and impartial.
They can help with finding childcare, understanding childcare funding options, childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and the SEND Local Offer SEND Local Offer.
Find information on childcare and early learning and on Facebook - please like, follow and share the FIS page.
The FIS team are:
- Lisa Watson - Families Information Coordinator
- Tracey-Ann Grant - Childcare Brokerage Adviser - SEND
Email fis@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Telephone 0345 045 1360
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Cambridgeshire Child and Family Centres have launched their annual survey, and are asking residents across the county to have your say about 2023.
Please share your views and feedback on how you believe the service is performing. All opinions are important and will help to shape services in the local area.
Have your say and you could be in with a chance of winning one of five £20 Love2Shop vouchers.
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The government is seeking views on Department for Education (DfE) proposals to support childminders and childminder agencies and future policy development in a childminder recruitment and retention consultation.
This consultation is open to the public, to share their views on proposed changes to support childminders, until midnight on Friday, 10 May 2024.
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The childminder start-up grant scheme is now open for applications.
New childminders can receive grant funding of up to £7.2 million over the next two financial years to assist with setting up their businesses.
The scheme is available to all new childminders who have completed their registration on or after Friday, 15 March 2023. Individuals interested in applying must do so within two months of registering as a childminder or within two months of the scheme's launch.
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To support the 'Do Something BIG' recruitment campaign we are encouraging providers to download the free recruitment resources and campaign toolkit to help amplify the message and boost their own recruitment activity.
This campaign aims to promote careers in early years and childcare and challenge stereotypes.
Please view and share the TV advert. And access the resources and real-life stories on the campaign website: Do something big - Early Years Careers
For inquiries, contact earlyyears.careers@education.gov.uk.
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Keep celebrating the place of women in society with the National Literacy Trust's International Women’s Day 2024 – Resources & Activities.
There are lots of classroom resources and literacy activity ideas, designed to be adaptable for teachers working across different age ranges, including Early Years, KS1, KS2 and KS3/Early, First, Second and Third Level (ages 4 to 14).
Explore issues of equality and discrimination while empowering children with the literacy skills they need to succeed in life.
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Did you qualify in 2023, or will you qualify in the coming months?
The Cambridgeshire Early Childhood Qualifications Centre (CECQC) would like to celebrate their new early years educators and are looking to hold a celebration event in June 2024. If you wish to be included, please fill in this Microsoft Form.
CECQC also have an exciting opportunity for early years practitioners to share their professional journeys with others considering entering the workforce.
They would love for their learners, observers, mentors, trainees to join them to develop mini videos sharing your early years journey.
It does not matter where you are in your journey, every story is personal and is worth sharing. Please get in touch and share a little bit about your journey, email eycqualifications@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
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The Foundation Years has new resources to support practitioners with completing statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessment.
Visit the website to find information on what assessment means in the EYFS, age two progress checks, and completing the EYFS Profile for children transferring schools.
The Foundation Years website is funded by the DfE Early Years VCS programme and brought to you by Coram Family and Childcare.
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The Coram Family and Childcare Survey 2024* is their 23rd annual survey. It is based on surveys from local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales, which were returned to Coram between November 2023 and February 2024. Yet again it finds significant increases in the cost of childcare across the board.
The report reveals:
- Continued decrease in the availability of childcare in England, across all areas of provision.
- A part-time nursery place for a child under two has gone up 7% since 2023, and now costs an average of £158 per week in Great Britain.
- Ahead of the childcare expansion roll-out from April, local authorities raise concerns over delivery of the policy and availability of places.
*[Size: 16.8MB File format: pdf].
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Stay informed with research reports on childcare funding gaps and challenges faced by parents/carers. Here are three findings from partner organisations:
- The Women's Budget Group estimates that there is a £5 billion a year funding gap between the money allocated by government and the actual cost of the new entitlements when fully rolled out in 2025-26.
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Pregnant Then Screwed's latest survey provides more data on the number of parents/carers struggling with childcare costs. The pressure is on government to announce more funding in the March budget.
- The Early Years Alliance's latest survey of PVIs and childminders finds that many are struggling to increase places to meet demand for the new entitlements due to underfunding.
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The Cambridgeshire Fostering Service provide free, virtual, information sessions, once a month, to explain everything you need to know about becoming a foster carer, through an informal presentation. These events are perfect for prospective foster carers to learn more about fostering from experienced foster carers, along with fostering recruitment officers, and social workers.
You can book your free place through the Fostering Service Me Learning portal. The few next information sessions take place on:
- Friday, 12 April 12 noon to 1 pm
- Monday, 13 May 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm
- Thursday, 13 June 12 noon to 1 pm
For more dates and details, please email fostering@cambridgeshire.gov.uk, or telephone 0800 052 0078.
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You may find yourself supporting a parent and wondering whether the behaviours you are seeing indicate domestic abuse or parental conflict. The two are very different (although can look similar), and it is important that we are able to identify which is happening, and know how respond with the appropriate advice and support.
Family Hubs have commissioned Amity to deliver a session on Thursday, 18 April 2024, from 9:30 to 11 am.
Please book your spot via buy tickets for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Family Hubs.
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Stay informed about developments in child protection policy, research, practice and guidance with the NSPCC’s free weekly newsletter, CASPAR.
The newsletter shares the latest safeguarding and child protection news from across the UK, along with a summary and links for further reading. Signing up is the best way to stay updated on a regular basis.
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Due to high demand, an extra NSPCC Kids Safety Net online workshop will take place on Monday, 15 April 2024, at 6 pm. Please register via Eventbrite.
This free workshop aims to help parents and carers understand online safety and explore resources and tools to keep children safe online.
Further details about the Kids Safety Net Campaign across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can be found on the Healthy Schools website.
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Brake, the road safety charity, Beep Beep! Day on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 helps teach road safety basics to young children aged two to seven, and their parents and carers.
Help promote road safety awareness among the wider community, and understand how to protect children on roads, by registering on their website to access free resources, such as the Beep Beep! Day action pack. The pack includes fun activities, certificates and posters featuring characters from Aardman's popular children's tv programme Timmy Time.
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Enhance your forest school toolkit with our new CPD course designed for Forest School Assistants, Leaders, and trainees on Monday, 20 May 2024 at Hinchingbrooke Country Park, Huntingdon.
Join us for a day of refreshing core skills, exploring inclusive practices, and sharing experiences. We will look at the challenges we face at forest school, refresh our tool work and practical skills, learn new ways to ensure we are being inclusive and spend time sharing practice whilst cooking over the fire.
Prices are £58.50 for members, and £97.50 for non-members.
To book your place, please visit Booking and Reservations for Early Years Workforce Development (BookingBug) ‘Forest Schools.’
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As part of our commitment to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2045, last year we developed Our Best World which focuses on climate change, energy, and environment.
We have recently added to the Curriculum, and Resources, to support settings in becoming more sustainable in theory and practice. The new sustainability resources emphasise hands-on learning and encourages environmental awareness for young children. Through engaging activities and resources, children learn about sustainability, food waste reduction, eco-friendly practices, and a sense of responsibility toward the planet.
For more details, visit the Cambridgeshire Learn Together website.
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Spotlight Awards
On Wednesday, 28 February 2024, the winners of the Cambridgeshire County Council's inaugural Spotlight Awards were announced at the University Arms in Cambridge.
The event was an opportunity to recognise colleagues for their outstanding contributions in helping to create a greener, fairer, and more caring Cambridgeshire. A total of 260 nominations were received from across the whole range of council services, every submission a testament to the care and professionalism that individuals and teams bring to their work.
We were delighted to be informed that CambsEYC were selected as one of the top three nominees for the Climate and Nature Award, and even more so, when we won! We were nominated for integrating climate and nature into our service delivery by adopting Our Best World – Providing resources and support to children, their families, and wider communities to assist them in determining how we can change our behaviour and create a greener Cambridgeshire.
CambsEYC are made up of creative and amazing people, the small task group that created Our Best World said, that when grappling with how to approach the corporate net zero target, it was a conversation with the then three-year-old child that made it click:
"It is our best world Nanny, and we have to look after it."
It had reminded them that their generation is the future and engaging with them, however young they may be is an important part of how we will create a culture that will support a greener society.
We are still developing additional material for the webpage, but alongside our own pledge, we have useful ideas and information to support early years and childcare practitioners to create space for this important topic.
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