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Bulletin 235
16th May 2022
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Operation Encompass - Urgent information required.
Operation Encompass is now live! We have shared an initial contact list with the Police.
Please ensure that you upload your Key Adults on the Provider Portal immediately so that we can share a more accurate list as soon as possible.
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FEEE – Afghan and Ukrainian children
Don't forget to complete the short form, enabling the local authority to monitor take-up of the free entitlement. Please complete this form each time an Afghan or Ukrainian child starts or leaves your setting. If any Afghan or Ukrainian children currently attend your setting, please retrospectively complete this form and continue to use the form as you have any new starters or leavers.
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Latest Covid information
Using data from 08 May 2022, there have been:
- 579 cases in the previous 7 days
- 626 cases in the prior 7 days (up to 01 May)
- 150 cases per 100,000 population in the previous 7 days
- 108 cases in England per 100,000 in the previous 7 days
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Cheshire East Council 2022 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment - Parents and Carers Survey
Cheshire East Council are updating their Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA), which seeks to find out whether local parents and carers can access the childcare of their choice. By completing this survey parents and carers can help Cheshire East know what works well or what could change when it comes to choosing and using childcare.
The survey is open until 10 June 2022 – please can providers share the link below with parents on a regular basis until then. It is really important that we get as big a response as possible.
Please promote to parents and carers that if they complete the survey they can be entered into the prize draw to win a family ticket to the opening night of ALADDIN at Crewe Lyceum Theatre. The Pantomime is running from Friday 16 December 2022 to Sunday 8 January 2023. The Pantomime graphic can be used to promote the survey and prize draw on your social media pages.
Cheshire East Council 2022 Childcare Sufficiency AssessmentParents and Carers Survey (surveymonkey.co.uk)
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Tax-Free Childcare Webinar
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Hempsall’s, in partnership with HMRC, held a webinar on Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) in March; you can now watch the one for early years and childcare providers and view the slides on the link below. |
Helping new parents to find childcare in the local area - Updating your details on the Provider Portal
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Please log onto the Provider Portal and ensure your Live Well profile is up to date. If you have any vacancies, changed session times, prices, or updated the services you provide, update your details by logging into the Provider Portal. This is to ensure that parents who are looking for childcare can see what your setting has to offer.
Contact the Family Information Service on 0300 123 5033 if you require any further help or support.
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Holiday Activities and Food Programme - Summer 2022
As part of the government’s expanded holiday activities and food programme (HAF), we are looking to work with organisations across Cheshire East to provide free activity places as part our summer 2022 HAF programme. This holiday scheme provides enjoyable activities and nutritious meals for primary and secondary school aged children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.
From running the HAF programme successfully in Cheshire East during 2021 and Easter 2022, we know that the HAF programme offers a wide range of support for families but that it goes well beyond the delivery of food and activities: it’s a point of contact for children and families during holiday periods that can be vital for them in accessing support and services. We also know that children benefit from being together, being sociable, engaging in activities with friends and having fun.
In December 2021 the government agreed to fund the HAF programme for the next 3 years. This was fantastic news and has provided Cheshire East with the opportunity to ensure that we continue to meet the needs to our benefits related free school meal children, young people and families. To help us do this we would like our existing HAF providers to continue to support this invaluable offer and new providers to join our programme too!
If your organisation has not previously supported the Cheshire East HAF programme, and you would like to become part of Cheshire East HAF 2022, we would love to hear from you! All you need to do initially is express an interest to the Cheshire East HAF Team via cehaf@cheshireeast.gov.uk. We are currently focused on our summer HAF programme and therefore we would really like you to outline the following information:
- Details of who you are e.g., organisation name/school name/charity name etc.
- Main contact details e.g., name of key contact, email, phone number, address etc
- Likely dates you would like to run over the Cheshire East summer holiday period. Ideally, the Department for Education (DfE) would like a 4-week, 4-day, with 1 day being equal to 4 hrs (4x4x4 provision) over the summer school holidays, but we are flexible around this
- An approximate number of benefit-related free school meal eligible children and/or young people you could provide activities for on a daily basis
- Overview of your offer - to include types of activities, types of food and location/s
Once we have your expression of interest someone from the HAF team we will get back in touch with you. Please note the formal application process will go live week commencing 16 May 2022 and will close on the 1 June 2022 at midnight.
For further information about this holiday activity programme visit holiday activities and food programme.
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements |
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Duty to Refer Unsuitable People Working with Children
If you provide regulated activities or work for children, you have a legal duty to refer anyone who has left your organisation because they harmed or might have been at risk of harming a child.
Don't forget to sign up for the Early Years team Safer Recruitment training on Monday 23 May for further information.
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Health Visitor Contact Hub
The official launch of the Health Visitor Contact Hub took place on Monday 16 May. In the first instance, please share any concerns with your linked health professional. If you are unsure who that is, or you are a Childminder, please feel free to contact the Hub.
Cheshire East Safeguarding Children's Partnership - spaces on upcoming safeguarding courses
CESCP have spaces on the following upcoming safeguarding courses:
Digital Safeguarding – 9th June 9.30am-4.30pm
Safeguarding children through the child protection process – 13th June 9.30am-4.30pm
GCP2 Refresher 16th June 4.30-7.30pm (for people who have previously completed GCP2)
GCP2 21st June 9.30am-4.30pm
Complex Neglect – 23rd June 9.30am-4.30pm
Toxic Trio – 28th June 9.30am-4.30pm
Harmful Practices – 29th June 9.30am-2.30pm
All of these courses are running virtually using Microsoft teams.
Please apply using the online booking form:
https://form.cheshireeast.gov.uk/service/CESCP_Training_Booking_2022_23
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EYFS Learning and Development |
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Guidance on the Progress Check at age 2
The Department for Education (DfE) has published new early years foundation stage (EYFS) guidance to provide support for early years practitioners when completing the progress check at age two.
This non-statutory guidance will help all early years practitioners working with children between the ages of two and three to make an accurate assessment of a child’s development and work closely with parents and other professionals to put in place appropriate support and intervention where it is needed.
The guidance informs, supports and offers suggestions that can help practitioners review children’s development across the three prime areas of learning. It does not replace the professional judgement of practitioners but aims to support it. The guidance is clear that you do not need to spend a long time away from the children to complete the progress check or carry out excessive tracking or evidence collection.
The DfE has also published a vodcast to explain the new guidance to early years practitioners and a blog that highlights why the progress check is important now, more than ever as we support children to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Progress Check at age 2 - Early Start team offer
The Progress Check at age 2 is the Statutory Assessment as part of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage 2021 Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Here are some “musts” from the Assessment section of the framework (Section 2.4-2.6)
- The progress check must be undertaken when a child is aged between 2 and 3
- Practitioners must review progress and provide parents with a written summary linked to the 3 prime areas
- Practitioners must discuss with parents how the summary can used to support the home learning
- Practitioners must agree with parents and/or carers when will be the most useful point to provide a summary.
Beyond the prime areas, it is for practitioners to decide what the written summary should include, reflecting the development level and needs of the individual child. (EYFS 2021)
Quality Improvement and the Early Years Reforms – part 6
This week we are going to be considering how to support:
- … “the voice of a child and self-regulation
Intent – Effective feature 6: Self-regulation
“Self-regulation … refers to the ability to regulate our own behaviours. This might be about understanding what to do when we feel angry, how to cope with not getting our own way, and how to behave in a way that keeps us safe.” S. Cowley 2022
Implementation – Key messages
‘Children are not born with self-regulation skills. They develop them as they experience warm nurturing and loving relationships with important adults and others. Clear, sensible, and consistent behavioural boundaries are also important.’ Julien Grenier (2021.51)
Why do we listen to children?
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‘’Developing self-regulation, like many elements of development and learning, is not something children do by themselves. It is a process that grows out of attuned relationships where the caregiver and child are closely attentive to each other and engage in sensitive, responsive exchanges.” (Birth to 5 matters, 2021)
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‘’Language development is central to self-regulation: children use language to guide their actions and plans. Pretend play gives many opportunities for children to focus their thinking, persist and plan ahead.” (J. Grenier 2021)
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If you are a two-year-old and don’t get attuned responses from your key adult(s), then later on your capacity to keep calm and meet your own emotional-physiological needs is weakened’’(Dr. Suzanne Zeedyke 2022)
How do we listen to children?
- By tuning in to their verbal and nonverbal communications about their emotions.
- Tuning into children will develop a child’s sense of self -worth, confidence and make them feel valued
- By providing ways to help children make sense of their feelings by acknowledging their big and small emotions
- By being a supportive adult and co-regulating with them
- This helps them to eventually self-regulate
- By talking though challenges and difficulties together, which can help children develop resilience skills
Impact
- What difference has it made for the children in your setting?
- How do you know?
Tools to support
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Deadline for applications for SEN inclusion funding
The deadline for applications for SEN inclusion funding is 12 noon on 24th May 2022.
See link below for links to relevant paperwork.
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Continuous Professional Development |
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Parenting Journey - Early Years and Childcare Provider networks for Owners and Managers
Our final networking opportunities this term for Owners, Managers and Leaders of Cheshire East Early Years and Childcare settings, including childminders, will take place on 13th and 14th July via Teams. During this session we will be taking you on a journey from pre-birth to a child starting school. We will share with you the assessment opportunities, leaflets and guidance available to support you and the children in your setting. Details will be shared about the menu of offer available to you and your parents within the local children's centres.
Updates will also be provided from across the Early Start Team covering Ofsted inspection reports, Operation Encompass, Communication and Language Pathway and more.
To book your place, please log onto the Early Years Online Shop below.
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Our upcoming training courses
Communication and Language
Delivering Small Groups – 18th May 9.30am-12.30pm
Attachment and Communication – 16th & 17th June 1.00-4.00pm
2 year olds
Progress Check and Integrated Review at 2 – 16th June 9.30-11.30am
Safeguarding
Safer Recruitment – 23rd May 9.30-3.30pm at Oakenclough Children’s Centre
Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements – 23rd June 10.00am-12.00pm
SEND
Making sense of Autism (Tier 1) – 14th June 9.30-11.30am
EYFS
EYFS Part 1 & 2 - 10th June 10.00am -12.00pm
Networks
The last network meetings this term will take place on the following dates:
Let’s Talk Twos network ‘The rhythm’s gonna get you!’ – 24th May 9.30-11.00am or 25th May 1.30-3.00pm – via Teams
DSL network – 15th June 10.00am-12.00pm or 16th June 6.30-8.30pm – via Teams
SENCO network – 21st June 6.30-8.30pm, 22nd June 9.30-11.30am or 1.30-3.30pm via Teams
Early Language Lead network – 23rd June 2.00-4.00pm at YMCA, Crewe, 24th June 10.00am-12.00pm via Teams or 28th June 10.00am-12.00pm at Oakenclough Children’s Centre
To book your place, please log onto the Early Years Online Shop Early Years and Childcare Training Resources (cheshireeast.gov.uk)
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FEEE – Afghan and Ukrainian children
Afghan and Ukrainian children aged 2, 3 and 4 years old living in Cheshire East are entitled to 15 hours early education irrespective of the immigration status of the child or their parent(s). To claim FEEE funding for children from Afghanistan or Ukraine, please add their details to the Provider Portal in the usual way. Should the Provider Portal be closed, please email the FEEE Team (FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk) who will update your funding claim.
In addition, please also complete the short form (link below), enabling the local authority to monitor take-up of the free entitlement. Please complete this form each time an Afghan or Ukrainian child starts or leaves your setting. If any Afghan or Ukrainian children currently attend your setting, please retrospectively complete this form and continue to use the form as you have any new starters or leavers.
https://forms.office.com/r/RN5KbkKrzL
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