Early Years Forum
We are excited to announce the launch of our Early Years Forum in September. Forum meetings will be held in both the North and South localities. The purpose of the Early Years Forum is to work as a multi-agency team to drive inclusive early support for our youngest children (0-4) with identified SEND needs.
Early Years Forum members will consist of representatives from Education, Health, and Social Care. Members will monitor children’s progress working alongside parents/carers, settings, and other professionals to recommend types of provision or, in cases where children have complex needs will make a recommendation for a Needs Assessment. Early Years Forum will capture parent/carer views and ensure decisions are made based on a child or young person’s needs in co-production with families.
Most referrals to Early Years Forum will be from health professionals, however, please contact us via the email address below to check if Forum is aware of a child with SEND at your setting. Early years settings should refer children to the Forum where it is believed that a child may have SEND following the graduated response.
Needs Assessment requests will be supported by the Early Years Forum, requests should no longer be sent directly to the SEND Team.
Referrals to Early Years Forum can be made via the Setting Referral form https://childrenandfamilieseportal.cheshireeast.gov.uk/web/portal/pages/eyforumref#h1. The date forms are received informs which monthly Forum the referral will be viewed and discussed.
 Please contact EarlyYearsSenHelpline@cheshireeast.gov.uk or call 01625 374170 if you have any queries.
Early years consultation on SEND network meetings
The early years team would like your views on starting an Early Years SENCO network meeting to facilitate settings sharing best practice and overcoming inclusion barriers.
Please could you fill in this short form to express your views so we can ensure that the meetings meet the needs of most early years providers:
https://forms.office.com/e/6nmsuBGDhn
SEND partnership events for early years stakeholders
As you may be aware, Cheshire East Council were invited to be part of the Delivering Better Value programme that was announced by the Department for Education (DfE) in February 2022. The programme was designed to provide dedicated support to help 55 local authorities where substantial deficit issues have been identified.
There has been various phases of the Delivering Better Value programme. As part of the diagnostic phase, we had the opportunity to apply for a one-off transformational grant of approximately £1 million. The Delivering Better Value programme will support Cheshire East to identify local and national opportunities to improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
We are now moving into the implementation phase of the programme, where we will be looking to plan and shape the changes required, to enable us to become more sustainable. As part of this, we will be hosting a number of launch events to bring colleagues up to speed with the programme and proposed changes over the next two years.
There will be two SEND partnership events for early years stakeholders. The event will look at the SEND inspection framework, share the outcomes from the Delivering Better Value programme and how this will be aligned to the SEND Strategy. If you would like to book on to one of these sessions, please use one of the booking links below.
DSG/SEND Strategy Engagement Event - Early Years Stakeholders Tickets, Fri 29 Sep 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
DSG/SEND Strategy Engagement Event - Early Years Stakeholders Tickets, Fri 29 Sep 2023 at 13:00 | Eventbrite
Please note: there is a maximum of two spaces per setting.
SEND Consultations
If you would like to book an SEND consultation, please email earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk
You will be sent paperwork to complete, once that is completed and returned you will be offered an SEND consultation slot.
Department for Education Level 3 Early Years SENCO training
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