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Bulletin 293

27 November 2023

Welcome to our Early Years and Childcare bulletin. Previous bulletins are available at: Cheshire East Early years and Childcare Bulletin

Business Support

Spring Term Data Entry

The portal is closed for the spring term data entry to enable us to calculate interim payments.   Any new data added after the portal re-opens on 4 December will result in your interim payment being delayed.

Any additions/adjustments for the spring term made after 4 December will be reflected in your final payment.

Transferring from 2-year-old funding to Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)

A child in receipt of 2-year-old funding will not automatically receive Early Years Pupil Premium when they start claiming early years funding for 3- and 4-year-olds, this is because an EYPP eligibility check must be undertaken.  

Before claiming early years funding, parents are required to complete a parental declaration form which has the option to provide their personal data and consent for an EYPP eligibility check.

When submitting child data via the Provider Portal, settings must ensure that, where appropriate, parent details are entered, and the consent box is ticked confirming that parents have provided consent for their data to be used for an EYPP eligibility check. Please note, the consent box cannot be ticked on the Provider Portal if the parental declaration form consent box has not also been ticked.

Please share the EYPP parent leaflet with families EYPP-parent-leaflet.pdf.

Expanded entitlements from April 2024 onwards

From April 2024, the early education entitlement will be expanded for working families of younger children so they can access 15 hours per week, increasing to 30 hours per week by September 2025.

The expanded offer for younger children will be introduced in stages:

• From April 2024 - working parents of two-year olds can access 15 hours
• From September 2024 – working parents of children aged 9 to 23 months can access 15 hours
• From September 2025 – working parents of children aged nine months upwards can access 30 hours

Parents must work at least 16 hours per week and each parent must not earn more than £100,000 to be eligible for this expanded funding. Eligibility can be checked on the Childcare Choices website.

Applications for working parents of 2-year-olds will be accepted from 2nd January 2024 on the Childcare Choices website. To be eligible from 1 April 2024, children must have had their second birthday before 31 March 2022.

The current entitlement for 2-year-olds remains unchanged. Parents in receipt of certain benefits are able to check their eligibility for 15 hours funded childcare at any time via our webpage, or by contacting the Family Information Service on 0300 123 5033.  

FEEE Balancing Payments - Remittance Advices

You will receive remittance advices with the amount of your balancing payment. To find out what these payments relate to, please refer to the Administering the Free Early Years Entitlement (cheshireeast.gov.uk) webpage to access the Payment remittance advice guidance document

Reminder to apply for or reconfirm 30 hours childcare funding codes

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Registered providers other than childminders and childcare on domestic premises must obtain an enhanced criminal records check in respect of every person aged 16 and over (including for unsupervised volunteers, and supervised volunteers who provide personal care).

Early Years Section 11 Safeguarding Audit

‘Working together to safeguard children’ 2018 makes clear the statutory duties for
early years providers with regards to the safeguarding requirements for your
provision.

To enable us to support you with these requirements, we have put together a short
safeguarding audit to capture what you have in place in your provision. School managed or governor run provision do not need to complete this audit as schools complete separate Safeguarding Audits.  

Please complete the audit in full by Friday 1 December 2023.

If you have not received the audit email please contact: earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk 

National updates

Latest Ofsted Early Years Blog

Ofsted have published their latest Early Years Blog called 'Getting the right DBS when registering with Ofsted.' You can access it on the link below.

Share the Childcare Choices campaign with parents and carers

On 27 October 2023 the Department for Education updated the eligibility checker on childcarechoices.gov.uk, enabling parents to access personalised information on the support available to them, including which of the new transformational childcare offers they will be eligible for depending on the age of their child and earnings.    

An additional feature added to the website is a subscribe for updates function, which will give parents the opportunity to sign up for regular newsletters letting them know when they should take action to make sure they are getting the support they are entitled to – including information about wraparound for primary school children and when the new 15 hours for two-year-olds becomes available for sign-ups, with the offer beginning in April 2024.   

The Department for Education have also produced a communication toolkit for partners which includes key information and resources about the government childcare support and how they can support the campaign.

Mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse consultation

In its final report the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) recommended that the government introduce a legal requirement for certain people to report child sexual abuse.

The Home Office published a call for evidence on the implementation of such a duty on 22 May 2023, which concluded on 14 August. This sought views on how a duty to report child sexual abuse might affect children, organisations, workplaces and volunteers.

The government is launching this consultation to set out proposals for creating a mandatory reporting duty and to test opinion on a small but significant number of undecided policy questions.

This consultation closes on 30 November 2023, please respond on the link below.

EYFS Learning and Development

Bookstart Christmas Jumper Day

Bookstart Star Packs for Children with Additional Needs

SEND

SENCo Contact Details

Please ensure that the SENCo contact details for your setting are up to date. If you have referred a child at your setting to the newly created Early Years Forum, the outcome of Forum will be shared with SENCos via the contact details held on the Provider Portal.

Please check the information held by the Early Years Team via the Staff section of the Provider Portal and add/delete SENCo details as required. Guidance notes are available.

SEND Consultations

If you would like to book an SEND, PSED or Communication and Language consultation, please email: earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk

You will be sent paperwork to complete, once that is finished and returned by secure email, including with a parent/carers signature, you will be offered a consultation slot.

Cheshire East Chatters

Family Hubs

Childminder Drop In Christmas dates

We are looking forward to seeing lots of childminders at our monthly drop in at Congleton Library and Monks Coppenhall Family Hub. This month we will have a festive theme so come in your Christmas jumpers and we’ll get into the Christmas spirit together.

Continuous Professional Development

Free Health Training for staff in schools and other child focussed settings

Please find below details of 2 training opportunities for anyone working with children

1. Why Weight to talk

In Cheshire East, we want to make it easier for everyone to achieve and maintain a healthier weight. We know that being able to talk about weight and being signposted to relevant support can really help, but many practitioners find it a difficult subject to bring up.

The team at Food Active have developed a universal training programme to help practitioners across the borough to understand more about healthier weight and learn new ways of engaging in short conversations to support children and families and to signpost them to services where appropriate.

There are a range of training sessions, online or face to face, available from November 2023 to March 2024.

Further details and booking arrangements can be found at:

Why weight to talk Cheshire East

2. Asthma training

‘The National Capabilities Framework for Professionals who care for Children and Young People with Asthma’ training is aimed at anybody who may encounter a child or young person with asthma and includes childcare providers, those working in education, uniformed services, sports coaches, social services, local government, health care workers.

Courses are FREE and accessible though https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/.

This training will help to raise awareness of Asthma and support people to be aware of the skills and knowledge that are required to ensure they can safely care for a child and young person with asthma. More information can be found here: Asthma (Children and young people) - elearning for healthcare (e-lfh.org.uk)

Autumn Owners and Managers Briefings

The Autumn Owners and Managers briefings are now available to book on the following dates:

Thursday 30 November 6-8pm on Microsoft Teams

The sessions will be focussing on the processes for the new EY SEND forums, safer sleep and leading a whole team approach to curriculum. It is an opportunity to hear from our early years team, network with other owners and managers and ask questions. 

Please book on through the training hub.

Upcoming Training Opportunities

The Chess hub has been updated with lots of training opportunities up until December, please take a look and book on now!

Some training available in the next few weeks:

Don't Forget!

Cheshire East Key messages regarding infections including colds, flu and Covid-19

The key underlying public health message for respiratory illnesses including COVID-19 and flu is that if someone is too unwell to attend school or work and carry out their normal activities or if they have a raised temperature, they shouldn't be in the setting. They should stay at home until they are well enough to return.

Most people no longer have access to COVID-19 tests but, if they do and they test positive for COVID-19, then the current NHS advice is to try and stay at home for five days (three days for children) after the first positive test result. After this time, they can return even if they have a positive test result, if they are well enough.

A few people may have a positive COVID-19 test but have no symptoms. It is likely that they are infectious and so can pass on the virus, especially during the early stages, so the advice would be to try to work from home for five days if possible. If they are unable to work from home, then a risk assessment should be done to explore what options are available.

Actions for settings

• Manage each infection in line with the NHS/UKHSA advice
• Contact UKHSA if necessary
• Report cases via the online form – request call back if further advice needed
• Issue parent/carer letters re measles and advice re illness

Key links and contacts

Health protection in education settings

UKHSA – candmphu@ukhsa.gov.uk  or 03442250562

Cheshire East Cheshire East education settings infection reporting form

Early Years Training Hub – reminder to sign up

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to the new Early Years Training Hub. If you haven’t yet signed up, please do so now.  You can sign up by accessing this link:

Chess Early Years Training Hub (sla-portals.co.uk)

Then click on the SIGN UP link on the top right hand side of the login page.

The Provider Login button on our Early Years and Childcare Training Resources (cheshireeast.gov.uk) webpage will also give you access to the new Early Years training Hub.

Through our Training and Events page you can find information about the training and CPD offer available to Early Years practitioners in Cheshire East. You can access the Hub via the link on our training web page:  however you will need to request personal login details by signing up to the Hub.

Please note: If you already have access to the Schools Chess Hub you do not need to sign up again however please email us to request additional access user rights to the Early Years Hub.