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Bulletin 296

18 December 2023

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

Business Support

Free Early Education Entitlement - important dates information:

The provider portal reopens from Monday 4^th December until Friday 26^th January 2024 for additional Spring term data to be included in final payments. Final payments to be made week ending 8^th March 2024.

Closing date: Friday 15 January 2024 for Parents to apply for Reception school places for Primary 2024

Please note that the closing date to make an application for a child to start primary school in September 2024 is Monday 15 January 2024. Please can schools and Early Years providers remind parents of the deadline.  Wording for reminders and posters in alternative languages are available from the Admissions team.

Please can providers also follow Family Information Service on Facebook and Twitter and share reminders and advice.

https://www.facebook.com/FISCheshireEast and https://twitter.com/FISCheshireEast

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 2024.

Childcare Choices have a new newsletter about the upcoming expanded offer from April 2024 which explains how and when to register for support with childcare costs. Please encourage parents to sign-up for these updates via the Childcare Choices website.

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 interim payments

Interim payments were made to providers who met the deadline for Spring data last week. Payments for 2 and 3-year-olds were made, and 4-year-old payments will continue to be made this week.  We wanted to make sure as many providers received a payment as possible before a changeover of the authority’s bank from Barclays to Lloyds is implemented.  Payments will continue this week once the changeover is completed.

You can access the portal to find out what your remittance advice payment relates to and the 4-year-old payment to expect this week:

Guidance document can be found here Administering the Free Early Years Entitlement (cheshireeast.gov.uk)

Reminder to apply for or reconfirm 30 hours childcare funding codes

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Providers must take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children, staff and others on the premises in the case of fire or any other emergency, and must have an emergency evacuation procedure. From 1 October 2023, new fire safety legislation comes into effect which will impose new duties on businesses and buildings owners. See link below for further information from Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service

National updates

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The Department for Education have updated the ‘EYFS statutory framework for childminders’ and the ‘EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers’. These documents are valid from 4 January 2024.

EYFS Learning and Development

Bookstart Christmas Quiz

SEND

Share your views with the Cheshire East 0-25 SEND Partnership

Earlier this year, the Cheshire East 0-25 SEND Partnership opened online surveys to hear from professionals, families, parent carers, children, young people, educational settings and anyone who contributes to the delivery of SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) services for children and young people aged 0-25. There was a good response to these surveys, but we know that more people could contribute and provide their feedback. As a result, the partnership have decided to re-open the surveys for a further period in the run-up to the end of the year. If you didn’t have a chance to complete the survey and put your views across previously, please do complete the survey now and tell us what you think. The partnership is interested to hear about what is working well and what we could do better to improve the experiences and the outcomes of our children and young people with SEND. Please be assured that all of the responses that were previously submitted earlier this year will be included in the overall analysis. Different surveys are available for different audiences. All surveys will close by 5pm on Monday 18 December 2023, so please complete your survey before then. Please complete the following ‘Educational Setting survey’ if you work in an educational setting in any capacity to support at least 1 child or young person aged 0-25 with SEND. Educational setting: https://surveys.cheshireeast.gov.uk/s/SHUKFU/ We are also asking for your help to share with, and support, our children and young people with SEND and their families to complete their surveys via the links below. Children and young people survey: https://surveys.cheshireeast.gov.uk/s/AWRXNA/ Parent and carer survey: https://surveys.cheshireeast.gov.uk/s/C7H1ZS/ Finally, a ‘Professionals survey' is also available for staff working for the local authority or a health service. Professionals survey: https://surveys.cheshireeast.gov.uk/s/ED5HP2/ The feedback we receive will remain strictly confidential and will be used to help us identify what needs to be improved. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey and share your views.

SENCO Networks

The new SENCo Networks are now availble to book on the training hub.

At these meetings there will be opportunities for discussion with other SENCO’s, networking, sharing of effective practice/materials, input from other agencies, updates on new legislation/initiatives etc. Attendance at each termly cluster is highly recommended to keep your SEND knowledge up to date. 

• 26th January 2024 10-11.30am (Teams)
• 29th January 10-11.30am (Westfields, Sandbach)

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

Cheshire East Chatters Talking Walk-in's

Please share the information below with parents. The Talking Walk-in's are opportunities for parents to speak with a Speech and Language Therapist to receive advice and guidance to support their child at home.

Cheshire East Chatters Training

Please see attached the Cheshire East Chatters Training flyer for January-March 2024.

The training continues to be run by Specialist Speech and Language Therapists and is offered free of charge!

Family Hubs

Continuous Professional Development

For Childminders - Owners and Manager session 

We will be repeating our November Owners and Managers briefing session on Wednesday 17 January 6.30-8pm on Microsoft teams. This is specifically for Childminders to attend. Please book on through the training hub.

Spring Term Training now available on the Hub

The Chess hub has been updated with lots of training opportunities up for the Spring term, please take a look and book on now!

Some training available in January:

What is my behaviour trying to tell you? - 10th and 17th January 2024 9.30-11.30am (Teams)

This is suitable for all practitioners who work in early years and will provide the skills and knowledge to develop your understanding of children’s social and emotional needs.

Basic Safeguarding Awareness - 10th January 2024 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

This two hour training course will provide basic information and understanding about safeguarding children. It has been specifically written to address safeguarding in Early Years and Childcare Settings and covers practice and procedures used within Cheshire East.

Understanding the EIF and the Learning Walk - 16th January 2024 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

This two hour online session will give providers an opportunity to consider Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework in the light of the new Early Years Foundation Stage framework.

Introduction to Signalong - 23rd January 2024 9.15-12.30pm (Oakenclough Family Hub)

This course is aimed at all practitioners looking to adopt an inclusive approach to communication and learning. The emphasis is on the practical application of signing.

Difficult Safeguarding Conversations - 23rd January 2024 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

This two hour training course aims to provide practical advice to enable practitioners to feel more confident in starting conversations about safeguarding concerns.

Step Inside the Baby Room - 25th January 2024 9.30-11.30am or 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

This training is for anyone working with children under 2. It will cover how babies learn and develop in the first 2 years, how we can best meet their needs in all prime areas of development and build an environment and play resources that are right for babies.

WellComm - 25th January 2024 9.30am-3pm (Congleton Library)

Would you like to receive practical support on how to integrate WellComm activities into daily best practice within your setting? Or try out WellComm screening and activities from the Big Book of Ideas?

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.