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Bulletin 298
15 January 2024
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Annual DfE Early Years Census of Private, Voluntary, and Independent (PVI) Providers and Children
The annual DfE early years census of private, voluntary, and independent (PVI) providers and children takes place on Thursday 18th January 2024. The census collects data on all children taking up free provision during census week (week commencing 15th January 2024).
In addition to the spring term data already submitted for children taking up a free place, PVI providers are required to complete the Early Years Census form.
The census form is now available on the 'Forms' tab of the Provider Portal.
 Any PVI provider that has no funded children at the time of the census does not need to complete the form. Guidance notes for completing Section 3 of the form (numbers of staff and their qualifications) are available on our webpage.
A Privacy Notice for parents explaining how information about their child is used in early years providers is also available on our webpage. Please amend the form as appropriate and make your parents aware of the document.
The census form must be submitted by Friday 26th January 2024.
Free Early Education Entitlement Funding (FEEE) - Egress
Providers must use Egress to communicate by email. Egress is a free software enabling the local authority and providers to exchange confidential information such as child and parent details.
Providers can click on the link to register for the free service Egress Switch | Sign Up.
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.
Apply to claim government-funded childcare provision for 2 year olds
More parents and carers can now apply to claim their government-funded childcare provision for 2 year olds. This will give eligible working parents access to 15 hours of childcare per week from April 2024.
We recommend that parents apply for childcare support between now & the end of February to get their code in good time.
For more information and to apply, parents and carers should go to childcarechoices.gov.uk or call Childcare Choices on 0300 123 4097.
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Expanded entitlements for ages 2 and under
The new 2 year old entitlement is not accessed in the same way as the existing 2 year old entitlement. Parents need to check eligibility through childcarechoices.gov.uk. Please see the link below for further information.
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements |
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...
The Cheshire East Safeguarding Children's Partnership Learning
Week: 05 - 09 February 2024
Each day will explore safeguarding implications relating to different ages/stages of a child's lifetime, tracking potential difficulties/risk from pre-birth to adulthood.
Presented through the frontline lens' of local services, the child will always be central with lots of case examples and explicit links to young people's perspectives to reflect the Partnership focussed theme of: 'Voice of the Child and their Lived Experience'.
Events will be delivered in a range of accessible formats: short on-line, in-person courses and 'how to…' workshops and on Wednesday 07 February 2024 a Spotlight On… in-person session - an ambitious drop in multi-agency networking opportunity at
Macclesfield Town Hall.
See link below for further information.
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Household Support Fund Current Funding Position
The Department for Work and Pensions’ Household Support Fund (HSF) ends on 31 March 2024. As of the 15 January 2024, local authorities have received no official communication that the HSF will continue beyond this date. As soon as any updates are available, we will share these with you.
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DfE publishes minor amends to revised EYFS Frameworks
The Department for Education (DfE) has published a slightly-updated version of the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Frameworks.
In both the group/school-based provider and the childminder version of the Frameworks, the section on paediatric first aid (page 28 of the group/school EYFS and page 21 of the childminder EYFS) now includes an additional footnote stating:
"Providers are responsible for identifying and selecting a competent training provider to deliver their PFA training. Training is available from a wide range of providers including: those who offer regulated qualifications; or the Voluntary Aid Societies (St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross and St Andrew’s First Aid who together are acknowledged by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as one of the standard setters for currently accepted first aid practice for first aid at work training courses); or those who operate under voluntary accreditation schemes; or one that is a member of a trade body with an approval and monitoring scheme; or those who operate independently of any such accreditation scheme."
Section 3.24 of the childminder version of the framework has also been slightly amended from:
"What practitioners know, plan for, and do matters for children’s learning, development, safety, and happiness in settings. Childminders must have appropriate qualifications, training, skills, knowledge, and a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities in order to provide good quality early years provision."
to
"What practitioners know, plan for, and do, matters for children’s learning, development, safety, and happiness in settings. Childminders must have appropriate skills, knowledge, and a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities in order to provide good quality early years provision."
Early Years Professional Development Programme
The Department for Education are now recruiting for the final cohort starting April 2024 – your last chance to join this funded programme.
The Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP) is funded by the Department for Education in England and delivered by Education Development Trust. The training is free-to-access and delivered online to early years practitioners and childminders in England. Forming part of the government’s early years education recovery package, this programme provides evidence-informed CPD to practitioners to support the development of 2-4 year olds to improve outcomes on school readiness, early language, early mathematics and Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
Please click on the link below for further information and to sign up:
Early Years Professional Development Programme
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EYFS Learning and Development |
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Bookstart Star Packs
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Special educational needs inclusion funding (SENIF) policy
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Thank you for your responses to the recent consultation.
The new policy was approved by Children and Families committee and will be available on the link below later this week.
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SENCO Networks
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 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.
Please note that the SLCN and SEND paperwork has been updated. Please delete any old copies that you have saved and email for the latest forms.
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Cheshire East Chatters Talking Walk-in's changes
There have been a couple of amendments to the Talking Walk-in schedule as detailed below:
Oakenclough 16th Jan CANCELLED
Broken Cross 26th Jan CANCELLED
Additional date Oakenclough Toddlers Together 24th January
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!
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Information for Parents - Family Hub Drop-In’s for the North Locality
Please see below for details of weekly Family Hub Drop-In’s for the North locality going forward. If you could please share this information with parents from your setting via newsletter, notice board etc it would be appreciated:
All families and young people need a bit of help from time to time and the Family Help Team are here to do just that.
We have a drop-in session at each of our Family Hubs/Children's Centres where members of the Family Help Team will be on hand to provide free information, advice and support. We support families with children aged 0-19 (25 with special educational needs and disabilities) and we aim to make it easier for you to ask for help, and get you the right support at the right time, and if this isn't us, we will make sure you are in touch with other services which may be able to help, this may include support around managing challenges at home, keeping you and your family safe and queries around accessing other services.
Your drop ins are 10-12 and are held at;
Congleton Family Hub – every Monday (except bank holidays)
Ash Grove Family Hub – every Monday (except bank holidays)
Oakenclough Family Hub – every Tuesday
Hurdsfield Childrens Centre – every Wednesday
Macclesfield Family Centre, Macclesfield Town Hall – every Thursday
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Continuous Professional Development |
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Future Training Survey
At our Owners and Managers sessions in 2023, we asked what your training priorities were. We are now planning our training within those themes and would like to know what you think.
Please complete the questionnaire on the link below:
https://forms.office.com/e/m6wZYfYf61
Spring Term Training Brochure
The training for spring term is now available in a brochure, it is available on the link below.
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:
Together with our specialist Speech and Language Therapists you will explore ways to set up small groups focussing on the development of attention and listening skills as well as language skills and vocabulary.
Rhyme Time Roadshow - 30th January 2024
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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 Early Years Training Hub. If you haven’t yet signed up, please do so now to book on to training. You can sign up by accessing this link:
Chess Early Years Training Hub (sla-portals.co.uk)
Then click on the sign up button on the top right hand side of the login page.
The ChESS Early Years Training Hub button on our Early Years and Childcare Training Resources (cheshireeast.gov.uk) webpage will also give you access to the Hub.
Through our Early Years training page, you can find information about the training and CPD offer available to Early Years practitioners in Cheshire East.
Please note: If you already have access to the ChESS Hub for schools, you do not need to sign up again, however, please email us to request additional access user rights to the Early Years Hub.
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