View this email in a browser

Bulletin 299

22 January 2024

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

Business Support

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.

Free Early Education Entitlement – Provider Portal Closing

The Provider Portal will be closing for Spring Term data entry on Friday 26^th January 2024. For any adjustments/additions please email the signed parental declaration form to the FEEE Team FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk.

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.

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.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Providers must comply with requirements of health and safety legislation. 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. One of the sessions that was requested was Manual Handling in Early Years settings. Please complete the questionnaire on the link below: https://forms.office.com/e/m6wZYfYf61

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.

National updates

Early Years Inspection Handbook

Ofsted guidance on inspecting registered early years and childcare providers under the education inspection framework had been updated. Please see the summary of changes on the link below.

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

EYFS Learning and Development

Bookstart Star Packs 

SEND

Special educational needs inclusion funding (SENIF) policy

Thank you for your responses to the recent consultation.  The new policy was approved by Children and Families committee and is now available on the link below.

SENCO Networks

The SENCo Networks are now available 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 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.

Cheshire East Chatters

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 16^th Jan CANCELLED

Broken Cross 26^th Jan CANCELLED

Additional date Oakenclough Toddlers Together 24^th 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!

Family Hubs

NHS Healthy Start - For Parents

If you’re at least 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4 years old, you could get help to buy milk, fruit and vegetables. If you qualify you get: £4.25 each week of your pregnancy from the 10th week £8.50 each week for children from birth to 1 year old £4.25 each week for children between 1 and 4 years old The money will stop when your child is 4 years old or if you no longer receive benefits.

Childminder Drop-in's

Continuous Professional Development

Rhyme Time Roadshow - 30th January 2024

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!

Upcoming training:

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?

Rhymetime Roadshow - 30th January 2024 1.30-4.30pm (Education Library Service, Browning Way, Winsford)

You are invited to join us on our Rhymetime Roadshow course where we will host a workshop focussing on our Rhymetime document and our Bookstart Corner pack. Learn about the importance of rhymes, songs and stories to support all aspects of a child's learning and development and how you can use these resources to build, deliver and support an effective curriculum.

Delivering Small Groups - 30th January 2024 6-8.30pm (Teams)

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.

Good Autism Practice - 5th February 2024 9.30am-3.30pm (Oakenclough Family Hub)

This is a module for practitioners who work directly with autistic children in early years settings, and it provides guidance on processes and tools that can help practitioners to implement good autism practice.

Let's Get Outside - 5th February 2024 2.30-4pm (Teams)

An outdoor learning environment provides children with the chance to learn about the world around them. Being outside has a positive impact on children’s well-being and development. The outdoor environment enables us to extend our curriculum to adapt to each child’s unique interests.

Basic Safeguarding Awareness - 6th February 2024 9.30-11.30am (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.

Making Sense of Autism - 6th February 2024 9.30-11.30am (Teams)

A really useful session that will ensure participants will know the importance of understanding the individual child on the autism spectrum and their profile of strengths and weaknesses and be able to identify the four key areas of difference that need to be taken into account when working with children on the autism spectrum.

Two-Year-Old Training - Busy Being 2 - 7th February 2024 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

Don’t miss out - “staff attended training that extended their knowledge about meeting the needs of two-year-old children. The training was a valuable opportunity” (Ofsted, 2023).

Role of the DSL - 8th February 2024 9.30am-3.30pm (Monks Coppenhall Family Hub)

This one day training course provides information and guidance to practitioners new to the role of the DSL or those wishing to refresh their knowledge.

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 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.