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Bulletin 300

29 January 2024

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

Business Support

Early Years Entitlement Funding for 2024/25

The funding formula for 2024/25 will be submitted to the Children and Families Committee for approval in February. Subject to approval, the rates below will be introduced from 1 April 2024.

EYPP will be available to 2 year olds from April 2024.

Subject to approval, the rates below will be introduced from 1 September 2024 as the entitlements expand to include children from 9 months to 23 months old.

All rates applicable to all settings.

Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. It is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.

Providers are reminded that they can charge for meals and snacks as part of a free entitlement place and that they can also charge for consumables, such as nappies or sun cream, and for services such as trips and specialist tuition. However, providers should be mindful of the impact of additional charges on parents, especially the most disadvantaged. Providers, who choose to offer the free entitlements, are responsible for setting their own policy on providing parents with options for alternatives to additional charges, including allowing parents to supply their own meals or nappies, or waiving or reducing the cost of meals and snacks.

The purchase of additional hours of provision or additional services must not be a condition of accessing a free place. Charges for additional services should be fair and transparent.

Free Early Education Entitlement – Provider Portal Closing

The Provider Portal has now closed for Spring Term data. 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...

Children must usually be within sight and hearing of staff and always within sight or hearing. Whilst eating, children must be within sight and hearing of a member of staff.

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

Guidance on measles outbreaks

Education settings should follow the UKHSA guidance on managing measles. This advises them to:

• exclude the infected individual from the settings until 4 days after the onset of the rash (where the date of the rash onset is day 0),
• encourage all children and young people over the age of one year old to have the combined MMR vaccination,

Anyone with symptoms is advised to stay at home and phone their GP or NHS 111 for advice, rather than visiting the surgery or A&E, to prevent the illness spreading further. There will be further advice if a setting has cases as well as info about vaccinations

Key Contacts for schools – current advice is to first contact UKHSA who are responding regionally candmhpu@ukhsa.gov and Tel: 03442250562

Local Authority support : If you still have are issues or queries or there are business continuity issues then please contact the LA  via Educationreferencegroup@chesireeeast.gov.uk

The following UKHSA guidance is available on GOV.UK:

• Health protection in children and young people settings, including education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Managing outbreaks and incidents - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).Managing outbreaks and incidents - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The NHS also has the following advice for parents on measles:

• Measles - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

The Department for Education has published an Education Hub blog with guidance on measles and the MMR vaccine for parents, nurseries and schools.

Upload your vacancies to the Find a Job platform ahead of the Department for Education’s national recruitment campaign

The Department for Education’s campaign to promote early years (EY) and childcare careers launches soon. The campaign aims to highlight the difference EY professionals make to children and how rewarding working in the sector can be. 

The campaign will direct applicants to use the Department for Work and Pensions’ Find a Job platform to search for EY roles in their area. The Department for Education would be grateful for your support in ensuring as many EY vacancies as possible are listed on Find a Job ahead of the campaign launch.

Please watch these video tutorials to help you create an employer account, and post any current or upcoming roles in your setting. You should use the term ‘early years’ in the title of your job adverts and select ‘Education jobs’ for the job category.

Since the January opening of the registration process for the expanded entitlements offer, the Department for Education have seen a high level of demand from parents. The Find a Job service is free to use and will ensure your vacancies are seen by a large pool of candidates.

Participate in Safer Internet Day 2024 

Safer Internet Day on 6 February 2024 is centred around the theme ‘Inspiring Change: Making a Difference, Managing Influence, and Navigating Change Online.’

Join the celebration alongside thousands of other organisations to advocate for the safe, responsible, and positive use of digital technology among children and young people.

A variety of complimentary educational resources are available, specifically designed to assist educators in conveying messages about the campaign theme of navigating change online.

EYFS Learning and Development

Bookstart LGBTQ+ Month

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 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 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

Currently Cheshire East are below the national average for the uptake of the Healthy vouchers scheme.  This scheme provides: £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 Which can be spent on: fresh or frozen or tinned whole or chopped packaged or loose fruit in fruit juice, or fruit or vegetables in water fresh, dried or tinned pulses Applying online Eligibility criteria If you get Universal Credit, you can apply online if: you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have at least one child under 4 years old your family’s monthly ‘take-home pay’ (also called ‘earned income’) is £408 or less from employment If you get Child Tax Credit, you may be eligible for Healthy Start if: your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less you do not get Working Tax Credit

Childminder Drop-in's

Continuous Professional Development

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 

Early Years Training Brochure

There is an updated training brochure 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!

Upcoming training:

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.