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Bulletin 302

12 February 2024

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

Business Support

Provider Portal software upgrade and summer term data submission dates

In preparation for collecting summer term data, the Provider Portal will be upgraded. Providers will then be able to submit the details of 2-year-olds from working families who are eligible for 15 hours of childcare per week from April 2024.

Due to the system upgrade, the Provider Portal will open slightly later than planned on Thursday 14 March for you to add your summer term data. The Provider Portal will then close on Sunday 24 March for interim (70%) payments to be calculated and paid by Friday 12 April.  Any late data will result in a delayed interim payment.

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.

2-year-old eligibility codes

Working families entitlement: to apply for a code parents should go to childcarechoices.gov.uk or call Childcare Choices on 0300 123 4097.

Eligibility codes will be issued in the same format as the 30-hour codes for 3- and 4-year-olds which are 11 digits and start with ‘50...’. The same code will remain with the child until they reach school age regardless of whether they drop in and out of eligibility.

Parents are required to reconfirm their code every 3 months and will be reminded to do so via an email or text from Childcare Choices.

Providers can check the validity of working family 2-year-old codes now by using the Eligibility Checker on the Provider Portal. 

Current entitlement: Parents of 2 year olds who are in receipt of certain benefits are able to check their eligibility for 15 hours funded childcare via our webpage, or by contacting the Family Information Service on 0300 123 5033.  

Eligibility codes are 6 digits and are a mixture of letters and numbers.

Unlike the working family entitlement, parents who receive a 6-digit code will continue to be eligible for a 2-year-old place until their child turns 3 and receives 3-year-old funding. 

Useful information for working parents of 2-year olds

Please share the link below with your parents via your social media links Useful information for working parents of 2-year-olds (cheshireeast.gov.uk)

Expanded entitlements from April 2024 onwards

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.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Measles: Current management of cases and advice for staff re immunity status

Please find below information about how suspected measles cases are currently being managed.

• Parents/carers who suspect their child has measles should contact their GP or call 111
• Arrangements will be made for the child to be seen and if measles is suspected a swab will be taken.
• This is then counted as a ‘suspected’ case and the parent/carer will be advised on care and isolation.
• If the setting wishes to inform other parents, then the phrase ‘suspected case’ should be used
• If the swab is positive, then is it a ‘confirmed’ case
• The clinician who obtained the test will be alerted to any laboratory confirmed cases – They will contact the setting to update and advise
• UKHSA will then contact the setting to discuss the case and give appropriate advice.

If there is a confirmed case in your setting, then please contact UKHSA if they have not already contacted you.

Staff are advised to check if they are fully vaccinated against measles

This can be done by checking on the NHS app

Anyone who works directly with children and who has not had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine is encouraged to do so. This may be possible through your Occupational Health provider or by contacting your GP surgery. A mobile unit will be visiting Cheshire East, dates and locations are below.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Safeguarding policies must include: • The action to be taken when there are safeguarding concerns about a child. • The action to be taken in the event of an allegation being made against the member of staff. • How mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities are used in the setting.

National updates

The Department for Education have launched their ‘Do something BIG, work with small children’ recruitment campaign

The ‘Do something BIG, work with small children’ early years early years campaign is now live. It aims to raise the profile of the sector and showcase the important contribution early years and childcare professionals make in preparing young children for learning in school and beyond.

Alongside this, the DfE have launched an early years careers website. This includes information on all areas of early years work, routes into the sector and real-life stories.

It also directs people to Department for Work and Pensions’ Find a Job platform to search for early years roles in their area. Watch the video tutorials to help you list any vacancies in your setting on Find a Job. Please use the term ‘early years’ in the title of your job adverts and select ‘Education jobs’ for the job category.

The DfE will also share a campaign toolkit shortly with assets you can use for your promotional and recruitment needs.

Education Hub blog

The Department for Education have released a new blog post 'Everything you need to know about apprenticeships in early years and how to find one.'

EYFS Learning and Development

Bookstart National Chip Week

World Book Day Tokens

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 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

Family Hubs

Monks Coppenhall Family Hub with centre of excellence for SEND

Continuous Professional Development

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:

Prevent - 14th February 2024 10-11.30am (Teams)

The Prevent Engagement Officer for Liverpool City Council will be leading this Prevent training session for early years providers. The training will cover the Prevent duty, different extremist ideologies that can lead to terrorism and the risk around radicalisation and your supportive role.

Supporting Speech Sounds - 15th February 2024 1-4pm (Monks Coppenhall Family Hub)

This course is designed to help you support children’s communication and language development.

DSL Cluster - 27th February 2024 9.30-11.30am or 28th February 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

These virtual sessions are intended to further develop your DSL's understanding, knowledge and skills. Childminders are the DSL for their setting.

Good Autism Practice - 27th 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.

Progress Check and Integrated Review at 2 - 27th February 2024 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

Explore the process of coordinating the Progress check within your setting to fulfil the statutory requirements of the EYFS and how this links in with integrated review which brings together the Early years Progress check at age 2 and the Health development check.

Introduction to the Communication Pyramid - 28th February 2024 1-4pm (Teams)

This training will provide a brief introduction to attachment and its links to communication development - including an overview of interaction, play and language development and speech sounds. This sessions offers a chance to explore these areas of communication and how you can support them in the Early Years.

What is my behaviour trying to tell you? - 29th February and 7th March 2024 6.30-8.30pm (Teams)

The sessions will explore how we can be curious about behaviours and what might be affecting the child at that given time, build a supportive, appropriate curriculum using the EYFS and development matters as a guide, consider current strategies and approaches to ensure they meet the needs of all children and embed behaviour conversations in your practice and develop a whole setting approach to supporting children’s behaviour.

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.