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Bulletin 309
22 April 2024
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Early Education Entitlement – Monthly Payments
The current method of paying the grant in advance maximises cashflow but may impact on some childminders claiming Universal Credit. To support the relatively small number of childminders impacted by the current payment method, early education entitlement payments may be requested on a monthly basis.
The following example demonstrates the difference between the 2 payment methods. For the purpose of illustration, we have used the average amount paid to childminders per year.
 Payments on a monthly basis will be available from autumn term 2024 for those that wish to opt in. Lump sum payments in advance will continue for all other providers.
Please email feee@cheshireeast.gov.uk if you wish to receive payments on a monthly basis from autumn term 2024. Please include the name and Ofsted registration number of your provision in your email.
Grant funding to develop new childcare places
Childcare Expansion Capital Grant
This funding is intended to support expansion of the 30-hours early years entitlement for working families and wraparound provision in primary schools. It must be spent on capital projects, and is being provided to meet the capital costs associated with projects that help ensure sufficient places for:
- Children taking up an early years place through the expanded 30-hours entitlement for qualifying working parents (from the term following the child reaching 9-months to the term in which they turn 3-years-old);
- Increasing the supply of wraparound childcare for primary-school aged children.
Projects may be funded to develop either 30-hours early years entitlement or wraparound childcare, or both.
National Wraparound Childcare Programme
Revenue funding will be available to support the operating costs of new wraparound provision. The funding will be tapered. This reflects the expectation that the funding is used to fund set up and running costs of new and expanded wraparound places and that, as take-up of provision increases, and therefore income from parental payments increases, the level of grant funding needed to contribute to running costs to ensure sustainability reduces.
Details of how to apply for the development grants will be made available via this bulletin during summer term. Applications will be invited from all sectors; day nurseries, pre-schools, schools, childminders, before and after school childcare providers.
Briefing for Prospective Childminders
Please share this information on your social media accounts:
Are you interested in becoming a Childminder? We are running regular Childminder briefing sessions to provide information on what it means to be a Childminder and how to apply. Please click on the link below to complete the online form
Interested in Becoming a Childminder (cheshireeast.gov.uk)
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Interim Funding Payments
Interim funding payments have been made – you can view payment details on the Provider Portal under Funding.
Provider Portal
The Provider Portal is open for you to add new starters and any children added will be included in balancing payments.
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.
Disadvantaged 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 – fis.east@cheshireeast.gov.uk
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
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements |
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Trial ‘Belly Bugs’ for free to get students excited about healthy eating and help tackle obesity
Sunderland primary schools have successfully trialled an eight-lesson, cross-curricular pilot based on Belly Bugs (gut microbes) for Early Years Foundation Stage, key stage 1 and key stage 2.
Covering topics such as fibre, colourful food and sustainability, the pupils loved discovering they had little helpers inside them keeping them healthy and happy. School cooks reported an increase in uptake of vegetables and salad during the pilot.
Contact zoe@bellybugs.co.uk if you are interested in trialling the programme.
Sign up for the Secretary of State’s April start-of-term live event
Join the Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan for a live start-of-term event on 24 April 2024 at 4:00pm.
The session will be a chance to hear about the Secretary of State's focus for the coming term, share your own priorities with her and pose questions for her to answer.
You can pre-submit questions for the Secretary of State or post them live in the chat during the session.
Foundation Years Live Event in Leeds
Foundation Years will be hosting a free in-person event for early years practitioners on 14 May 10:00 - 15:30 at The Met Hotel in Leeds
This event will include keynote speakers including Ofsted, DfE Family Hubs – Start for Life, and the DfE Early Years safeguarding team, and workshops on topics including:
- Characteristics of Effective Learning with Jan Dubiel - specialist in Childhood Education
- Meeting the needs of babies with Ruth Sharpe - Director of Forest School Nursery
- Practical approaches to supporting children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development with Abi Miranda - Head of Early Years and Prevention department at Anna Freud
Household Support Fund Update April 2024
On 6 March 2024 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, presented his Spring Budget to Parliament. The Chancellor confirmed that the Household Support Fund (HSF) would be extended for a further six months, from 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2024.
Now that we have confirmation of the HSF continued funding and have received the updated HSF eligibility guidance and grant conditions from the Department for Work and Pensions, we are working at pace to design what the future HSF support package will look like, ensuring that it goes to those most in need.
Further updates will be provided on the Cheshire East HSF webpage.
Details of additional support can be found on Cheshire East’s Live Well webpage.
Changes to Ofsted guidance
Ofsted have updated the Early Years Inspection Handbook with changes around Equality Act duties, pausing inspections and the complaints process. Ofsted's policy for considering whether to defer or pause an inspection or visit, or whether additional evidence needs to be gathered has also been updated, and they have published a new complaints process for events that took place after 4 April 2024.
DfE on measles, the MMR vaccination and managing outbreaks
On Monday 4 March the Department for Education hosted a webinar on measles, with speakers from the UK Health Security Agency, the NHS and Inspire Education Trust. Watch a recording of the webinar below.
The DfE have also updated their blog on 'what to do if you think your child has measles and when to keep them off school', to answer some of the questions raised in the webinar. Read the blog below.
DfE vodcast for schools on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Profile
The Department for Education have published a vodcast for schools to support teachers completing the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Profile.
The vodcast:
- provides an overview of the EYFS Profile;
- addresses potential myths;
- answers commonly asked questions and
- signposts where you can find further support on completing the Profile.
Childcare applications for parents of 9-month-olds
From 12 May, eligible working parents of children from 9 months old will be able to register to access 15 hours of government-funded childcare a week, from September 2024. See the full press release below.
Department for Education Childminder Recruitment and Retention Consultation
The Department for Education are seeking views on proposals to support childminders and childminder agencies (CMAs) with recruitment and retention and future policy development.
The consultation is running from Friday 15 March to Friday 10 May and is available via the button below.
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EYFS Learning and Development |
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Let’s Get Ready for School Book Bags
If you have little ones who are due to be starting school, we have 10 different book bags for you to borrow from our libraries.
Each bag contains some useful information, three specially selected picture books about topics such as starting school, feeling nervous and making friends, as well as a wordless picture book for sharing together.
The bags are free to borrow for three weeks and are a great way to tackle this big milestone and help to make starting school seem a bit less daunting.
You can pop into your local library or click the button below to find them on the library catalogue.
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Local School Nature Grants
The Local School Nature Grants programme will return this year, supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery
Open to schools and early years settings in England, Scotland, and Wales, this outdoor learning grant fund has two elements – £500 of outdoor equipment chosen from a catalogue of over 100 items, and an outdoor learning training course for your staff.
Since their launch in 2017, Local School Nature Grants have helped nearly 3,500 schools across England, Scotland, and Wales to improve their outdoor learning provision. The grants have enabled thousands more children to profit from time in nature.
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BookTrust Share a Story with Daddy
BookTrust Pyjamarama
 To contact BookTrust, please see the contact details below:
Frances Lennon, BookTrust Coordinator - 07827 954086
Sarah Harrison, BookTrust Administrator - 07827 877966
bookstart@cheshiresharedservices.gov.uk
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SENCO Network
- 25th April 2024 10:00 - 11:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)
SEN Inclusion Funding (SENIF) – summer term 2024
Children in receipt of SEN Inclusion Funding before 1 January 2024, when the new SENIF policy was introduced, will continue to receive funding during summer term 2024. New agreement schedules will be issued in April.
Many of these children will start school in September 2024. Children who have not yet reached school age by September and therefore continue to access their early education entitlements will require a new SENIF application under the terms of the new policy.
Applications for SEN Inclusion Funding received after 1 January 2024 are considered under the new SENIF policy. Should SENIF be agreed, a one-off payment is made based on the tiers / bands outlined in the policy. Should more support be required, providers must submit a further application to the SENIF panel.
SEND Inclusion Funding (cheshireeast.gov.uk)
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 SENCO's 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 a 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 to request the latest forms.
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Cheshire East Chatters Summer Term Training
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.
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Our Family Hubs Digital Offer is now live!
 On Tuesday 2 April we launched our Family Hubs Digital Offer - an online resource dedicated to sharing all the help, support and information that families need if they cannot access a physical Family Hub in the borough.
Family Hubs bring council, health and community services together, so that families with children and young people can access the right help and support, at the right time. The support is available for children and young people from birth up until the age of 19 (or 25 for those with special educational needs).
Over the past twelve months we’ve already opened five physical Family Hubs across the borough and are looking to develop further outreach provision through Family Hub ‘connect’ sites – offering the opportunity for more in-person support.
The Family Hub digital offer is a series of webpages which have been created through Livewell, and have been developed to extend our outreach to families.
Through the website, families can discover local events in the area, find out more about our SEND services, and the various family support available depending on a child's age.
We're looking forward to now being able to broaden our Family Hubs offer to make it more accessible for more of our children and families in Cheshire East. Please share with your families.
Read more in our media release
PVC Banner Collection
We are providing settings (nurseries, pre-schools, schools and childminders) in Cheshire East with a PVC banner to promote Childcare Choices and the new entitlements.
These are now available to collect from the reception at either:
- Oakenclough Family Hub, Colshaw Drive, Wilmslow, SK9 2PZ
- Monks Coppenhall Family Hub, Remer Street, Crewe, CW1 4LY
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Childminder Drop-In's
Family Help Drop In's
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Continuous Professional Development |
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Summer Term Training now available on the Early Years Training Hub
The ChESS Early Years Training Hub has been updated with lots of training opportunities for the Summer term, please take a look and book on now!
Upcoming training:
Basic Safeguarding Awareness - 14th May 2024 18:30 - 20:30 (Teams)
This training will help you to develop an awareness of, and the ability to act on, concerns about the safety and welfare of children and young people. It will enable you to understand your safeguarding role, be able to define, identify, understand and respond appropriately to signs of possible abuse and neglect and identify safer caring practices.
Delivering Small Groups - 15th May 2024 13:30 - 16:00 (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. You will learn more about how to identify children for the groups as well as sharing thoughts and ideas around using a total communication approach to support children to engage with the activities.
Early Years Inclusion Toolkit for Childminders - 5th June 2024 - 18:00 - 19:30 (Teams)
This session will concentrate on the new sections of the Cheshire East Inclusion Toolkit for Early Years and how they can be utilised effectively to support your role in the setting. We will also discuss the changes that are likely to be made to the paperwork and the new sections that are upcoming.
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Early Years Training Hub – reminder to sign up
Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to the ChESS 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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