View this email in a browser

Bulletin 316

17 June 2024

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

Business Support

Jobcentre Plus Support for Employers

Jobcentre Plus' network of local Employer Advisers can help you to find the right people for your jobs. They will work with you to fill your vacancies using the most suitable recruitment solution, including: help with job descriptions speeding up your recruitment process promoting your vacancies in local Jobcentres and on their social media use of Jobcentre Plus offices for interviews (where available) and local recruitment events planning future recruitments find a job - a free online jobs site Contact your local Jobcentre Plus Employer Adviser on crewe.lmra1@dwp.gov.uk to advertise and promote your vacancies. This email address applies to all Jobcentre Plus' in Cheshire East.

Provider Portal – data for autumn term 2024

The provider portal will be open on Friday 28 June for providers to add autumn term 2024 data. The provider portal will close on Friday 26^th July for interim (70%) payments to be calculated and paid by week ending 30 August 2024.

If there are any issues with entering working family codes, please contact the team FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk or phone 01270 685888. Please be aware by incorrectly adding a 2YO as disadvantaged, providers are placing themselves at risk of having funding reclaimed.

When entering new children who are ‘nominated for DAF’ (Disability Access Fund) in the Provider Portal, please scan a copy of the Disability Living Allowance letter (DLA) to FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk to verify and receive the DAF payment of £910.

Advice for parents on parental leave applying for a working family eligibility code 

Parents on parental leave e.g., maternity leave who are applying for an eligibility code for the child who is the reason for the leave, or for parents starting a new job, the following applies: 

• If a parent is returning to work from parental leave before 30 September they can apply for the working parent entitlement now, to take up a place during autumn term. They need to apply online, and they will then receive a letter in the post within 1 to 2 weeks so they can access their childcare entitlement.
  
  
• If a parent is planning to start a new job before 30 September, but their start date is more than 31 days away, they should call HMRC on 0300 123 4097.
  
  
• If a parent is planning to start or return to work from parental leave between 1 October and 31 January, they’ll be able to apply from 1 September to take up a place during spring term. 

From 1 October, the below dates will apply:

If a parent is applying for childcare for an older child, who is not the reason for their parental leave, they can apply online regardless of their return-to-work date. 

Parental Declaration Form

In readiness for autumn term and the second phase of the expanded entitlements, updates have been made to the parental declaration form. This can be used for new children (parents can still sign the older version if in place, for any amendments). From April 2024 2-year-olds qualify for DAF and EYPP, and under 2s will qualify from September 2024, it is vital that the consent boxes on the parental declaration are ticked to enable an eligibility check to be completed.

Eligible working parents of children aged 9 months old and over can apply for 15 hours childcare

Parents need to apply for their code by 31 August and must reconfirm their details every three months via their Childcare Choices account. Codes applied for in May will have an end date in August and will therefore need reconfirming before the code can be used for autumn term 2024.

Once codes are provided by parents, please check the end date of the code via the Eligibility Checker on the Provider Portal by adding the code, child date of birth and parent/carer NI number.

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.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Supervision should provide opportunities for staff to: Discuss any issues – particularly concerning children’s development or wellbeing, including child protection concerns. Identify solutions to address issues as they arise. Receive coaching to improve their personal effectiveness.

National updates

EYFS Learning and Development

Let's Get Ready for School Book Bags

If your little ones are doing a transition day soon to 'Big School' ready for September, why not borrow some of the libraries 'Let's Get Ready for School' book bags? Each one contains four specially selected books for sharing with young children as well as some helpful information about starting school. They are free to borrow and you can find them on the library catalogue: https://cheslive.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-shelves.pl?op=view&shelfnumber=8191

BookStart Getting Children Reading

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

SEND

Early Years to Primary Transition – Keep on Sharing!

During this last term, we hope you are enjoying lots of fun activities with the children and getting them ready for their next journey into primary school.

The SEND Transition Team have had lots of settings providing feedback on their transitions. One resource that settings found useful was this One Page Profile from the DFE. This could be used for every child, working with them and their families, to share a child/family centred approach with the next setting.
To note, this is separate from the Transition Plan the team have produced which is for those children who require a more enhanced transition.

The Transition Team would also like to thank those who attended their ‘School Snapshot drop in’ and hope you found it useful. Some more ‘drop ins’ for July have been scheduled which will be shared with you soon.

As always please get in touch if you have any feedback or would like further information from the team.

Cheshire East SEND Transition Team contact details:

Rachael Pickles – Transition Team Manager:
rachael.pickles2@cheshireeast.gov.uk 07816 144386

Loren Whiteside – Transition Adviser:
loren.whiteside2@cheshireeast.gov.uk 07557 801258

Tanya Houghton-Heath – Transition Adviser:
tanya.houghtonheath2@cheshireeast.gov.uk 07385 002348

SENIF Applications

When making an application for SENIF please provide a provision map to support your applications. Please click on the link below to download a copy.

SEND Inclusion Funding (cheshireeast.gov.uk)

Early Years Forum

Please can we remind everyone that if you are emailing any supporting documentation for children being presented at the Early Years Forum, that you email it to the Early Years forum inbox: Earlyyearsforum@cheshireeast.gov.uk
Please do not email this information to individual staff members.

Early Years Forum – Professional Portal access for uploading information

Where a child is due for review at Early Years Forum, Forum will ask childcare settings to provide an update on the child’s progress since the previous Forum. Requests for information will be sent to you via the professional portal.

If you are not already registered on the professional portal, you will need to create an account. To enable you to do this, the Business Intelligence Team will email you with instructions on how to register.

Please register for an account as soon as you receive an email from Business Intelligence so that you can respond to requests for information and attach any supporting documents via the professional portal, ensuring increased security when sharing sensitive data.

Cheshire East Chatters

Cheshire East Chatters Talking Walk-in's

Cheshire East Chatters Summer Term Training

Family Hubs

Childminder Pop-Up's

Childminder Drop-In's

Cheshire East Family Hubs

Continuous Professional Development

Stories and Rhymes Roadshow - 2nd July 2024

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:

Early Language Lead Network - 26th June 2024 10:00 - 12:00 (Teams)

This network will consider how children with limited understanding might feel, and how adults can support them to make sense of the world, with lots of practical tips for your nursery environment. There will also be an update on the Family Hubs rollout across Cheshire East and to increase awareness of all the brilliant services they offer for children and young people.

EYFS - Learning and Development Requirements and Assessment - 26th June 2024 10:00 - 11:30 (Teams)

This course will explore Section 1 - ‘The Learning and Development Requirements’ and Section 2 - ‘Assessment’ of the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework for group and school-based providers. This training looks at the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and offers useful links and information to take back to the setting when considering curriculum, assessment and Ofsted expectations.

Effective Interactions - 27th June 2024 09:30 - 15:30 (Congleton Library)

This one day interaction training course aims to discuss and define terms relating to communication and why interaction is so important. During the session you will look at 'Top Tips for Talking' and ways you can adapt your interactions to promote communication and support the needs of the developing child, you will discuss how language levels and interaction styles differ between children and how you can differentiate to support individual children's communication development and then focus on the practicalities of how to integrate high quality adult-interaction into your daily routine.

 EYFS - Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements - 1st July 2024 10:00 - 12:00 (Teams)

This course will explore Section 3 - ‘The Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements’ of the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework for group and school-based providers. This training encourages practitioners to recognise their role in the broader picture of keeping children safe and offers useful links and information to take back to the setting when considering inspection and Ofsted expectations.

Stories and Rhymes Roadshow - 2nd July 2024 09:30 - 12:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

You are invited to join us on our Stories and Rhymes Roadshow course where we will host a workshop focussing on our Rhymetime document and the Cheshire BookTrust Team will explore sharing stories to maximise the benefits for children and parents. 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.

Early Language Lead Network - 2nd July 2024 17:00 - 19:00 (Teams)

This network will consider how children with limited understanding might feel, and how adults can support them to make sense of the world, with lots of practical tips for your nursery environment. There will also be an update on the Family Hubs rollout across Cheshire East and to increase awareness of all the brilliant services they offer for children and young people.

What is my behaviour trying to tell you? - 5th July 2024 13:00 - 15:00 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

This session 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.

Basic Safeguarding Awareness - 10th July 2024 09:30 - 11:30 (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. 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.

Early Years Inclusion Toolkit - 19th July 2024 09:30 - 11:00 (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.

Don't Forget!

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 training 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.