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Bulletin 318

1 July 2024

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

Business Support

Reminder to apply/reconfirm childcare funding codes for free childcare entitlements for working families with children aged 9 months to 4 years old

Provider Portal – data for autumn term 2024

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

Please continue to email any additions/adjustments for the summer term to the FEEE Team at FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk.

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.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Providers must ensure that staff have sufficient understanding and use of English to ensure the well-being of children in their care. For example, settings must be able to: Keep records in English. Liaise with other agencies in English. Summon emergency help. Understand instructions. For example, about the safety of medicines or food hygiene.

National updates

EYFS Learning and Development

BookStart World UFO Day

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

Transition Resources for children and their families

The SEND Transition Team hope your EY children are excited for completing their last term in nursery or at their childminders and they are feeling prepared for their transition to reception.

Please find below some useful resources to help you and your children prepare for the move:

Starting Primary school - BBC Parents' Toolkit and useful resources for practitioners. This website offers bitesize videos to share with children and a toolkit for parents on lots of different topics to help all prepare for the transition.
Starting primary school - BBC Parents' Toolkit - BBC Bitesize

Supporting learners with autism during transition (autismeducationtrust.org.uk). This document has a focus on helping learners with autism prepare for all educational transitions.
Tool 9 - Supporting Learners with Transitions | Autism Education Trust

The BookTrust - Some of our favourite books for children who are starting school.
Starting School | BookTrust

The SEND Transition Team welcome any feedback and ideas on what is working well within your settings to help children prepare for the transition to primary school. Please do get in touch:

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 SENIF panel

The next deadline for Early Years SENIF panel is 2^nd July 2024. Please follow the link below and for all applications. You must submit a provision map alongside any other essential documents. The provision map template can be found within the link below. Early Years SENIF panel does not take place in August.

SEND Inclusion Funding (cheshireeast.gov.uk)

Early Years Forum Summer Deadlines

The deadline for Early Years Forum North 2^nd July 2024. The deadline for Early Years Forum South 9^th July 2024. Early Years Forum does not take place in August. Please email Earlyyearsforum@cheshireeast.gov.uk if you are uncertain if you are situated in the North or South locality.

Early years forum – information for practitioners (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

Family Hubs

Childminder Pop-Up's

Childminder Drop-In's

Cheshire East Family Hubs

Continuous Professional Development

Ofsted - Preparing for your Inspection

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from HM Ofsted Inspectors who will deliver invaluable inspection feedback and address some key challenges faced in Early Years, in order to help you to prepare for your inspection.

17th September 2024 10:00 - 11:30 or 18:30 - 20:00 (Teams)

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 - 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.