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Bulletin 330

11 November 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 – Data for Spring Term 2025

The provider portal is open for providers to add spring term 2025 data. The provider portal will close on Sunday 17 November for interim (70%) payments to be calculated and paid by week ending 20 December 2024.

Working family temporary eligibility codes

Once replaced with a 50… code, temporary eligibility codes starting with 11 are no longer valid. Please ensure the latest code is used when entering spring term data onto the Portal.

Parents on parental leave applying for a working family eligibility code

Parents applying for childcare for an older child who is not the reason for their parental leave can continue to apply as before regardless of their return-to-work date.

Parents on parental leave for example, 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 date parents return to work will affect when the working family entitlements can be accessed.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Providers must provide access to an outdoor play area. If that is not possible, they must ensure that outdoor activities are planned and taken on a daily basis (unless circumstances make this inappropriate, for example unsafe weather conditions). Providers must follow their legal responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 (for example, the provisions on reasonable adjustments).

National updates

Childminder Start up Grant

Childminder start-up grants provide eligible new childminders with a one-off payment.

To apply for a start-up grant if registered as a new childminder after 15 March 2023. You must:

• work as a childminder in England
• have completed your Ofsted or childminder agency (CMA) registration before applying

This grant is for new childminders only - these are individuals who are either registering as a childminder for the first time, or those individuals who have previously registered as a childminder but de-registered for at least 12 months before their current registration.

Childminders without domestic premises are eligible to apply for the grant.

You can only receive one childminder start-up grant. New childminders who wish to apply for the grant will need to finalise their Ofsted or Childminder Agency registration by 31 March 2025.

For more information, please click on the button below.

Public Health Advice on Respiratory Infections

As the number of cases of respiratory infections such as coughs, colds, flu and chest infections increase over the winter period, Emily Kindred, Health Protection Manager in Cheshire East has produced guidance for schools and settings on how to manage
these. Full details are provided in the button below but key points are:

Those with mild symptoms such as runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, can continue to attend.

Anyone unwell and with a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people where they can.

Children and young people aged 18 and under who are recommended to take a COVID-19 test by a health professional and test positive, are advised to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for three days.

Adults with a positive COVID-19 test result are advised to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days.

Ofsted's Role in Regulating Childcare: Poster for Parents

Childcare services can display the poster for parents within their settings. It has information about Ofsted's responsibilities and how parents can contact them. The poster explains that Ofsted registers and inspects childcare for children aged from birth to 17 years.

The poster has been updated with a new phone number parents can call if they have a concern or complaint to 0300 123 4666.

EYFS Learning and Development

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 Setting Evaluation Form

Please follow this link for the Transition Setting Evaluation Audit Form

The evaluation form is a simple self-evaluation form which will support Headteachers, Governors, SENCOs and Transition Leads to reflect on the transition process currently available in your setting. It will help to evidence how your setting is preparing children and their families to transition to the next phase in education, whether they are leaving or starting your setting, identifying any gaps and developing the transition process. 

The Transition Setting Evaluation Form can be used for each transition phase, for this reason some questions may not be applicable to your setting. It builds on The Graduated Approach of a universal, enhanced and complex transition offer:

• Nursery to Primary
• Primary to Secondary
• Secondary to Post 16

The Transition Team have recently made their Transition web pages live which you can find following this link: School transitions. The pages have lots of ideas and resources to support settings, children and families with transition. Over the next few weeks, the team will be sending over the resources from their pages with guidance on how to use them.

As always, the Transition Team welcomes any feedback and if you would like any further guidance and support in completing the Audit form, 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

Cheshire East Chatters

Early Language Lead Networks

These sessions are delivered by Cheshire East Chatters Speech and Language Therapists and offer information and advice on how to support the early communication and language development of the children in your setting.

This terms topic is focussed around supporting Neurodiversity within your setting. We will discuss how to support children who present with social communication differences and Frances from BookTrust will share practical tips on sharing stories to promote inclusivity.

Upcoming dates:

• Wednesday 27th November 2024 14:00 - 16:00 on Microsoft Teams
• Tuesday 3rd December 2024 17:30 - 19:30 on Microsoft Teams

Click the button below to book on.

Family Hubs

Continuous Professional Development

Autumn Term Training available on the Early Years Training Hub

The ChESS Early Years Training Hub has lots of training opportunities for the Autumn term, please take a look and book on now!

Upcoming training next week:

WellComm - 21st November 2024 09:30 - 13:00 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

Would you like to receive practical support on how to integrate WellComm activities into daily best practice within your setting? Or try out WellComm screening and activities from the Big Book of Ideas? During this session there will be opportunities to discuss and define terms relating to communication and how these relate to the WellComm screening tool, examine the rationale behind using WellComm to screen, track and monitor individual children and discuss the practicalities of setting up targeted groups. If you would like to purchase a WellComm toolkit, please visit this website: WellComm - GL Assessment (gl-assessment.co.uk)