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Bulletin 333
2 December 2024
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION – Provider Portal upgrade – new child data fields
As part of last week’s system upgrade, new fields have been introduced on the Provider Portal. The ‘funding details’ tab of a child record now includes extra ‘Census Information’ fields.
 
Term time only provision or stretching ‘behind the scenes’:
If your setting claims funding on a term time only basis e.g., 38 weeks, please enter 38 in the ‘Funded Entitlement Weeks’ and, where appropriate, ‘Extended Entitlement Weeks’ fields. If your setting claims funding on a term time only basis and stretches/annualises the entitlements for families on their invoices, please also enter 38 weeks in the fields above. This will ensure that the correct level of funding is received.
Stretched providers:
If your setting is set up as a stretched provider, please populate these fields with 51 (the maximum number of weeks the system will stretch the entitlements).
The example above is for a 3- or 4-year-old claiming 15 funded hours only. Where extended funding is claimed, 38 or 51 weeks must be entered in the ‘Extended Entitlements Weeks’ field.
Provider portal - spring term 2025 data
The provider portal will reopen from Thursday 5 December to Sunday 8 December for additional data to be added for the spring term to be included in interim payments.
Eligibility codes – validation
It is essential that you validate eligibility codes as you receive them. This will avoid disappointment and challenge from parents who may have applied for a code early and, depending on the eligibility code end date, have not realised the need to reconfirm their code before term starts.
You can use the Eligibility Checker in the portal - even when closed, to check codes:
  Please check that the Code End Date is after 31 December 2024:
Closing date: Wednesday 15 January 2025 for Parents to apply for Reception school places for Primary 2025
Please note that the closing date to make an application for a child to start primary school in September 2025 is Wednesday 15 January 2025. Please can schools and Early Years providers remind parents of the deadline. Wording for reminders and posters in alternative languages are available by emailing the Admissions team on admissions@cheshireeast.gov.uk
Please can providers also click the buttons below to follow Family Information Service on Facebook and X (Twitter) and share reminders and advice.
Reminder to apply/reconfirm childcare funding codes for free childcare entitlements for working families with children aged 9 months to 4 years old
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements |
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...
Providers must ensure:
• There is an adequate number of toilets and hand basins available - there should usually be separate toilet facilities for adults.
• There are suitable hygienic changing facilities for changing any children who are in nappies.
• There is an adequate supply of clean bedding, towels, spare clothes, and any other necessary items.
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Do Something Big Recruitment Campaign
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The 'Do Something BIG' recruitment campaign has resources to use to help boost recruitment including a communications toolkit. This contains information and resources to help you communicate the campaign messages and amplify your own recruitment activity.
Click on the button below to access the resources.
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Breakfast Clubs Early Adopters Scheme
The government is committed to offering a free breakfast club in every primary school in England. Breakfast clubs support children’s attendance and attainment, enabling them to thrive academically and socially.
Schools with primary-school-aged children can apply to become an early adopter of the DfE’s universal free breakfast club’s scheme.
The DfE will fund up to 750 participating state-funded schools to provide children with access to a breakfast club that involves free food and childcare, starting from April 2025.
Early adopters of the breakfast club scheme will have the unique opportunity to shape national breakfast club policy, contributing directly to its design and implementation. This will help the government to provide positive outcomes for children, families and communities across England.
The scheme will directly benefit the children and families of participating schools. It will also help the DfE to test and learn what works for a national rollout.
The DfE will select early adopter schools from across different school types, sizes and geographical areas to ensure a wide representation. They want to test and learn with as many different types of schools as possible, including schools that work with or are considering working with private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers to deliver their breakfast clubs.
A webinar will be held on 5 December 2024. Click on the button below to register and learn more about the scheme and the application process.
For more information and to apply for the breakfast clubs’ early adopters’ scheme, please click on the link below.
The application process will close on 20 December 2024.
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EYFS Learning and Development |
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 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
New children’s Christmas books available in Cheshire East Libraries
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Early identification for children requiring an enhanced/personalised transition
In order to support children in key phases, the SEND Transition team are asking for settings to start to identify the children/young people who will require some additional support and fill out an enhanced/personalised transition plan.
This isn’t just for children who are on EHCP’s or SEND support, but for children that may have difficulties due to bereavements, overly anxious children/families (more than the normal) or children who may be on referrals/pathways for other diagnosis. The transition plan could be used to start professional conversations, keep a consistent approach for all settings (rather than different paperwork, leading to missing information) and help to identify children who may be coping in their current setting but could struggle in to their next one, requiring a more robust transition process.
By identifying the children early, discussing with parents and starting those conversation with children/young people, (Nursery 2, Year 6 and Year 11) plans can be put into place to support them, the settings and their families. You can find the transition plans for each phase on the link below:
Transitions information for professionals
As previously mentioned, the transition webpage is now up and running. Please follow: School transitions to access various guides.
The webpage, guides and resources are still in the developing stages. The SEND Transition team would like to ask for any feedback to be given to ensure they are useful and support where necessary. Each guide has a link on the back page you can follow to give feedback or, if you would prefer, via email (below) to help the team support transitions as effectively as possible.
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
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Christmas Dummy Campaign
As in previous years, Cheshire East Chatters is running the ‘Give your dummy to the Christmas Elves’ campaign throughout December, and they would love you to get involved!
This is a great opportunity to raise awareness about the impact prolonged use of dummies can have on children’s speech and language development, and to encourage children and families to drop the dummy in a positive way.
Dummies can:
- Make it difficult for children to babble or practise sounds
- Stop the full range of mouth movements that are needed to make different speech sounds
- Make the muscles at the back of the mouth dominant, leading to an overuse of the ‘k’ and ‘g’ sounds
- Weaken the muscles at the front of the mouth, leading to increased dribbling
- Increase the risk of ear infections
- Cause a gap between the top and bottom teeth, which can lead to a lisp
- Affect the physical structure of the mouth – this lasts until adulthood
Research also shows that children with dummies in their mouths are communicated with less frequently. This means they hear less language and have fewer turns in interactions, which has a negative impact on language development.
You can help by:
- Displaying key message posters in your settings
- Sharing key message leaflets with your families
- Sharing Cheshire East Chatters Facebook posts to spread the message
- Setting up a ‘dummy drop’ in your nursery – lots of ideas coming up on Facebook e.g., wrap the dummy up, post it to the Elves, hang on the Christmas tree
- Replacing the dummy with a thank you letter from the Elves, and maybe a little treat!
It would be great to see your dummy campaigns in action – please send any photos to cechatters@mcht.nhs.uk or send a message via Facebook.
Resources to support the dummy campaign have been sent to all early years providers by email. Please email earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk to request the resources if you haven't received them.
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Family Hub Partner Newsletter
In January 2025 Cheshire East Family Hubs will launch a brand-new Partner Newsletter aimed at all professionals, practitioners and volunteers working in Cheshire East to support families with children aged 0-19 (25 with SEND).
In response to our collaborative key propriety areas, the partner newsletter will place a focus on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), emotional health and wellbeing and deprivation. News, upcoming events, and signposting to our partner services across the council, health and the voluntary, community and faith sector organisations will be shared in one central place to ensure consistency in communication.
Please subscribe to the partner newsletter by Friday 20th December 2024 using this link: Cheshire East Council
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Continuous Professional Development |
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Spring 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 Spring term, please take a look and book on now!
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