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Bulletin 336
6 January 2025
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Happy New Year from the Free Early Education Entitlement team
The FEEE team – Jane Jones, Alison Bailey, Emma Barnett and Hasibullah Kabiri can be contacted using the details below:
FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk 01270 685888
Annual DfE Early Years Census of Private, Voluntary, and Independent (PVI) Providers and Children
The annual DfE early years census of private, voluntary, and independent (PVI) providers and children takes place on Thursday 16 January 2025. The census collects data on all children taking up free provision during census week (week commencing 13 January 2025).
In addition to the spring term data already submitted for children taking up a free place, PVI providers are required to complete the Early Years Census form which can be found on the ‘Forms’ tab of the Provider Portal. The census form will be available from Monday 13 January 2025.
Any PVI provider that has no funded children at the time of the census does not need to complete the form. Guidance notes for completing Section 3 of the form (numbers of staff and their qualifications) are available on our webpage.
A Privacy Notice for parents explaining how information about their child is used in early years providers is also available on our webpage. Please amend the form as appropriate and make your parents aware of the document.
The census form must be submitted by Friday 24 January 2025.
Provider Portal – Spring term 2025
The provider portal will be open until Friday 24 January 2025 for Spring term data.
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements |
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New Training Opportunity – Digital Harms
Join Alistair Barfield from Deflect and Protect for a session on Digital Harms. Deflect and Protect training sessions focus on the greater issues surrounding digital harms with young people, particularly the relationship between generation alpha and content. Young people spend tremendous periods of time online, engaging with friends, watching content and learning about themselves through the internet. This is an incredibly useful tool but does also present some difficulties particularly when looking at issues surrounding Grooming, Radicalism/extreme beliefs and child gambling. These issues are prevalent for all young people but can be amplified when looking at the neurodivergent community. Over the course of the session, we will bridge the gap between young people, (particularly neurodivergent young people) how society views and treats the community as well as the harms that they may encounter online.
Please book on through the ChESS Early Years Training Hub.
Safeguarding Excellence: Protecting Our Youngest Learners
On Wednesday 27th November, Foundation Years delivered a Vodcast – Safeguarding Excellence: Protecting Our Youngest Learners.
This vodcast focuses on critical aspects of safeguarding children in early years settings, recapping official 2024 guidance from DfE and emphasising practical strategies to deal with common challenges, such as managing allergies, applying safeguarding best practices in daily roles and many more.
You will hear from a range of experts who will share insights on creating inclusive environments, recognising and responding to allergy-related emergencies, and implementing proactive measures that ensure a high level of safeguarding for all children.
Whether you’re an EYFS teacher, EY educator, childminder, school/nursery leader, or work within Local Authority child protection, this vodcast is designed to empower you with essential knowledge and tools to create safe, nurturing learning spaces for our youngest learners.
Click the button below to watch the vodcast.
NHS Winter tips for keeping babies safe
The NHS has produced some winter tips for families around safer sleeping at this time of year. Please click the button below to access the document and share these tips with your families.
Super Bodies: What to do when a child has a common illness
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is sharing guidance for parents and carers on common winter illnesses that often start circulating at this time of year, and asking them to think twice before treating these conditions with antibiotics, which rarely speed up recovery.
Instead, the ‘Super Bodies’ campaign shares a guide for parents and carers on the simple things they can do to treat these common ailments at home, as well as helping them to spot the signs of a more serious illness, and knowing when and where to go for medical help. Please highlight the campaign to your parents and carers.
Click the button below to find out more.
Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...
Providers/Childminders must ensure that they take all reasonable steps to ensure staff and children in their care are not exposed to risks and must be able to demonstrate how they are managing risks. Providers/Childminders must determine where it is helpful to make some written risk assessments in relation to specific issues, to inform staff practice, and to demonstrate how they are managing risks if asked by parents and/or carers or inspectors. Risk assessments should identify aspects of the environment that need to be checked on a regular basis, when and by whom those aspects will be checked, and how the risk will be removed or minimised.
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Early years qualifications achieved in the United Kingdom
The Early years lists of qualifications that meet DfE's criteria for counting in the early years foundation stage framework staff:child ratios has been updated to add three newly-approved qualifications, and make a minor amend to the name of another qualification.
Click on the button below for more information.
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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
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SEND Drop-In session
The Portage, Quality and Inclusion Team are running SEND drop-in sessions for our Early Years settings the first Monday of every month.
The first half hour will provide an overview of a current SEND topic.
The next sessions are as follows:
- Monday 6th January – Provision Mapping
- Monday 3rd February – Using Visuals
- Monday 3rd March – Forum Guidance
The second half hour is an open opportunity to ask questions regarding any area of practice and support, share good practice and ideas with other settings and develop links.
Each will be held 17:00 – 18:00 on Microsoft Teams. Please join us for an informal session designed to support you and work as a team.
If you haven't already received the link, please email: earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk to request the Microsoft Teams link if you are available to attend.
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Family Hubs development and updates
The Department for Education (DfE) launched the £12 million Family Hubs transformation fund in November 2021 to support local authorities in England to open family hubs. More information on the programme is available here. Cheshire East were one of thirteen local authorities from across the country which were successful in securing this funding.
A Family Hub is a system wide model which we have developed to deliver high quality, joined up, whole family support services across the borough to support better outcomes for our children and young people. 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.
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To date, we have officially opened five Family Hubs - Oakenclough and Oaktree in July 2023, Monks Coppenhall in October 2023, and Ash Grove and Congleton in November 2023 - the official opening of our sixth and final Family Hub (at Crewe Lifestyle Centre) will be early in the new year.
Our Family Hubs digital offer was launched this spring; families and professionals now have online access to a wealth of advice and information at the touch of a button. This is split into relevant sections making it easy to navigate, with sections for children and young people, parents and carers, and professionals.
Family Hubs offer a broad range of services and support both in physical buildings, and through its online resource, including, but not limited to, midwifery appointments and health checks, speech and language support, advice on physical and mental health, the start for life portage service, drop-in support and market place events, parenting workshops, family activities and youth support.
We are working hard with partners to connect family help support and interventions for the ease of families through our new Family Hubs affiliation scheme. Our partnership and local authority family help teams also offer targeted support through early help assessments and action plans for families that need extra help and support.
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Continuous Professional Development |
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National Deaf Children’s Society – free online information sessions
Would you like to get insights and tips to help you support children who are deaf or have hearing loss, including glue ear?
Join the National Deaf Children’s Society’s ‘Together We Can’ series of four online training sessions for early years professionals. Each week, you'll explore a different topic designed to help you in your role.
- Monday 20 January 2025
- Monday 27 January 2025
- Monday 3 February 2025
- Monday 10 February 2025
All sessions are online 15:45 - 17:00, are free and you can join as many as you like.
The sessions are suitable for anyone who works with children in an early years setting, such as nurseries, crèches, pre-schools or reception classes.
- Learn simple ways to support children’s language and communication, as well as their social and emotional wellbeing.
- Meet a parent of a deaf child who will share their tips for a positive transition to a childcare or other early years setting.
- Ask questions and explore ways to apply your new skills in your setting.
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!
Upcoming training next week:
Infection, Prevention and Control – 14th January 2025 13:00 - 14:30 (Microsoft Teams)
Join us to learn about infection, prevention and control, delivered by an Infection Prevention & Control Specialist Nurse from Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This training will support you to understand the importance of infection control, how infection can be spread and standard precautions and the strategies which are used to stop the spread of infection e.g., PPE, hand hygiene and cleaning. This session will also provide an overview of common illnesses and discuss your point of contact for advice and guidance.
Step Inside the Toddler Room – 15th January 2025 18:30 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)
This session is part of a series focussing on supporting the three different age groups of children within the Early Years. Don’t miss out - “staff attended training that extended their knowledge about meeting the needs of two-year-old children. The training was a valuable opportunity” (Ofsted, 2023). This training is for all practitioners working with toddlers and will provide the skills and child development knowledge needed to work with this unique age group. Step Inside the Toddler Room training will cover what you need to know about child development at 2, how 2-year-olds like to learn, the physical environment and supporting feelings and emotions.
Owners, Managers and Childminders – 16th January 2025 10:00 - 11:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)
These briefings are for owners, managers and childminders of Early Years and Childcare settings. Owners, Managers and Childminders briefings are an opportunity to hear the latest updates from our Early Years Team, network with other owners, managers and childminders and ask questions.
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