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Bulletin 356

30 June 2025

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

Business Support

Engagement with Parents on 30 hours of government-funded childcare for September 2025 

Applications are currently open for 30 hours of government-funded childcare for September 2025. All eligible working parents of children who will be at least nine months old on or before 31 August can apply through the government’s childcare expansion. Parents can check their eligibility and apply at Childcare Choices.

If you haven’t done so already, please talk with your parents currently receiving the 15-hour working parent entitlement to agree how many hours they will be using from September.

Provider Portal – Autumn term 2025 UPDATE

The Provider Portal will now open on Tuesday 15 July for Autumn data rather than Friday 11 July as published in last week’s bulletin. Unfortunately, this is due to an unexpected error with the upgrade provided by the software supplier.

The upgrade to the portal includes new functionality enabling the new entitlement of 30 hours for 9 month and over and 2-year-old children to be claimed and is therefore required before the portal can be opened.

In addition, data is being migrated from Synergy to Liquidlogic over the last 2 weeks in August. During this period, the FEEE Team will not have access to the systems, therefore if the deadline for data submissions (Sunday 27 July) is missed, payments will not be processed until mid-late September.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause; however, the circumstances are beyond our control.

Eligibility Codes

Codes will need reconfirming to make sure they are valid for the autumn term 2025. Please validate codes as you receive them through the Eligibility Checker in the Provider Portal, this can be done whilst the Portal is closed.  Click on Eligibility Checker and add the code, child date of birth and Parent/Carer NI number and submit. 

FEEE funding timetable

The FEEE weeks, data deadlines and payment dates for 2025-26 and 2026-27 are available on the Livewell webpage - Administering the Free Early Education Entitlement for childcare providers:

Administering the Free Early Education Entitlement

Liquidlogic uses different terminology regarding the termly deadline dates and this will be explained in the training sessions scheduled in September, please make sure to book your place via the Early Years Training Hub.

New FEEE team member

We have a new team member – Karolina Lasa. Karolina joins Emma, Hasibullah and Jane to administer the Free Early Education Entitlement and provide help and support to all childcare providers. The team can be contacted on FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk or 01270 685888.

National wraparound childcare programme and Childcare expansion capital funding for childcare providers

The application process for the next funding round for applying for Revenue and/or Capital Grant Funding for the Wraparound childcare programme is now open.

Funding is available for all Wraparound projects which have been created since September 2024 and any existing wrapround provision where new places are being created.

The Capital Funding round for the Childcare Early Years Entitlements Expansion Programme is also open.

The funding for the childcare expansion is to support the creation of new early years places for children aged 9 months – 4 years old in line with the 30 hours roll out from September 2025.

Closing date for the ninth round is Noon on Monday 14 July 2025.

Please click on the links below to apply.

If you would like support in completing the documentation for the grant applications or any have any questions or queries, please email: earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Safeguarding

Protective Preparedness for Education Settings Webinars - Martyn’s Law

The Department for Education (DfE) in partnership with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) invite you to the ‘Protective Preparedness For Education Settings’ a webinar focussed on counter terrorism protective security and preparedness for education settings.

The DfE’s ‘Counter Terrorism Protect & Prepare Team’ will provide you with an overview and update on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 commonly known as, ‘Martyn’s Law’, and its implications for the education sector. You can find more information about Martyn’s Law by visiting - GOV.UK

NaCTSO will also provide a briefing on how to consider counter terrorism protection and preparedness across education settings. You can find out more about scalable counter terrorism preparedness by visiting ProtectUK | Home

If you would like to learn more about how you can protect your education setting, staff and learners from terrorism, please click the links below where you can sign up and access further details.

Links:

Monday 7th July 2025 - 12:00 - 13:00

Tuesday 15th July 2025 - 12:00 - 13:00

Wednesday 16th July 2025 - 12:00 - 13:00

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 - 12:00 - 13:00

Infection, Prevention and Control recording

Last term, Jen Adams, an Infection Prevention & Control Specialist Nurse from Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust delivered 3 sessions of Infection, Prevention and Control training on Microsoft Teams.

The training covered 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. These sessions also provided an overview of common illnesses and your point of contact for advice and guidance.

If you missed the sessions and would like to view the recording, please email earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk to request the YouTube link.

National Updates

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) space requirements consultation

As we get more children ready for school at age 5, the Department for Education are exploring new ways to help providers offer more high-quality childcare places for families, that include access to outdoor space. Evidence shows the huge benefits of outdoor play to children from improved problem solving to mental and physical health. Yet currently, the government’s early years framework requires provision of outdoor play but only formally recognises indoor space in its requirements for how many children nurseries and childcare providers can take on at any one time.  

On 12 May, the government launched its “space requirements in early years childcare settings” consultation, which runs until 11 July and is available at: Space requirements in early years childcare settings in England - GOV.UK. The consultation is seeking views on whether to introduce flexibility into the EYFS that will allow free-flow outdoor space to be included in the indoor space requirements, with a possible cap on the number of additional places that can be offered. The government is also seeking feedback on the proposed definition of “free-flow”.  

This consultation has been launched because early years providers expressed a desire for these rules to be updated. To meet forecasted demands for the expanded entitlements, the DfE estimate an additional 60,000 new places are required between September 2024 and September 2025, and one of the barriers to expanding childcare is physical space. In the department’s Pulse surveys of childcare and early years providers, November 2023, 70% of providers who responded said they would make better use of their outdoor space if more flexibility was introduced.  

The DfE want to hear from as many people as possible to inform a decision on what to do next. Please complete the online consultation survey and encourage your parents and carers to complete the consultation too. 

This consultation closes at 11:59pm on 11 July 2025.

Childcare Works Provider Support Webinars

The latest support recordings for both early years providers and wraparound settings are now available.

The Early Years Settings and Schools webinars were designed to introduce the new Early Years Toolkit, created specifically for providers. During the two sessions providers were introduced to:

• the free resources and information available to make sure your nursery, school or setting is ready for the roll-out of expanded early years entitlements in September 2025
• advice tailored to your needs at every stage - whether you are just setting out, are sustaining your existing early years provision or are looking to grow
• practical support and fast access to information on a range of topics including business planning and meeting the needs of children with SEND.

Click the button below to watch the webinars for early years providers.

SEND

Early Years Forum

Early Years SENIF Forum does not meet in August. Any applications for SEN Inclusion funding submitted after 1 July 2025 will be considered at the September 2025 at the earliest.

As a guide the north covers Holmes Chapel, Congleton, Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Poynton; the south covers Sandbach, Crewe, Alsager and Middlewich. If you are unsure of your area please contact your Portage Quality and Inclusion Practitioner for clarification.

Details on referring to Forum and the process are available on:

Early years forum – information for practitioners

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 session is as follows: Monday 7th July – Sensory OT SPOTTS service 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. Email earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk to request the Teams link if you are available to attend. Please note: if you have received the link before, this will work for all upcoming sessions.

Cheshire East Chatters

Family Hubs

Continuous Professional Development

Summer Term Training available on the Early Years Training Hub

The ChESS Early Years Training Hub has lots of training opportunities for the summer term. Please take a look and book on now!

Upcoming training next week:

Role of the DSL – 8th July 2025 9:30 - 15:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

This one-day training course provides information and guidance to practitioners new to the role of the DSL or those wishing to refresh their knowledge. The training includes safer recruitment and induction of new staff members, liaising with staff members and other agencies, recording of safeguarding information, escalation of concerns, online safety, allegations against staff, the role of the LADO and policy and procedure development.

Prevent Awareness – 9th July 2025 10:00 - 11:30 (Microsoft Teams)

The Prevent Engagement Officer for Liverpool City Council will be leading this Prevent awareness session for early years providers. The training will highlight the differences between terrorism and extremism, explain the current terror threat level to the UK, the prevalence and the impact of the internet and social media on the radicalisation journey and why the Prevent strand is so important in helping to reduce that threat. It will also describe where the current threat to the UK in respect of terrorism is perceived to emanate from, along with some explanation about other ideologies that are of concern. This will include a description of some of the indicators that may be displayed by those who are or might be, susceptible to radicalisation. Most importantly it will explain the local referral process and how you can make a referral for anyone that you may have concerns about.

Early Language Lead Network – 10th July 2025 18:00 - 20:00 (Microsoft Teams)

These sessions are delivered by Cheshire East Chatters Speech and Language Therapists. The Early Language Lead Network offers information and advice on how to support the early communication and language development of the children in your setting. These sessions are a chance for you to find out more about local and national updates around supporting children with SLCN. We often have guest speakers from the Family Hubs to share what’s happening in your local area.