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Bulletin 359

1 September 2025

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

Business Support

Free Early Education Entitlements – new system available from 1 September 2025

The new establishment portal is now live. Childcare providers who have completed an Acceptable Use Agreement have had their account verified on the portal and it is now available to use. You will need to register for an account on the portal.

Link: https://establishmentportal.cheshireeast.gov.uk

If you have not returned or received an Acceptable Use Agreement, please contact the FEEE Team via feee@cheshireeast.gov.uk who will arrange to re-issue the agreement.

Before attempting to make any amendments on the system, we strongly recommend that you attend one of the training sessions scheduled in September. If you haven’t already, please make sure to book your place via the ChESS Early Years Training Hub. All sessions will be delivered on Microsoft Teams on the following dates:

• Thursday 4th September 2025 10:00 - 11:30
• Tuesday 9th September 2025 18:30 - 20:00
• Monday 15th September 2025 10:00 - 11:30
• Wednesday 24th September 18:30 - 20:00

In the meantime, a new user guide is available for you to familiarise yourself with the new portal.

Best Start in Life replacing Childcare Choices

The new Best Start in Life brand identity has launched, bringing together cross-government and cross-sector services supporting children and families from pregnancy through primary school. A new website goes live today, Monday 1 September 2025 replacing Childcare Choices. Visitors to the current Childcare Choices website will be automatically diverted to the new website.

Government policy is not being altered, the offers for parents (e.g. working parent and 2-year-old offers) aren’t changing, and parents will still be able to access the same childcare information and eligibility checker previously available on Childcare Choices. The new platform, however, will offer an enhanced and more comprehensive experience for parents covering even more topics from pregnancy, through their child's journey to starting school and beyond. Anyone searching for the Childcare Choices website will be automatically redirected to the site.

Click the button below to view the new website.

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 and Capital Funding for the Childcare Early Years Entitlements Expansion 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 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 eleventh round is Noon on Monday 22 September 2025.

Please click on the buttons 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

Preschool Network

• 8th October 2025 18:00 - 19:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

This network session is for Preschool providers. This Preschool network is an opportunity for preschool managers, committee chairs and business managers to meet together, make new connections and share experiences. There’s no agenda. Please feel free to come along, network and ask questions. The Childcare Development Team will be facilitating the network.

Please book on through the ChESS Early Years Training Hub.

Out of School Club Network

• 8th October 2025 10:00 - 11:30 (Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School and Sixth Form College Training and Conference Centre)

This network session is for Out of School Club providers. The Out of School Club Network will include up to date information on the wraparound programme and breakfast clubs’ schemes and provide an opportunity to network with other providers.

Please book on through the ChESS Early Years Training Hub.

Household Support Fund: April 2025 – March 2026

The Cheshire East Household Support Fund (HSF) continues to provide vital assistance to financially vulnerable adults, children, and families living in Cheshire East. Support is available across three key areas:

1. Food and energy support, based on household composition - the current referral period opened on 1 July 2025. Please refer to the HSF webpage for updates.
2. Support for household essentials, available through the Triage network of support (details on the professional HSF webpage).
3. Financial assistance for exceptional costs.

As HSF support is only accessible via professional referral, we encourage you not to miss the opportunity to help our most vulnerable residents. Please raise awareness and engage with financially vulnerable adults and families you work with to determine if they could benefit from this support.

You can share the following webpage with families to help them understand the support available: Cheshire East Household Support Fund

Professionals seeking further information about eligibility criteria and the referral process can contact the HSF team at: HSFFamily@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Support Moving Forward

The current Household Support Fund runs until 31 March 2026. From 1 April 2026, the funding will be replaced by the Crisis and Resilience Fund, which will run until 31 March 2029. Once we receive the grant conditions from the Department for Work and Pensions and understand the next phase of delivery, we will provide you with further updates.

Transfer of School Age Immunisation Service in Cheshire East

From today, Monday 1 September 2025, the management and delivery of the School Age Immunisation Service has transferred to IntraHealth, who provide this service in the North West across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and other areas across
England.

Children and young people will continue to see the same health professionals in
schools and should not experience any disruption to services as a direct result of this
transfer.

The team from IntraHealth have been contacting all GP services in Cheshire
East with additional information about the delivery of the service.

As part of the transfer, records for pupils which have parental consent for
immunisations they have not yet received, will be safely passed to Intrahealth to
make sure their care continues.

These records will remain secure and confidential in line with the IntraHealth’s
privacy statement.

Safeguarding

Updated Model Safeguarding Policy, Safeguarding Audit and supporting documents

The model safeguarding policy, safeguarding audit and supporting documents and posters have now been updated and are available on the Safeguarding and welfare requirements Livewell webpage.

Early Help Strategy 2025-2026

We are pleased to announce that we are able to officially launch our Early Help Strategy (2025-2026), which has been developed as a continuation of our existing strategy, building on the strengths of approaches adopted and identifying areas for improvement and development; this in terms of strengthening our partnership approach and responding to emerging needs. This strategy ensures the effective delivery of the key priorities and outcomes which we all, as partners have a statutory responsibility to co-operate with and contribute to. Our early help work is critical in identifying emerging need and enhancing and strengthening multi-agency support to respond effectively and creatively during times of need, as well as being proactive and led by insights to offer the earliest possible intervention to support families. We will need to work with partners to embed the framework, develop skills and knowledge in our workforce, and ensure practitioners are confident with the approach. We want partners and practitioners to feel well supported, knowledgeable and able to meet the needs of children and families as early as possible.

Prevent in education: training for early years foundation stage staff

The RPECs offer virtual training sessions that are available to anyone working within an education setting in England. This training package has been designed by DfE for staff within the early years foundation stage to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty.

Food Standards Agency warning about ice slush drinks containing glycerol

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) are drawing attention to a warning it issued earlier this summer about the dangers of ice slush drinks (or ‘slushies’) containing glycerol.

Please see the poster below for more information. You may wish to display this in your settings to share with parents and carers.

National Updates

Revised Early Years Foundation Stage 2025

The Department for Education's new versions of ‘EYFS statutory framework for childminders’ and ‘EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers’ are effective from today, Monday 1 September 2025.

The changes include:

• Strengthened safeguarding requirements, following the early years safeguarding consultation in 2024.
• New nutrition guidance which has been developed with nutrition and sector experts.
• An update following the introduction of the Experience-Based Route (EBR), to allow staff who have successfully been through EBR to be included in staff:child ratios at level 3 should they meet other requirements.
• An update to Annex B of the group and school-based provider EYFS, to reflect the inclusion of additional digital elements in the Reception Baseline Assessment, which will be introduced from academic year 2025/26 onwards.

The Early Years Qualifications Requirements and Standards document has also been updated with minor clarifications

The NSPCC have published a helpful briefing explaining the changes:

Summary of the Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework: CASPAR briefing

Please find the link to the EYFS changes recording here: EYFS and Ofsted Changes Briefing- 19 March 2025

Early years employment reference template

The DfE has published an employee reference template for use by early years providers.

This form will help early years providers give references for current and former employees. It includes questions about the person’s role, safeguarding history, and suitability to work with children.

Ofsted Education inspection framework: engagement programme

Ofsted has announced a full programme of sector engagement to be launched in September when the final set of education inspection reforms are published.

Ofsted will hold live webinars for different provider types across each education remit, setting out the key changes to inspection. Recordings of each webinar will be available on Ofsted’s YouTube channel afterwards.

For the early years sector, there will be separate webinars for childminders; group-based provision; and out-of-school-clubs.

For further information please click here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-announces-sector-engagement-programme-to-ready-education-providers-for-november-start-to-inspections

To book on to a webinar please click this link: Education inspection framework: engagement programme - GOV.UK

Share your views on the early years workforce register

In July 2025, the Department for Education (DfE) published the Best Start in Life strategy where they committed to working with the sector to co-design and introduce a new professional register to put early years workers on a more professional footing and create clear paths for career progression, to drive up standards and professionalism among the workforce.

DfE is now inviting early years professionals to take part in a research study to help shape the future of the early years workforce register.

They would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the idea of a workforce register in a 60-minute remote session:

When: 1 to 12 September and 29 September to 11 October

Format: Online session (you will receive a link)

Incentive: £40

Your insights will play a key role in shaping the future of the early years workforce.

Sign up here: https://dferesearch.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5pEaelJPYUlDhf8

Contact for questions: research.early-years-quals@education.gov.uk

New Disability Guidance and Training for Early Years Providers 

The Council for Disabled Children has published guidance and training to help early years practitioners, governors and trustees understand their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 in relation to disabled children. 

These free resources, commissioned by the Department for Education, support inclusive practice and aim to improve outcomes for disabled children.  The training is designed to help early years providers to meet their legal duties and create environments where every child can participate and thrive. 

The training includes four short modules:

• Knowing who’s disabled 
• Understanding your duties under the Equality Act 
• Making reasonable adjustments 
• Taking a whole-setting approach 

Click the buttons below to access the guide and training.

Do Something Big Campaign: more male role models in nurseries to help children thrive

Over the summer The “Do Something Big” campaign launched a new wave to encourage more men to join the early years workforce.

Click on the button below to view the press release.

SEND

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 1st September – Early Identification and support Monday 6th October – Bucket Therapy Monday 3rd November – Educational Psychology Team Monday 1st December – Paperwork and toolkit support 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 your team. 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.

SEND Assessment Guidance for Early Years Educators

Dingley’s Promise has worked with the Department for Education to develop Assessment Guidance for early years educators. With 40 years of experience supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), they understand the importance of effective assessment and timely intervention to support learning and smooth transitions.

This guidance promotes a child-centred, strengths-based approach to assessing needs, recognising that development may be non-linear. It offers a simple, practical method to help identify and meet needs as early as possible. Developed through consultation with early years professionals, the tools have been tested for effectiveness in real settings. 

Suitable for school-based, group-based and home-based educators, this approach supports early identification without excessive paperwork, ensuring more time is spent with children.

Nasen training - Meeting the Needs of Every Child

Nasen’s free early years DfE-funded training is set to continue under the EYSEND Partnership. Join them for brand new dates of their Meeting the Needs of Every Child training, designed for early years practitioners, childminders, and new SENCOs.

This is a valuable opportunity to deepen your understanding of inclusive practice for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in early years settings. With a variety of flexible dates coming soon, you can enhance your skills, expand your knowledge, and help create inclusive and supportive environments for every child.

'Meeting the Needs of Every Child' will cover the following training topics:

• Responsibilities of a setting towards children with SEND
• Role of the SENCO and the Key Person
• Early identification of SEND
• Effective inclusive practice strategies
• Developing positive relationships with parents and carers of children with SEND
• Access to Nasen's free early years resources to support your journey

Upcoming dates and times: 

• Wednesday 3 September 10:00 - 12:00
• Monday 8 September 15:00 - 17:00
• Tuesday 16 September 17:00 - 19:00
• Thursday 25 September 10:00 - 12:00

Click the button below to book a place.

Cheshire East Chatters

Family Hubs

Continuous Professional Development

SPOTSS Early Years Universal Training

This comprehensive training equips practitioners to create Sensory Portraits & Foundation Sensory Support Plans. When developed in consultation with parents, these tools set clear goals and outline reasonable adjustments to enhance sensory wellbeing in Early Years settings.

Key Learning Points:
• Introduction to child development and Autism, with inclusive strategies
• Using the Person, Environment, Occupation (PEO) model for understanding and
intervention
• Understanding the 8 sensory systems and their impact on a child’s day
• Practical environmental strategies for Early Years setting

Open to all staff in registered Early Years settings across Cheshire East. For best practice, we encourage both the SEN Lead and a key practitioner to attend together.

• 13th October 2025 9:30 - 16:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)
• 4th November 2025 9:30 - 16:30 (Monks Coppenhall Family Hub)
• 15th December 2025 9:30 - 16:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

For queries or further information, please email: ccicp.sensoryotadmin@mcht.nhs.uk

Click the button below to book a place.

Early Years child development training – free online training

The DfE’s early years child development training is a free, online programme that has been designed by early years experts to:

• Build and strengthen your child development knowledge
• Get practical advice for supporting children in your setting
• Test your knowledge and reflect on your practice

There are 8 modules available covering key areas of child development, including child and brain development and the EYFS, personal, social and emotional development, communication and language, physical development, effective curriculum and assessment, and supporting individual differences and needs.

Click the button below to sign up. If you already have an account, sign in and visit the 'My modules' page to access the training.

Autumn 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 autumn term, please take a look and book on now!

New training this term:

Emotion Coaching

• Monday 6th October 2025 18:30 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)

Emotion Coaching is an evidence-based communication strategy that has been developed by psychologists. This training will cover an introduction to key psychological theories behind emotions, emotional literacy and communication, practical strategies and ways of working to encourage co-regulation and self-regulation of emotions within young children.

Developing Play in the Early Years (AET)

• Tuesday 7th October 2025 10:00 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

This course is intended to equip you with an understanding of the importance of play in the Early Years Foundation Stage and how the Three Areas of Difference in autism can impact on play skills. The training also considers how person-centred planning and making reasonable adjustments can enable autistic children to develop their play skills.

Understanding Schemas

• Monday 13th October 2025 9:30 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

This training will help you identify the most common types of schemas and understand how they influence children’s learning and behaviour. You will explore strategies for supporting these natural patterns of play through individualised planning, enabling you to extend learning opportunities in meaningful ways.

Activity Planning and Risk Benefit Play

• Tuesday 4th November 2025 9:30 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

This two-hour training course will provide practical knowledge and skills to plan engaging activities for children aged 5 and over. It has been specifically written for wraparound and out-of-school care providers, focusing on balancing safety with challenge through risk-benefit play. 

Let's Get Outside

• Friday 14th November 2025 9:30 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

Let’s explore the benefits of outdoor play and learning; from promoting physical health and wellbeing to nurturing creativity, critical thinking and social skills. This brand-new training will empower and enable practitioners to make the most of their outdoor space. 

Strengthening Parent Partnerships

• Thursday 20th November 2025 18:30 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)

This two-hour training course will provide practical strategies for building strong, positive relationships with parents and carers. It has been designed for early years and childcare practitioners who want to enhance communication, collaboration, and trust with families, including those from diverse backgrounds.

The PACE Approach

• Tuesday 2nd December 2025 18:30 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)

PACE stands for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy. This training will cover, an introduction to the PACE model and psychological underpinnings, a brief overview of attachment and trauma within the early years and practical strategies utilising PACE which can be applied to an early years setting.