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Bulletin 364

6 October 2025

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

Liquidlogic

Autumn term headcount submission

We are aware that some settings have experienced connectivity issues during the transition to our new system. In light of these challenges, we are extending the deadline for the Autumn term headcount submission to Friday 10 October 2025.

This extension is a one-off measure to support providers during this period of change. Please note that future term deadlines will not be extended. We encourage all settings to submit their headcounts as soon as possible (and not wait until Friday) as this will enable the FEEE Team to work with you to resolve any queries.

For guidance on submitting your headcount, please refer to the establishment portal user guide.

Establishment Portal – Secure messages

The Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) Team is working on importing your headcount submissions. As part of this process, it may be necessary to reject a line from your headcount. Should this happen, you will receive an email from EYES Live advising that you have a message on the Portal. Please review the message and make any required changes.

We are also aware of intermittent issues with the delivery of emails from EYES Live, therefore whilst you are regularly updating your Live Register, please also check your account for any messages. These can be found in the top right-hand corner of the Dashboard screen.

During the implementation phase, you may also notice portal activity which has been undertaken by the team. This is while we navigate the new system and understand any changes we may need to ask you to make.

Establishment Portal – Spring 2025 and Summer 2025 midterm changes

Spring and summer terms have been finalised, however, updates to the Live Register e.g., adding a start date to a child record prior to 1 September 2025 has created midterm changes for these terms on the establishment portal.

As no additional funding is due for spring and summer terms, the midterm changes have been rejected, and no further action is required. If a midterm change has been rejected, this will be confirmed in the messages section of the establishment portal Dashboard – again, this is for information only and no further action is required.

Business Support

Answering your questions on food brought in from home (packed lunch) policies

Since September 2025, early years providers have been required to have regard to the Early Years Foundation Stage nutrition guidance. This guidance supports settings to meet the EYFS requirement that meals, snacks and drinks provided to children must be healthy, balanced and nutritious, whether meals are served in the setting or brought from home.

This forms part of the Government’s commitment to give children the best start in life by supporting healthy eating habits in the early years and helping to reduce health inequalities.

If your setting has chosen to implement a policy on food brought in from home, the Department for Education wants to hear your questions and early concerns about how implementing the policy is working in practice. This will help us understand what further information and support would be helpful for providers to get the most out of this guidance.

Please submit any questions you have to foundationyears@beginbright.com by Monday 13 October.  

For information on nutrition in early years, please see the Help for early years providers: Nutrition page.

Childcare Works resources for childminders

Safeguarding

CESCP Neglect Strategy: Training on Tools and Best Practice

The Cheshire East Children’s Safeguarding Partnership is pleased to offer a new training session focused on recognising and addressing Neglect in Practice - this session introduces the refreshed Child Neglect Strategy 2025–2028 and identification tools, designed to further strengthen the partnership response across Cheshire East.

National Updates

Early years stronger practice hubs

The DfE's early years stronger practice hubs guidance is for practitioners who are seeking information about the early years stronger practice hubs programme and the hubs that have been established in every government office region across England.

Hubs support other early years settings to improve outcomes for children in their local community, specifically focusing on those areas that were most affected by COVID-19, such as:

• personal, social and emotional development
• communication and language
• early literacy and maths

To view the guidance, please click the button below.

Application window open for school-based nursery programme phase 2  

On 4 September 2025, phase 2 of the school-based nursery capital grant launched, building on the foundations of phase 1 of the programme with an increased focus on supporting families in disadvantaged areas to access early years provision.

State-funded primary schools and maintained nursery schools can now apply for up to £150,000 of capital funding to create or expand on-site nurseries and offer new childcare places in academic year 2026 to 2027. The online application service opened on Wednesday 24 September 2025 and is available until Thursday 11 December 2025 at 5pm.

Interested and eligible schools should work with their local authority, governing organisations, dioceses, trustees and wider stakeholders, for application support.

The DfE are hosting a webinar for schools on Thursday 16 October 2025 at 10am to 11:30am to explain the policy and application process.

The phase 2 applicant guidance includes details of the grant process.

SEND

Early Years Forum – Autumn term dates

Please see below the dates for early years forum in autumn term.

As a guide the north covers Holmes Chapel, Congleton, Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Poynton and Knutsford. The south covers Sandbach, Crewe, Alsager, Middlewich and Nantwich. If you are unsure of your locality, please contact your Portage Quality and Inclusion Practitioner for clarification or email Early Years Forum.

Earlyyearsforum@cheshireeast.gov.uk

For more information, click on the button below.

Early years forum – information for practitioners

Family Hubs

‘Too Much Blue - Get a Review’ campaign launches to help children and young people manage asthma

A new campaign has launched across Cheshire and Merseyside this autumn to help children and young people better manage their asthma.

‘Too Much Blue - Get a Review’, developed by Beyond, the Cheshire and Merseyside children and young people’s transformation programme, aims to encourage better self-management of asthma through a mix of education, practical tools, and community engagement.

The animation at the heart of the campaign was co-produced with a group of local young people, parents and carers. Their ideas, voices, and experiences have helped to shape the animation, showing how self-management can make a real difference to living well with asthma.

For children and young people (aged 0-19) across Cheshire and Merseyside, there has been almost a 16% increase over the last two years in asthma attendances to A&E and there has been a nearly 2% increase in the number of A&E reattendances due to asthma.

To find out more about the ‘Too Much Blue - Get a Review’ campaign and find out more about the roadshow events, visit: www.cheshireandmerseyside.nhs.uk/TooMuchBlue

Training

Cheshire East Educational Psychology Service

‘Using Psychology to shape positive change within our communities through connection, curiosity and compassion. Starts with Psychology, ends with compassion’.

Cheshire East Educational Psychology Team are committed to supporting schools, early years settings and post 16 providers in the implementation of evidence-based practice, to promote positive outcomes for children and young people (CYP).

We are excited to be delivering Early Years Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) training to a number of schools and settings next month. ELSA intervention is designed to enhance a settings capacity to support the emotional wellbeing of their children. By training support staff to create and deliver tailored emotional literacy interventions, settings can better identify and meet the needs of the children using their own resources. The EP Team is excited to welcome more ELSAs to the 164 we have already trained across Cheshire East schools and we look forward to seeing the further positive impact this initiative will have on Cheshire East CYP!

Join us this Autumn Term starting from 16/10/2025.

To secure your EY ELSA training place, please book through the ChESS Early Years Training Hub.

We offer a range of training packages to enhance schools and settings’ level of support. For more information please contact our Traded team on: Traded.epservice@cheshireeast.gov.uk

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:

Understanding Schemas – 13th October 2025 9:30 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

This two-and-a-half-hour training course will provide knowledge and understanding of schemas and how they appear in children’s play. It has been specifically designed for early years and childcare practitioners to help recognise, plan for, and support schemas within a play-based curriculum. 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. The session will provide a bank of engaging activity ideas to nurture development and align with each child’s unique interests, fostering curiosity, problem-solving, and confidence.

Effective Interactions – 16th October 2025 9:30 - 14:00 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

This one-day interaction training course aims to discuss and define terms relating to communication and why interaction is so important. During the session we will look at 'Top Tips for Talking' and ways you can adapt your interactions to promote communication and support the needs of the developing child. We will discuss how language levels and interaction styles differ between children and how you can differentiate to support individual children's communication development and then focus on the practicalities of how to integrate high quality adult-interaction into your daily routine.

Barriers to Early Years Education – 16th October 2025 18:30 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)

Join us to explore barrier to early years education, delivered by an Educational Psychologist. This training will explore common responses to starting and attending early years settings, focusing on key aspects of social and emotional development. We will identify early barriers that may prevent children from engaging in early education, explore possible causes, and discuss effective strategies to support children and families. You will gain practical tools to create an inclusive, nurturing environment that promotes wellbeing, helps children feel secure, and encourages positive early learning experiences.

Owners, Managers and Childminders – 17th October 2025 10:00 - 11:30 (Oakenclough Family Hub)

These networks are for owners, managers and childminders of Early Years and Childcare settings and early years leaders in school. Owners, Managers and Childminders networks are an opportunity to hear the latest updates from our Early Years Team, network with other owners, managers, early years leads and childminders and ask questions.