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Bulletin 372

8 December 2025

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

Liquidlogic

Spring Term - Estimation Payment

If an estimate submission has been made, providers will receive their Spring term estimation payments by Friday 19 December 2025.

Business Support

Exciting New Cheshire East HAF Opportunity

The HAF programme has been extended for a further three years, running from April 2026 to March 2029. The HAF team have now opened up a new procurement opportunity that will enable them to work with a broad range of providers to deliver high-quality holiday experiences for children and young people across Cheshire East.

The HAF programme is designed to support:

• Children and young people in receipt of income related free school meals
• School-aged children from Reception to Year 11 (and up to age 18 for those with SEND)
• Provision during Easter, summer, and winter school holidays
• Access to enriching activities
• Access to healthy meals

The team aim to ensure the HAF programme is:

• Widely accessible across Cheshire East
• Inclusive and welcoming to children and young people of all abilities
• Offering a vibrant and varied range of holiday experiences
• Featuring diverse activities that cater to a broad spectrum of interests and needs, including sport, drama, art, nature, science, crafts, and IT

The HAF team are keen to engage with as many providers as possible to help them realise this vision.

To find out more about the HAF programme, the upcoming procurement, ask questions and explore how you can be involved, please attend the upcoming
HAF Programme Engagement Event on Microsoft Teams:

Date: Tuesday 16 December

Time: 10.00am-11.00am

Email earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk to request the Teams link if you would like to attend.

For more information about the procurement opportunity and to apply please follow this link: https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=458f0f67-1fc9-f011-813a-005056b64545&fromRfxS

For more information about the current HAF programme, please visit: Holiday activities and food programme HAF.

Safeguarding

CESCP Neglect Strategy: Training on Tools and Best Practice

New sessions available, book your place now!

Sessions are limited to a maximum of 25 people, so please book quickly using the links below to ensure your place. If the session you would like to attend is fully booked, please email CESCPtraining@cheshireeast.gov.uk to be added to the waiting list.

National Updates

A message about flu from the UK Health Security Agency to early years practitioners  

On 1 September 2025, the annual flu vaccination programme for preschool children launched. All children aged 2 and 3 years old (on 31 August before flu vaccination starts in the autumn) are eligible for a free flu vaccination in the form of a quick and painless nasal spray. Some children aged 6 months and older in specific clinical risk groups are also eligible for a vaccine. However, not all parents are aware of this, or take up the offer. The UK Health Security Agency would like to remind early years educators about the vaccination programme now because winter is a peak time of year for seasonal illnesses including flu, and they want to make sure as many children as possible (and the professionals who look after them) are protected.  

Those working in the early years sector have an important role to play in raising awareness amongst parents about the annual flu vaccination programme. There is further information available for practitioners working in early years settings on the nasal flu vaccination and how to prevent the spread of flu in guidance from UKHSA. An information leaflet for parents and carers and a poster for use in settings is available free to order.  

Flu is a common infection in babies and children and can be very unpleasant for them. Children under the age of 5 have one of the highest hospital admission rates for flu compared to other age groups. 

Annual vaccination of children helps provide protection to each child and reduces the spread of flu to their families and the wider community, protecting others who are at increased risk of becoming seriously ill from flu. The flu vaccine also promotes a healthy working environment in nurseries and childcare settings by reducing the risk of flu being spread to others including staff. 

Preschool children can get the flu vaccine at their GP surgery, and some participating community pharmacies.  

Children who can’t have the nasal spray for medical or faith reasons can request an alternative flu vaccine that is given as an injection instead, which does not contain any porcine gelatine.  

SEND

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.

Family Hubs

Training

Supporting the Languages of Multilingual Children

One of our Specialist Speech and Language Therapists recorded a webinar earlier this year on supporting the languages of multilingual children. The webinar includes the current research around multilingual language development as well as some practical tips and signposting to assessment tools.

Please click on the button below to watch the webinar.

Spring Term Training on the Early Years Training Hub

The ChESS Early Years Training Hub is currently being updated with lots of training opportunities for the spring term, please watch this space!