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Bulletin 387

5 May 2026

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

Liquidlogic

Eligibility codes – grace period end dates

Analysis of headcount submission data shows that a significant number of children entered the summer term in their grace period. Without a grace period end date of 31 August 2026, these children would not have received funding during summer term as their eligibility code had not been reconfirmed via the Best Start in Life parent account /HMRC.

To avoid losing their funding entitlement in autumn term, please advise all parents in this position to reconfirm their eligibility code now. Reconfirming their codes now will result in a grace period end date of 31 December, however, parents must continue to reconfirm their code every 3 months as prompted by Best Start in Life / HMRC.

Children in their grace period can be identified via the Live Register on the establishment portal by the alert shown below and the red ‘GP’ (Grace Period) label.

The details show that the code should have been reconfirmed in February and if not reconfirmed, funding will cease at the end of summer term.

Business Support

Best Start in Life - childcare eligibility checker

Support your families with accessing their Free Early Education Entitlement by signposting them to the Best Start in Life website, where there is a Childcare Eligibility Checker. The website is easy to use and parents will need to enter their details to find out how they can save money on their childcare.

Safeguarding

CESCP Neglect Strategy: Training on Tools and Best Practice

The Cheshire East Safeguarding Children's Partnership (CESCP) have added two more Neglect Training sessions for May and June. Please use the links below to book your place: Book 21 May - 9:30-4 - Crewe Lifestyle Training suite Book 22 June - 9:30-4  - Silk Room, Macclesfield Old Town Hall

National Updates

Ofsted's early years team answers your questions

On 31 March Ofsted hosted a Facebook Live event where their early years team answered questions submitted by the audience.

Topics covered included:

• Changes to the early years foundation framework
• Sleep-related queries
• Inspection timelines

To watch the recording on YouTube, please click on the button below.

SEND

Early Years Pupil Premium - planning tool

Education Endowment Foundation has created a Early Years Pupil Premium planning tool. This planning tool introduces key findings from high-quality research to help you reduce the leaning gap between children from lower income backgrounds and others.

To access the planning tool, please click on the button below.

Family Hubs

Training

Summer 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 summer term, please take a look and book on now!

Upcoming training next week:

Teamwork, Culture and Communication - 11th May 2026 18:00 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)

This two-and-a-half-hour training course will provide practical strategies to strengthen teamwork, workplace culture, and communication within early years and childcare settings. It has been designed for practitioners and leaders who want to build positive, collaborative, and high-performing teams. This training will help you develop effective communication skills, foster a supportive team culture, and improve collaboration across your setting. You will explore strategies to build trust, manage conflict professionally, and promote shared values and expectations. The session will also consider how strong teamwork positively impacts staff wellbeing, retention, and outcomes for children. By the end of the course, you will have clear, actionable approaches to strengthen relationships and create a culture where everyone can thrive.

Enhanced Safeguarding Awareness - 12th May 2026 09:30 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

This session expands on the Basic Safeguarding Awareness training session. The session covers the safeguarding responsibilities of practitioners and the DSL, Safeguarding Practice Reviews and neglect. There will also be a brief overview of online safety, safer sleep, safer eating and allergies.

Responding to and Regulating Emotions in Early Years Settings - 13th May 2026 18:30 - 20:30 (Microsoft Teams)

Emotion Coaching is an evidence-based communication strategy that has been developed by psychologists. The strategy helps to support children to understand and self-regulate their emotions, empowering them to feel more confident and resilient. It is based on the principle that developing a nurturing and emotionally supportive relationship will improve children’s wellbeing and academic outcomes. Emotion Coaching enables a setting ethos of positive learning behaviour and gives confidence to practitioners to de-escalate situations when behaviour is challenging, and emotions are heightened. 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.

Early Years Leaders Network - 14th May 2026 10:00 - 11:30 (Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School and Sixth Form College Training and Conference Centre)

The Early Years Leaders Network is for owners, managers, leaders and childminders of Early Years and Childcare settings. These networks are an opportunity to hear the latest updates from the Early Years Team, ask questions and network with other professionals.

Building your Curriculum - 15th May 2026 09:30 - 12:00 (Microsoft Teams)

"Curriculum by design not by Chance" (Dr J. Grenier, 2023). This session looks at what a curriculum is, why curriculum planning is important in helping children to learn and have a better experience, and what to consider when putting the curriculum into practice. Drawing on the latest messages around curriculum from Ofsted, using the non-statutory guidance and making links to pedagogy and assessment. This session is suitable for all practitioners working in Early Years settings.