Early Years and Childcare Bulletin 3 June 2024

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early years bannerearly years bulletin
*Bulletin 314*
*3 June 2024*
*Welcome to our Early Years and Childcare Bulletin. Previous Bulletins are available at: *Cheshire East Early years and Childcare Bulletin [
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Business Support
Jobcentre Plus Support for Employers
Jobcentre Plus' network of local Employer Advisers can help you to find the right people for your jobs. They will work with you to fill your vacancies using the most suitable recruitment solution, including:
* help with job descriptions
* speeding up your recruitment process
* promoting your vacancies in local Jobcentres and on their social media
* use of Jobcentre Plus offices for interviews (where available) and local recruitment events
* planning future recruitments
* find a job - a free online jobs site
*Contact your local Jobcentre Plus Employer Adviser on crewe.lmra1@dwp.gov.uk to advertise and promote your vacancies.*
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*Wraparound Childcare*
*"Are you a school looking for a wraparound childcare provider?"*
*"Are you a wraparound childcare provider looking to work with schools to develop new provision?"*
The government’s ambition is that all parents and carers of primary school-aged children who need wraparound childcare should be able to access term time provision in their local area from 8am-6pm (or equivalent, if data shows that local demand is for different hours).
The government expects all schools that educate primary school-aged pupils to:
* work with your local authority wraparound lead and others in the sector, to identify how you can support parents to access wraparound childcare.
* have school or PVI provider (including childminder) run wraparound childcare on the school site, unless there is a reasonable justification not to (having considered all support available, in particular from the national wraparound childcare programme).
* work collaboratively with your LA to ensure parents are, at a minimum, signposted to appropriate provision, if you are unable to have wraparound on the school site. Provision must not require parents to pick up or drop off their children between the school day and wraparound.
* promote and support government subsidies such as Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) and Universal Credit (UC) Childcare, which can help parents with the affordability of childcare, and supports schools, trusts, and PVI providers with the sustainability of provision.
In addition, schools are expected to:
* respond to their community’s wraparound needs by adhering to the right to request guidance, which describes your role in:
* considering and responding to parents’ requests for the school to deliver wraparound childcare.
* considering and responding to PVI providers’ requests to use the school site to deliver wraparound childcare.
* support the local authority to understand parental demand and, where relevant, existing wraparound provision in your school.
We would like to facilitate links between schools and prospective wraparound childcare providers. Please register your details here:
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Please contact Earlyyearsandchildcareteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk if you require any support.
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*Expanded entitlements from September 2024 onwards*
From 1 April, eligible working parents can apply for:
* 15 hours childcare for their two-year-old
* 30 hours childcare for their three- or four-year-old
The second phase of the childcare support expansion will be rolled out from September. *From 12 May, eligible working parents can apply for 15 hours for their child aged 9 months old and over.*
To be eligible from 1 September 2024, children must have a date of birth on or before 30 November 2023.
To use their hours during autumn term, parents need to apply for their code by 31 August and must reconfirm their details every three months via their Childcare Choices account. Codes applied for in May will have an end date in August and will therefore need reconfirming before the code can be used for autumn term 2024.
Once codes are provided by parents, please check the end date of the code via the Eligibility Checker on the Provider Portal by adding the code, child date of birth and parent/carer NI number. The data will not be stored at this stage but will highlight to parents the importance of reconfirming their code, especially those whose codes have an end date before 31 August 2024.
From September 2025, eligible working parents with children between 9 months up to school age will have access to 30 hours childcare.
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*Provider Portal Closure – Summer Term*
The Provider Portal has closed for the summer term. Any further additions or adjustments for the summer term should be emailed, with a copy of the completed parental declaration form, to the FEEE Team at FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk__
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*Parental Declaration Form *__
In readiness for autumn term and the second phase of the expanded entitlements, updates have been made to the parental declaration form [
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This can be used for new children (parents can still sign the older version if in place, for any amendments). From April 2024 2-year-olds qualify for DAF and EYPP, and under 2s will qualify from September 2024, it is vital that the consent boxes on the parental declaration are ticked to enable an eligibility check to be completed.
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*Grant funding to develop new childcare places*
*Childcare Expansion Capital Grant*
This funding is intended to support expansion of the 30-hours early years entitlement for working families and wraparound provision in primary schools. It must be spent on capital projects, and is being provided to meet the capital costs associated with projects that help ensure sufficient places for:
* Children taking up an early years place through the expanded 30-hours entitlement for qualifying working parents (from the term following the child reaching 9-months to the term in which they turn 3-years-old);
* Increasing the supply of wraparound childcare for primary-school aged children.
Projects may be funded to develop either 30-hours early years entitlement or wraparound childcare, or both.
*National Wraparound Childcare Programme*
Revenue funding will be available to support the operating costs of new wraparound provision.
The funding will be tapered. This reflects the expectation that the funding is used to fund set up and running costs of new and expanded wraparound places and that, as take-up of provision increases, and therefore income from parental payments increases, the level of grant funding needed to contribute to running costs to ensure sustainability reduces.
Details of how to apply for the development grants will be made available via this bulletin during summer term. Applications will be invited from all sectors; day nurseries, pre-schools, schools, childminders, before and after school childcare providers.
Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements
Child Safety Week
For Child Safety Week (Monday 3 to Sunday 9 June), Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) have provided free educational resources to equip families with safety skills and knowledge.
CAPT
Click the button below to visit their resource centre and search by safety topic or type of resource to find the relevant accident prevention resources.
*CAPT Resources* [
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Fortunately, some of the worst accidents are the simplest to stop. Child Accident Prevention Trust have got top tips and resources to help families learn how.
Click the button below to download their parent pack.
*CAPT Parent Pack* [
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Infant Mental Health Awareness Week
For Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, the NSPCC are offering an online session focusing on speaking up for every baby.
* *Tuesday 11th June 10:30 - 12:30 on Microsoft Teams.*
Click the button below to register your place.
NSPCC
*Click here to register*
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Summer Water Safety
Following a very sad, tragic and preventable incident recently when children had got into difficulty in open water: Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service issued this message to remind the public that:
“The water may look calm on the surface, but there can be strong undercurrents that could pull even a strong swimmer under the water.”
“And even when the weather feels very hot, the water may feel warm on the surface, but just a few feet below the surface it can be icy cold – affecting the stamina and strength of even strong swimmers.”
“If you are with someone who gets into difficulty, call emergency services for help. If you can, use an object to try and reach for them, but don’t put yourself in danger by entering the water.”
Please see the poster below for more water safety tips.
Summer water poster
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Safer Sleep Notification - A New Safeguarding Partnership
Merseyside Police and the NHS would like to invite you to hear more about the development of an innovative Safer Sleep notification. The work builds on the Safer Sleep programme delivered across the North West region last year and has culminated in an excellent initiative between Merseyside Police Prevention Hub, Cheshire & Merseyside ICB and Provider trusts and The Lullaby Trust.
You are invited to hear more about this excellent initiative at a "lunch & learn" session on *Thursday 20 June 12:00 - 1:30pm via Microsoft Teams.*
*Click here to join the meeting* [
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Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...
Providers must support staff to undertake appropriate training and professional development opportunities to ensure they offer quality learning and development experiences for children that continually improves.
Click the button below to browse our Summer term training offer and book on.
abc
*Early Years Training Hub* [
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National updates
DfE Early Years and Childcare Expansion Provider Roadshow
The Prime Minister on 22 May called a general election on 4 July, and parliament dissolved on 30 May. We are now in a pre-election period; this will last until the General Election concludes.
During this time Civil Servants and Ministers must adhere to published Cabinet Office guidance and are limited to discussions on operational essential matters and can’t comment on future policy government matters.
For this reason, the DfE have postponed the *DfE **North West region Early Education and Childcare Expansion Provider Roadshow on 20 June 2024 *and apologise for the late notice and any inconvenience this may cause.
The DfE are looking to re-arrange the event in September/October time and will send out further details on how to register for this new date shortly and really looking forward to seeing you and providers in your region later this year.
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*May 2024 Household Support Fund update*
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