Early Years Covid-19

Latest government information

• Education and Childcare settings: national lockdown from 5 January 2021
• Early Years Sector: Consumer Law Advice
• Child Safeguarding posters
• What parents and carers need to know about early years providers, schools and colleges in the autumn term
• Early Years Foundation Stage coronavirus disapplications
• Guidance on coronavirus testing for essential workers
• Ofsted COVID-19 rolling update
• Actions for Early Years and Childcare Providers
• Sign up for email alerts about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) UK government response
• Business Coronavirus Support Finder

Health and wellbeing

• Cheshire West and Chester - Mental Health Helpline
• RCPCH - Advice for parents and carers when a child is unwell or injured
• World Health Organisation - mental health considerations
• NHS – One You

Cheshire East information

The Early Years Team are continuing to send out a weekly online survey for completion by 12 noon on Mondays. The information collected is required by and submitted to the Department for Education, and therefore it must be completed by ALL childcare providers. The survey will take approximately 2 minutes to complete.

• Covid poster for parents (PDF, 202KB)
• Frequently asked questions from DfE guidance sessions (PDF, 314KB)
• PPE suppliers for setting (PDF, 130KB)
• Together we can open an Early Years Setting during Covid 19 (PDF, 581KB)
• Model Risk Assessment for reopening your setting (MS Word, 54KB)
• Childcare for vulnerable children and children of keyworkers (PDF, 170KB)
• Domestic Abuse- Request for Help from the Police and Crime Commissioner (PDF, 2MB)
• Business Support Plan (PDF, 298KB) - Guidance on the package of measures to support public services, people and businesses through this period of disruption caused by COVID-19.
• Cheshire East Business Rates support
• Tips for providers who have stayed open (PDF, 65KB)

Support for home learning

• National Literacy Trust’s Family Zone
• BBC Tiny Happy People
• Hungry Little Minds
• Help for children aged 2-4 to learn at home

DfE guidance consultations

If you would like to discuss any of the above guidance then join the Childcare Development Team and other childcare providers for an informal group discussion around the DfE COVID-19 guidance. 

As these are open discussion sessions we won't have a fixed agenda. Our intention is for everyone to share and learn from one another and to understand the approaches taken by different settings to the guidance. 

The sessions will be held on

• Wednesday 13 January 10.30am
• Wednesday 20 January 10.30am
• Wednesday 27 January 10.30am
• Thursday 4 February 10.30am
• Thursday 11 February 10.30am

Register your interest in joining our discussion

We will send you a link to a Microsoft teams meeting which you can use in your web browser. You don't have to download software.