Welcome back and happy new year. Bookings are now open for the February 2026 regional meetings and will close on Monday 19th January.
Regional Meetings – Bookings closing soon
The theme for the regional meetings will be Sufficiency, Sustainability and Market Management.
A key aim of the day is to support consolidation of all the hard work over the last 18 months or so and look at the future of this work in the emerging strategic context of new DfE guidance and information.
The outline agenda is below:
09:30 Arrivals and networking
10:00 Welcome and introductions
10:10 CW and DfE update
10:45 Policy workshops
- Early Years – market management to meet the need for places between now and September 26.
- Wraparound childcare – sustainability and market management
11:45 Break
11:55 LA feedback from morning workshops
12:45 Lunch
13:45 A strategic approach - considering the parent journey, early years and childcare strategies and market management across all ages.
14.50 Action planning
15:05 What’s coming up and resource share
15:15 Summary and evaluation
15:30 Close
Please book your place through the links below, and we will follow up with a formal invite to confirm your place: February 2026 regional meeting booking form.
In the first instance, places are limited to two per local authority.
Dates and locations:
Location | Date | Venue |
Leeds | Tuesday 3rd February 2026 | Hilton City Centre, Leeds LS1 4BX |
Manchester | Wednesday 4th February 2026 | Radisson Park Inn, Manchester M4 4EW |
London (1) | Thursday 5th February 2026 | Coram Campus, London WC1N 1AZ |
London (2) | Tuesday 10th February 2026 | Coram Campus, London WC1N 1AZ |
Birmingham | Wednesday 11th February 2026 | Park Regis Hotel Birmingham B15 1DT |
Exeter | Thursday 12th February 2026 | Sandy Park, Exeter, EX2 7NN |
Wraparound Spring MI
We would like to extend our thanks to local authorities for the timely and quality submissions of your Autumn MI templates. As we look towards the Spring 2026 MI submission, please can any queries be submitted through the following MS forms link (instead of going through the helpdesk): Spring-Term MI Query Form – Fill in form
On Friday 12th December we shared an email to all Wraparound leads with details of Spring 2026 MI key dates and collection process. The key dates are below, if you did not receive a copy of the email, please contact childcareworks@mottmac.com :
- *Friday 9th January MI survey, provider guidance and FAQs released to LAs.
- Friday 9th January to Friday 16th January – Recommended window for LAs to disseminate survey and deadline information to providers.
- *Monday 19th January to Friday 23rd January – Spring term 2026 reporting week.
- *Monday 26th January to Friday 30th January – Recommended provider reporting window.
- Wednesday 28th January – MI template, LA guidance and FAQs released to LAs.
- Monday 2nd February to Friday 13th February – Recommended LA reporting window; LAs to quality assure providers data using provided checklist.
- Friday 13th February – LA MI template submission deadline.
*Dates to share with providers
Wraparound Spring MI Drop-in Webinar
Additionally, Childcare Works will be hosting a drop-in webinar on Thursday 29th January 2026 at 11:00am. The session will address important questions we have received through helpdesk to support you in completing and submitting your MI. Please note, the Spring MI template and guidance will be circulated with LAs beforehand.
The session will include an overview of the MI process, timelines, and key tasks for LAs to complete and provide you with an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about completing and submitting your MI return. If you have any questions you would like to submit ahead of the session, please email them to childcareworks@mottmac.com. Following the session, any FAQs which are raised/answered will be shared with all LAs.
Register for the webinar here: Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams
Wraparound January Cluster meetings
We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the January cluster meetings this month. Thank you to everyone who has already booked onto a January cluster meeting. Please find the dates below and if you have not booked a place, please do so as soon as possible through the following link: January 2026 cluster meetings - childcareworks.org.uk
If you are unable to attend your usual cluster, please sign up to attend an alternative meeting. If you are unable to attend a meeting at all, please let your adviser know as soon as possible.