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The provider portal will remain open until 28 April 2022 for the submission of April / May Actuals.
Important: If information is not submitted by this deadline, you will not receive your funding during the normal payment timescale. Financial Services are not able to make bespoke payments where submissions have been missed.
Once all the information has been submitted, please remember to click ‘Send Claim’.
The SchoolsNet - Funding and contracts tile will take you to YouTube videos and mini guides which are available to support providers with any queries around funding submissions. The ‘Actual headcount claims’ videos and mini guides includes step-by-step instructions to help with your April / May Actuals submission.
All 3 & 4 year old Ukrainian children will be able to access the Universal 3 & 4 year old funding at the start of the term following their 3rd birthday. Applications for 30 hours (Extended Entitlement) will need to be made via HMRC in the usual way.
Applications for the 2 year old funding will need to meet the economic criteria via the local authority’s application process: Free childcare for 2-year-olds - Derbyshire County Council
If a child has a fifth birthday between September 2022 and August 2023, they will need to apply for a school place for the 2022/2023 academic year. The derbyshire.gov.uk/admissions link provides information on how to apply for a school place.
However, it may be that parents feel their child is not ready to start school and wish to defer their school place. Children are eligible for early years funding up to and including the term in which they have their fifth birthday.
If parents want to talk to someone about a deferred admission into Reception, they should contact admissions.transport@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 537479.
As you will be aware the bank holiday for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee falls within the May half-term holiday period 2022.
In line with Derbyshire schools, providers delivering the early years entitlement funding on a term-time basis, will be able to take an additional day in lieu for this extra bank holiday. Providers will receive funding for this additional day.
Please ensure that you consult with all staff and parents to determine the most appropriate day. This can be either during the week before schools break up for half-term or between Monday 6 June 2022 and the end of the summer term (Friday 22 July 2022).
For all year-round provision - providers will close for the additional bank holiday and will receive funding for this period.
If you have not already done so, please sign up to receive Tax-Free Childcare (TFC). This will ensure that you are ready to accept payments from parents, with children aged 0 – 11 years as soon as they ask to use this scheme.
As you will be aware, TFC is a government scheme to help eligible working families save 20% of their childcare costs. Eligible parents can receive up to £2,000 (£500 every 3 months) per child, per year for children aged 0 – 11 years and £4,000 for disabled children under 17. TFC could help families to meet the cost of their childcare and assist with the sustainability of your business.
You need to be signed up so that parents can use their Tax-Free Childcare account to make childcare payments directly into your bank account. All providers will be able to accept payments through Tax-Free Childcare as long as they are:
- An approved or registered childcare provider
- Signed up with HMRC to accept payments from parents
If you are a local authority-maintained school, please liaise with your school support patch officer for details on how to sign up for TFC.
Please visit the links below for further information and details on how to sign up:
Tax Free Childcare Provider Sign up
Tax Free Childcare and how to identify a payment
Childcare Choices Tax Free Childcare Provider Guidance
For families accessing the 30 hours extended entitlement funding, they can apply for the TFC using the same online application/account and must reconfirm approximately every three months.
Last month, Hempsalls delivered a webinar on behalf of HMRC to provide information on TFC. If you were unable to attend the Hempsalls TFC webinar, the recording is available to watch below:
Tax-Free Childcare webinar for early years and childcare provider webinar - YouTube
You can find useful email templates, leaflets, posters and social media content on the Childcare Choices website in the Communications Toolkit to help you to promote this offer to parents. Please display these in your setting to support parents to understand the entitlements on offer.
Parents can find out how-to-use-tax-free-childcare using the Childcare Choices website. Please encourage your families to use the Childcare Calculator to find out which schemes are available to help them, and which work best for their family.
This is the time of year when providers offering a stretched model of delivery need to review each child’s allocation of hours.
As you will all be aware children are entitled to a maximum of 570 (universal) and in some cases an additional 570 hours (extended) entitlement.
The 570 / 1140 hours should be divided by the number of funded hours a child is attending each week to determine the number of weeks for which they will actually be funded.
For example, if a child is eligible for the universal 570 hours and is being funded for 11.17 hours a week, they can be funded for up to 51 weeks.
However, if the child is in receipt of 12.12 hours a week, they can only be funded for 47 weeks. This will mean that the funding will not cover the whole of the summer break. In this case you can either reduce the remaining hours for the child for the summer term, or parents will need to be informed as early as possible that they will need to meet the costs of the unfunded weeks during the summer holidays.
If you have any queries, please contact the relevant email address:
CS.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk
CS.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk
CS.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk
The Families Information Service website offers a childcare search facility for prospective parents wishing to find childcare in their local area.
All Derbyshire childcare settings have an opportunity to advertise their business using this free marketing tool, enabling the setting details to be included in the search results.
In order for your setting’s details to be visible to parents completing a childcare search, you will need to ensure you have given consent for the details to be made public. This can be done via the Provider Portal as follows:
- Once logged onto the provider portal select the ‘Forms’ tab
- This will bring up a list of forms for selection. Please select any ‘Mini Update’ form (it doesn’t matter which mini update form is selected if there is more than one to choose from).
- Once loaded, you do not need to change any of the information on the first page of the form, just select ‘Declaration / Consent’ from the drop down box at the bottom of the screen and click next page.
- Ensure the top two declaration boxes are ticked and enter your name and date (see below) and submit form.
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- Once your form has been submitted, the Families Information Service will add your details to the public list and your setting details will become visible when parents / carers search for childcare in your area via the FIS childcare search.
I hope you find the above information helpful and thank you for promoting your setting to families in your area.
Where there is a change to the nominated person who has access to the provider portal, the local authority must be notified as a matter of urgency to ensure the member of staff is removed and the new nominee is allocated a new password.
Therefore, please access the following link: SchoolsNet - Funding and contracts where you will find a copy of the Provider Portal User Access Form. Providers should complete Section 2 – ‘Staff Leavers and Starters’ and return the form to the following relevant email address:
CS.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk CS.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk
CS.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk
The Families Information Service will then allocate a new password to the new staff member.
IMPORTANT: Passwords are unique to each specific user - to comply with GDPR and data protection legislations, all users must ensure passwords are kept safe and never shared or passed on to another person.
If you are a contracted provider and would like to receive text reminders when the provider portal is open/closed, please ensure you notify us (and Ofsted of course!) of your mobile number.
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