The Early Years team are continuing to receive queries from parents regarding their fee paid sessions.
Important: Where parents receive both funded and fee paid sessions an invoice must be provided. To ensure invoices are not confusing for parents, they should be clear, transparent, and itemised allowing parents to see that they have received their early years entitlement hours completely free of charge and fully understand fees paid for additional hours or services. Please refer to the example invoice attached to your Provider Agreement Extension at Appendix (iii) if you have any queries.
Any additional fees should be discussed with parents prior to accessing a place in the setting.
Please can we remind providers of the following points, as per your signed Agreement:
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7.9 Providers should deliver flexible packages of funded hours, with no artificial breaks, for example over the lunch period.
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13.1 Government funding is intended to cover the cost to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare which meets the requirements of the EYFS. It is not intended to cover the cost of meals, additional hours, additional services, or some consumables.
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13.2 Providers can charge for meals and snacks as part of an early years’ entitlement place. They can also charge for consumables such as nappies or sun cream and for services such as trips and musical tuition. Parents should therefore expect to pay for these, although these charges must be voluntary for the parent. Where parents are unable or unwilling to pay for meals and consumables, Providers who choose to offer the early years entitlements are responsible for setting their own policy on how to respond, with options including waiving or reducing the cost of meals and snacks or allowing parents to supply their own meals, nappies etc. Providers should be particularly mindful of the impact of additional charges on the most disadvantaged parents.
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13.9 Providers must not charge parents of children accessing the early years entitlements for consumables that are required to deliver the EYFS, for example craft materials, books, toys, and equipment etc.
Please ensure you continue to adhere to the legal specifications outlined in your signed Provider Agreement Extension (where applicable). If you have any queries, please e-mail the team who would be happy to discuss this with you.
December 2022 Actuals:
Please be reminded that the portal will be open from Saturday 19 November – Sunday 27 November 2022 for the submission of the December 2022 Actuals data.
Once all the information has been submitted, please remember to click ‘Send Claim’. You will see a green tick confirming your claim has been submitted.
If you do not submit your information by this deadline, you will not receive your funding during the normal payment timescale.
September / October and November Adjustments:
The portal will also be open from Saturday 19 November – Sunday 27 November 2022 for Adjustments submissions to enable you to include any changes which occurred during the September / October and November 2022 periods.
Important: please be reminded that ‘Adjustments’ submissions are for children who increase / decrease their hours, start / leave a provision following the closure of Actuals. Adjustments should not be used as an alternative to Actuals.
Please refer to the funding calendar, for provider portal opening dates.
New applications:
Please be reminded where parents have not applied for a 30-hours code before the 31 December 2022 deadline, they will not be able to access the extended entitlement for the spring term 2023. However, they will still be able to access the 15 hours per week universal funding.
Please note: It is imperative that providers check that all codes (for both new and existing parents) are valid on the provider portal before offering a place to the child. Failure to do so may result in providers meeting this cost, as parents should not be charged for something they have previously been told will be delivered for free.
The link below will take you to the newly created YouTube video which offers guidance on how to Check a 30-hour code and determine eligibility.
Reconfirmation of codes:
As you will be aware, parents need to reconfirm their eligibility code approximately every three months. Although it is the responsibility of the parents to reconfirm by the end date of the code, providers also have a responsibility to notify parents if they have fallen out of eligibility and encourage them to access their childcare account as a matter of urgency. Therefore, it is in the provider’s interest to encourage parents to regularly check their government gateway account to ensure they are aware of their reconfirmation deadlines. It is important parents DO NOT miss reconfirmation deadlines as they may lose their funding for the term.
If a parent has questions about their application or difficulties with applying or reconfirming their code, they will need to contact the HMRC helpline on telephone: 0300 123 4097.
Grace Periods:
Providers will be aware of the grace period dates for each parent and should share these with parents who experience a change in eligibility status. Please be reminded to check eligibility dates carefully before agreeing a start date with parents.
We continue to receive e-mails from providers querying why codes are showing in their ‘Grace’ period but can be submitted on to the portal.
In this scenario, it appears providers are accessing information on the Summary page to ascertain the status of a 30-hour code.
The accuracy of the information held on the Summary page is dependent upon when an eligibility check was last undertaken. In order to access live data, which is in line with the information the parent has access to, either:
- an eligibility check should be undertaken which links to the live data held with the Department for Education (DfE) or
- the blue ‘30 Hours Free Childcare’ button is submitted via Actuals submissions. This will then update to the most recent status of the child’s code.
Providers are also reminded that parents are unable to commence a 30-hours funded placement during a grace period. More information about grace periods can be found in the Statutory Guidance.
Please be reminded to delete the details of children who are no longer attending your provision from the December headcount when the provider portal opens from 19 November – 27 November 2022 for December Actuals.
With the revised EYFS becoming statutory in September 2021 it is no longer a requirement to request permission from Ofsted to take records off site:
3.70. Records must be easily accessible and available (these may be kept securely off the premises). Confidential information and records about staff and children must be held securely and only accessible and available to those who have a right or professional need to see them. Providers must be aware of their responsibilities under the Data Protection Legislation and where relevant the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
3.71. Providers must ensure that all staff understand the need to protect the privacy of the children in their care as well the legal requirements that exist to ensure that information relating to the child is handled in a way that ensures confidentiality. Parents and/or carers must be given access to all records about their child, provided that no relevant exemptions apply to their disclosure under the Data Protection Act.
Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage
Please bear in mind that it is still the duty of each early years provider to ensure they are meeting the legal requirements with regard to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force on 25th May 2018 and the Data Protection Act (amended in 2018).
“Everyone responsible for using personal data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. They must make sure the information is:
- used fairly, lawfully and transparently
- used for specified, explicit purposes
- used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary
- accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
- kept for no longer than is necessary
- handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage”
Data protection - Gov.UK
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights. Under the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018, individuals and organisations that process personal data need to pay a data protection fee to the ICO, unless they are exempt. To register and find out whether you need to pay a fee please complete the following ICO Registration self-assessment.
The Early Years’ Service have included in their Meeting Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) safeguarding and welfare requirements audit support materials two documents relating to information and record keeping:
Further information and resources can be found on the following websites:
Data protection - Gov.UK
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Education Data Hub for Early Years - Education Data Hub
Date for your diary!
The Early Years Census 2023
Please note: Thursday 19th January 2023 is Census day
Every funded PVI EY setting in England is required to provide their Local Authority with their EY Census data on this date.
Further guidance to follow later in the Autumn Term - DFE guidance can be viewed here:
EY Census 2023 - DFE Guidance
Local authority notification:
Due to the current rise in covid cases, should you need to close your provision due to covid, please ensure you notify the funding team via the relevant in-box:
CS.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk or CS.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk or CS.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk along with the quality team via: CS.EYS@derbyshire.gov.uk
Ofsted notification:
For closures of three days or more please be reminded that there is also a requirement to notify Ofsted as per the guidance set out in the following document.
Actions for early years and childcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic - February 2022 (pg18/19)
Actions for early years and childcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Early Years providers can claim an additional £342 per child per year of extra funding through Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) to support children’s development, learning and care.
Children qualify for EYPP where they are accessing the 3- and 4-year-old universal 15 hours funding and whose parents are in receipt of certain qualifying benefits, have been adopted or are in care.
There are two ways to access EYPP, either via the economic or non-economic route.
Economic
The economic criteria are similar to those for children who would receive free school meals, and applications for these children are to be submitted through the portal using the information gathered on your FE1 form, as laid out in your provider agreement. Full economic criteria can be found here: Get extra funding for your early years provider - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Non-Economic
EYPP is also available to children who have been adopted or in care under the non-economic criteria. Any 3-or 4-year-olds accessing the universal funding can receive this additional funding if:
- they've left care under a special guardianship order,
- they’ve left care under a child arrangements order,
- they’ve left care via an adoption order
To claim the funding for any children within your setting who meet any of the above, you will need to request a copy of the relevant Order from the family. Once the documentation is received from the parent, it should be forwarded to the relevant email address along with the setting’s details, highlighting it is evidence for EYPP:
CS.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk or CS.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk or
CS.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk
Children in the care of the local authority
Children who are currently in the care of the local authority and are accessing the universal 3-or 4-year-old funding are also eligible for EYPP under the non-economic route. Providers should contact the local authority having legal responsibility for the child to make a claim. For any children attending your setting who are currently in the care of Derbyshire County Council please email our virtual school at virtualschool@derbyshire.gov.uk to submit your application.
Children in the care of another local authority
For children in the care of a different local authority you will need to contact the relevant Virtual School to find out how to claim EYPP for one of their children. Please contact Derbyshire County Council using the relevant email above if there are any issues around this.
High quality early education can influence how well a child progresses at both primary and secondary school, so we want to make the most of this additional funding by making sure it is claimed for every eligible child.
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.
Where the local authority has received a mobile number from your setting, this will automatically be included in the ‘Texting’ notifications.
Please let us know via email if you wish to be removed from this Service.
Please remember to access the SchoolsNet - Funding and contracts tile where you will find a suite of step-by-step guidance and video materials to help you submit information on to the provider portal. We hope you find them useful.
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