|
Please be reminded that the Provider Agreement has recently been updated which includes a new clause at 16.10 to reflect the change made by the Department for Education (DfE) to the Early education and childcare - statutory guidance for local authorities and forms part of the contract between the local authority and early years providers. The change to the Guidance is included in paragraph A3.13 which outlines guidance for local authorities on funding providers registered at an ‘ineffective’ childminder agency to deliver the early education and childcare entitlements.
The revised Provider Agreement is accessible using the SchoolsNet link in the Funding and contracts (derbyshire.gov.uk) tile.
IMPORTANT:
We are anticipating further changes to the DfE’s Statutory Guidance during the summer term. As the current Provider Agreement expires on 31 December 2023, changes will be reflected in the new Provider Agreement from 1 January 2024.
The provider portal will be open from 20 May – 28 May 2023 for the submission of June 2023 Actuals.
Please ensure data is submitted accurately on to the system and all children’s hours are included.
Please allow yourself plenty of time to input your information and do not leave it until the last minute in case you encounter any problems.
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’. You will see a green tick when your claim has been submitted.
If you experience any difficulties in submitting your data, please refer to the useful guidance information on the SchoolsNet - Funding and contracts tile in the first instance. If you continue to experience difficulties, please contact the relevant e-mail address: cs.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk; cs.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.uk; cs.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk and an Officer will make contact with you. Due to the volume of queries being received, please allow the Officer time to respond.
The Early Years Finance Team continue to receive queries from providers where parents have not reconfirmed their 30 hours code.
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 are about to/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 remind parents of their code ‘end’ date and to encourage them 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 it prevents them from falling into their grace period and they may lose their funding for the term.
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.
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
Grace Periods
Although parents are only aware of their code’s start and end dates, 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.
Please note:
Grace period end dates are dependent on individual validity end dates and are unique to when the parent applied. Providers are also reminded that parents are unable to start a new placement with a new provider during their grace period. However, if an ineligible parent finds work that takes them above the minimum income threshold during their grace period, they will be able to reconfirm and continue with their 30 hours. More information about grace periods can be found in the Statutory Guidance.
Where the portal is showing a code to be in a grace period, please Check a 30-hour code and determine eligibility using the eligibility checker on the portal as this is linked to live data held with the DfE.
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.
Please be reminded that parents must have applied for their 30-hour code the term prior to that in which they wish to access the extended entitlement funding:
|
Apply for code before:
|
Eligible to start:
|
|
31 March
|
Summer Term (after Easter Holidays)
|
31 August
|
Autumn term (September)
|
|
31 December
|
Spring Term (January)
|
The local authority does not have discretionary funds to secure additional funded hours where the parent has applied or reconfirmed after the 31 March, 31 August or 31 December deadline dates, nor for codes issued after the relevant dates listed in the Statutory Guidance.
Polite reminder: Where a two-year-old has been issued with an eligibility code by a neighbouring local authority, please ensure this information is included in the child’s record on the Provider Portal. Without this information, the Early Years Finance Team are unable to process the claim through the system and therefore must contact providers to request the missing information to ensure payment.
Please see the screenshot below indicating where this information needs to be included:
  Please note: the above listed information must be provided for the claim to be submitted.
For further information on two year old codes, please access our useful guidance on SchoolsNet - Funding and contracts and click on ‘Claim for an eligible two-year-old’.
Look out for the Early Years Provider Survey in your inbox …
 |
|
Derbyshire’s Early Years Sufficiency Service are undertaking a provider survey to understand the early years and childcare market in Derbyshire.
Following the Chancellor’s announcement on 15th March 2023, the information that you provide is crucial in determining the sufficiency of early years places in your locality and will shape the development of future early years provision.
It is imperative that each provider completes the survey which should take no more than ten minutes to complete and can be accessed either through the email or by using the link below:
If you would like any support completing the survey, please email: CS.SufficiencyService@derbyshire.gov.uk
|
WIN WIN WIN!!
Each submitted survey will be put into a prize draw to WIN a ticket (worth at least £99) to the Derbyshire Early Years Conference which will be held on 15th June 2023.
The closing date for the submission of the survey is Friday 26th May 2023.
We would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the survey and look forward to receiving your response.
Please promote this with your families and invite them to like and follow our page. The FIS Facebook page includes useful updates and information about services and events in Derbyshire, alongside helpful advice and support with parenting, finances, wellbeing and much more!
Find us on Facebook @DerbyshireFIS
The Families’ Information Service website offers a childcare search facility for prospective parents looking 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. Some of these details haven’t been updated in a long time so please ensure that yours are correct by checking them here: Childcare Directory and if amendments need to be made you can do this via the ‘Forms’ tab in the Provider Portal. This is a really effective way of reaching families in your community who are looking for childcare.
|
Please be reminded that it is a provider’s responsibility, as stated in section 2 of the Provider Agreement Extension, that they must check termly that the details held on the Families Information Service (FIS) are current and updated where required.
|
|
 |
 |
|
As a provider you will appreciate that any financial help parents can get with the cost of childcare could assist the sustainability of your business. Therefore, it is important that parents can access any government childcare offers with you! |
Over a million families in the UK are entitled to some form of government childcare support, but many are missing out because childcare providers in their area haven’t signed up to offer the various schemes. In parallel, many childcare providers are missing out on boosting their businesses by increasing demand as they aren’t accessible to families who use government childcare support.
Tax-Free Childcare is one of the government schemes available to help eligible working families with the cost of childcare. Eligible parents can receive up to £2,000 (£500 every 3 months) per child, per year for children up to 11 years or under and £4,000 for disabled children until they are 17 years old. Providers need to be signed up so that parents can use their Tax-Free Childcare account to make childcare payments directly into your bank account. The toolkit linked below contains a step-by-step guide to registering for Tax-Free childcare, helping you to make your services accessible to families who use government childcare support, boosting your business in the process.
Childcare providers information and communication toolkit 2022
Help your families access support by informing them of Tax-Free Childcare, Universal Credit for Childcare, and 30 hours Childcare support, by directing them to the Childcare Choices website where they can easily find the right offers of childcare support available to them. The childcare choices website also contains the useful childcare calculator which allows parents to see which of the offers is best for them.
You can also direct your families to the Derbyshire Families Information Service who will help them to navigate through the various childcare offers and support them with their applications. Parents/carers can contact Derbyshire’s Families Information Service by either telephone on 01629 535793, or by email at info.fis@derbyshire.gov.uk.
It is more important than ever that parents and carers are able to access the financial aid they qualify for. It can reduce their costs, help them to stay in work, or help them work more hours, which in turn can provide additional income for providers.
The toolkit linked below provides social media posts and assets for you to use, to inform your parents of the support available and ensure they are not missing out.
Childcare parent information toolkit
Social media is a low cost, high impact tool which can help boost communication with parents and raise awareness of your setting. As well as posting on your channels whether with your own content or the with the provided graphics and videos within the toolkits, you can also share and support content from our Twitter account: @derbyshireEYFS.
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.
Please remember to inform us where changes occur within your setting as these changes may require a new provider agreement (where applicable). An example of these would be, change to the registration name, provision name, childminder name, provision address, business structure and changes to committee members, directors, trustees and / or manager.
We also need to be informed of any changes to contact details e.g., telephone number and email address although this will not require a revised provider agreement extension.
Please remember to notify Ofsted and the local authority using the following e-mail addresses:
Ofsted: enquiries@Ofsted.gov.uk
cs.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk
cs.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk
cs.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk
Please also remember to update your setting's details with the Families Information Service, telephone: email: info.fis@derbyshire.gov.uk
 |
|
|
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.
|
