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The portal will remain open until 28 July 2024 for ‘Adjustments’ submissions to enable you to include any changes which occurred during the April/May, June and July 2024 periods.
Please be aware that Estimates will be open from 16 July 2024 and not 8 July 2024 as outlined on your funding calendar. This due to necessary updates taking place in the System. The portal will remain open for the submission of estimated hours until 25 August 2024. Please be assured that we will distribute reminder e-mails informing you when the portal is open.
Please ignore this reminder if you are a maintained or governor run school.
To take account of the government’s roll-out of the 15-hours funding for children of eligible working parents, you will see the following headcounts when you log on to submit your estimate claims for September / October:
- 3/4 year olds
- 2 year olds
- 9 month – 2 year olds
The ‘2-year-old Assessment-Based’ (6-digit code issued by the local authority) and the ‘2-year-old Working Families’ (11-digit code issued by HMRC) will now fall under one headcount. Therefore, when submitting data for these children, please ensure you click on the correct funding type, which will determine the correct hourly rate.
The current version of the provider agreement is due to end on 31 December 2024. Following the return of the provider questionnaire, we are now considering an open-ended Agreement. Please be assured that the Agreement will continue to be updated with changes to government legislation / local authority specifications occur. Providers will be notified of these updates as and when they occur.
Thank you to everybody who completed the ‘Provider Questionnaire’ in June’s Business Bulletin - your feedback is very much appreciated.
The returns show:
73% of providers are in favour of an open-ended Provider Agreement
27% of providers are in favour of a 5 yearly Provider Agreement
We are therefore considering an ‘open-ended’ Provider Agreement.
82% of providers agreed that they receive a prompt and helpful reply from the Funding and Contracts Team
18% of providers neither agreed nor disagreed to this question
63% of providers agreed that the guidance documentation on SchoolsNet is helpful
9% of providers neither agreed nor disagreed
27% of providers did not utilise the guidance
3 x providers submitted additional comments which were responded to separately
We will shortly be introducing a funding claim audit whereby we will be liaising with Derbyshire providers to request a small percentage return of parent/carer FE1 forms and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) letters, if applicable. This audit will enable us to support providers with the accuracy of their funding submissions on the provider portal.
Full compliance audits will also continue to take place with contracted providers to verify that the specifications outlined in the Provider Agreement are continuing to be met.
If you have any queries regarding this, please contact us using the relevant generic in-box.
We are starting to receive direct calls from parents whereby providers have forwarded on officers’ contact details. Should a parent have any queries or concerns in relation to the delivery of the early years funding entitlement, please can we ask that they follow the correct channels of enquiry to prevent misconstrued information being relayed or duplicated.
Can we please ask that providers liaise with parents in the first instance to try and resolve their issue. If a satisfactory outcome is not achieved, please refer them to the ‘Parent Poster’ displayed in your provision, which details the Families Information Service e-mail address (info.fis@derbyshire.gov.uk). This will enable the correct team to look into their query.
For queries around early years’ funding and the submission of funding data onto the provider portal, providers are reminded to access the information and guidance available via SchoolsNet using the following link: Funding and contracts (derbyshire.gov.uk), in the first instance.
However, if you are unable to find the answer to your query, please direct your question to the relevant email address below, and an officer will contact you with a response:
CS.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk
CS.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk
CS.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk
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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.
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