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As you will be aware, the National Wraparound Childcare Programme has been introduced to increase the amount of out of school provision available to parents.
Since the programme launched in September 2024, over 1,500 wraparound places have been created. Funding has been received by schools and PVI providers to create wraparound provision which is supporting more than 80 schools in Derbyshire.
The Department for Education has confirmed that the Wraparound Programme Funding can now be used to fund ‘partial places’. This means providers can apply for funding to create / expand their wraparound offer as long as there is at least 30 minutes provision before the school day and after school finishes no earlier than 90 minutes from the end of the school day. Families should also have access to childcare at least three days per week.
The funding aims to remove barriers to setting up new provision (or expanding upon existing provision), including removing the financial risk when demand is not yet guaranteed.
If you are interested in either expanding your current wraparound offer or creating new provision, please email the Sufficiency Team: CS.SufficiencyService@derbyshire.gov.uk.
*NEW* Termly wraparound newsletter now available!
For any providers offering before and/or after school childcare provision, sign-up now to get the latest wraparound childcare information, links, resources and top tips straight to your inbox. You will receive termly key updates from teams such as the Sufficiency Service, the Early Years Improvement Team, Families Information Service, HAF and Safeguarding to support you to deliver the very best out-of-school provision for your children and families.
Follow this link to sign up now: Derbyshire County Council - Wraparound Childcare Newsletter
(For children within the age range of 9-months to the term in which a child turns 3-years-old)
The third round of the Childcare Expansion Capital Grant Funding is now open.
Capital Grant Funding is available to support the sufficiency of early entitlement places for children within the age range of 9-months to the term in which a child turns 3-years-old. The maximum funding per project which can be accessed through this grant is £80,000.
Further guidance relating to this funding programme (issued by the Department of Education) can be found at: Childcare Expansion Capital Grant - Allocations Guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk).
For more information or to receive an Expression of Interest Form, please email: CS.SufficiencyService@derbyshire.gov.uk.
The closing date for Expression of Interest Forms is 28 September 2025.
The Department for Education (DfE) have launched phase 2 of the School-based Nursery Capital Grant. The grant will provide schools with the opportunity to apply for funding to create or expand a school-based nursery. Additional places created should be available in the 2026-27 academic year.
Eligible state-funded primary-phase schools and maintained nursery schools can apply for up to £150,000 of capital funding. The guidance notes can be found in the following link: www.gov.uk/guidance/school-based-nursery-capital-grant-2025-to-2026.
Please email cs.sufficiencyservice@derbyshire.gov.uk to express your interest in applying for the funding. Expressions of interest should be raised with the local authority by Friday 7 November 2025 to ensure the relevant information is prepared, and support can be offered to enable schools to complete their applications and submit to the DfE by 5.00pm on 11 December 2025.
Following consultation with both the Department for Education (DfE) and our legal services team, you will now have received the guidance document around any additional charges.
Could we please ask you review the document and ensure your provision aligns with the requirements set out in both the Statutory Guidance and your Provider Agreement when delivering the funded hours. Adhering to these specifications will reduce the risk of potential challenges or disputes from parents.
The provider portal remains open for the submission of Sept / Oct ‘Actuals’ and will close on Sunday, 21 September 2025.
Please ensure data is submitted accurately on to the system and all children’s hours are included. If you do not submit your information by the 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 Funding and contracts in the first instance. Please note that the guidance has been recently updated to reflect the final stage of the government’s expansion to the early years’ entitlement.
The early years funding for the autumn 2025 term starts week commencing 08 September 2025, as outlined on the early years’ entitlement funding calendar 2025 - 2026. For those providers who deliver a stretched model, funded hours can be calculated from week commencing 01 September 2025, as this is a holiday week.
From September 2025 the final stage of the government’s rollout will occur, with eligible working parents being able to access up to 30 funded hours per week (over 38 weeks a year) from the term after their child turns 9 months old until they reach school age.
Please be reminded when submitting up to 30 hours per week for a 2-year-old child who is only eligible for ‘working family’ hours, that these hours must be entered via the ‘Expanded Funded Hours’ box, rather than split between funded hours and expanded hours.
Please see below an example of how this should be claimed via the portal:
 If a 2-year-old child qualifies for ‘additional support funding’, then the hours should be split across both funded and expanded hours.
Please note: Claiming up to 30 hours for an eligible 3 & 4-year-old will remain the same, where hours need to be claimed across both funded and extended.
For eligible 9 months – 2-year-olds, only the expanded hours option will be visible and therefore up to 30 hours can be entered in this box.
Please be reminded to submit all funding claims on the provider portal as term-time hours.
Important: Providers can still meet the individual needs of families by delivering the funded hours over the period the provision is open as a stretched option. A calculation for stretched hours will need to be carried out to translate between a claim via the provider portal on a term time basis and what is being delivered on a stretched basis and recorded on the parent/carer FE1 form. Providers should monitor the stretched hours.
A child’s funded entitlement is calculated over an academic year (September – July). A child eligible for 15 hours per week over 38 term time weeks receives 570 hours in total over the academic year, and a 30-hour child receives 1140 hours. Children who commence a funded place mid-way through the academic year will be entitled to funding based on the number of weeks and hours remaining in the academic year.
Guidance documentation / tools to support providers to monitor and calculate the delivery of stretched funded hours is available on SchoolsNet, using the following link: Funding and contracts (derbyshire.gov.uk)
Please be reminded that parents must have applied for their HMRC working family code, the term prior to which they wish to access the working family entitlement funding:
Apply for code before
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Eligible to start
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31 March
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Summer Term (after Easter Holidays)
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31 August
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Autumn Term (September)
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31 December
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Spring Term (January)
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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, or for codes issued after the relevant dates listed in the Statutory Guidance.
Important: Therefore, for a child to access a funded place for the autumn 2025 term, eligible HMRC codes must have a start date prior to 31 August and an end date after 01 September.
Providers are reminded that children should NOT start a new working parent entitlement funded place at a provider during the ‘grace period’ date of the code.
Although parents are responsible for ensuring their details are up to date through their childcare account every three months, it is in the providers best interest to remind parents NOT to go into their grace period.
Please note: It is imperative that providers check that ALL HMRC codes (for both new and existing parents) are valid on the provider portal before offering a place to the child in order to avoid parents being issued with an unexpected invoice for childcare that the provider initially agreed would be funded.
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.
For your information - HMRC 11-digit eligibility codes:
- Extended and expanded funding eligibility codes usually start with 50.
- A temporary eligibility code will start with 11.
- For children in foster care, 30 hours eligibility codes usually start with 40.
Important: Where families have accepted a reception school place from September 2025, children are no longer able to access the early years entitlement funding with an early years’ provider.
Some schools choose to provide an induction period or a start date later in the term for reception class children to allow them the chance to settle in. Should a parent wish their child to access a place at your setting, due to their child’s school’s induction period, this must form part of a fee paid session.
Parents thinking of making a request for a delayed reception school admission should, in the first instance, discuss this with their child’s early years provider, prospective future headteacher and any other professionals involved as soon as possible.
If after discussion, parents wish to formally request the admission of their child outside the normal age group they should provide:
- an ‘Admissions Outside of the Normal Age Group’ form completed by the child’s early years provider/headteacher which includes information on the child’s abilities and development, how the child is performing against the recognised expected levels for their age group and the child’s social and emotional development. Forms are available on our website at Education outside the normal year group - Derbyshire County Council. If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to e-mail: transport@derbyshire.gov.uk;.
If you have a child in your setting in the autumn term 2025 whose fifth birthday falls between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026, please check that they have applied to the local authority and received approval to defer their reception-class place. If this is not the case, please e-mail: admissions.transport@derbyshire.gov.uk
It is important to note: the child will only receive the early years’ entitlement funding until the term in which the child has their fifth birthday, whether parents have officially received approval to defer or not. Parents will need to pay for the place, where the child continues to attend an early years’ provision the term following their fifth birthday, as approval to defer does not guarantee the child will be funded beyond their fifth birthday.
Providers are reminded of the process, prior to this annual funding supplement being paid:
- the DAF box should only be ticked for children in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
- the DLA letter must be seen and retained securely by the provider.
- the 9-digit reference number (displayed on the child’s DLA letter) must be submitted on the provider portal (child’s ‘Notes’ tab).
- the 9-digit reference number should also be included on the FE1 / Parent Declaration Form.
Important: If the DLA reference number is not entered on to the provider portal, as evidence for this funding, DAF funding will not be paid.
NO reference number - NO payment.
To ensure that funding claims are submitted within the published timescales, the local authority recommends that more than one person (where applicable), working within the provision is nominated to have access to the provider portal. This will help to prevent missed submissions due to sickness or leave.
Where there is a change to the nominated person who has access to the portal, please ensure you notify us as soon as possible to ensure their access can be removed and a new nominee reallocated.
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
Locked out of the portal?
If you find yourself locked out of the provider portal or have forgotten your password, contact the Families Information Service by emailing: info.fis@derbyshire.gov.uk where you will be sent, via email, a password re-set.
Important: To comply with GDPR regulations, please ensure passwords are kept safe and not shared with anybody. Passwords are unique to each specific user.
Where changes occur within the setting for example, change to the provision name, childminder name, address, telephone number, email address, business structure and changes to committee members and / or manager. Please remember to notify Ofsted and the local authority using the following email addresses as any of these changes may require a new Provider Agreement:
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
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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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