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Please be aware that from January 2026, providers are required to publish the cost of their chargeable extras on their own websites or, where they do not have any website, on the local authority’s Families Information Service website, as outlined in the Statutory Guidance:
A1.35 The costs of chargeable extras should be published on provider websites or, where they do not have any website, on local authority Family Information Services. These should be clear, up-to-date and easily accessible to parents, to enable parents to make an informed choice of provider. They should set out, for each setting, the amounts charged for all the chargeable extras listed, as well as the pattern of hours that parents can take the entitlements. Local authorities may wish to ensure providers follow DfE’s template of how to set out these costs and may exempt childminders and providers caring for 10 or fewer children at any one time. This should be fully implemented by January 2026 at the latest.
NB: If you are a provider caring for 10 or fewer children at any one time, there is not a requirement for the costs of chargeable extras to be published on a website, however, your information must still be made available to parents explaining what it looks like to access the entitlements at your setting.
If you don’t currently have a website, please complete the ‘Cost Details’ page on the V2 Full Update Form on the Provider Portal. Please note this is a free text field and won’t accept tables.
It is recommended that all Derbyshire early years providers make use of the Families Information Service (FIS) website as this is an additional free ‘marketing tool’ for your provision enabling parents to search for childcare in their local area.
Information should be clear and up-to-date to enable parents to make an informed choice of provider. The following should be included in your description:
- Early years entitlement hours along with the pattern of hours that parents can take the entitlements
- Costs of additional hours purchased outside of the entitlement
- Costs of Meals/snacks
- Consumables charges (for example, nappies and sun cream)
- Additional voluntary services (for example, trips, forest school sessions or foreign language lessons)
Please see the table below which you may find helpful when considering website information:
Information that providers may wish to consider when publishing their chargeable extras:
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Information about your setting
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What are the setting’s opening hours?
What are the setting’s contact details?
What ages of children can the setting care for?
How many children can the setting care for?
How are childcare places allocated? (e.g. first come first served basis / date of application / existing siblings etc)
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Early Years Entitlement Hours
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Who is eligible for the Early Years Entitlement Funding and when are they eligible from?
Which Early Years Entitlement age groups can the setting cater for?
How many Early Years Entitlement hours can be accessed at the setting? (e.g. 15 / 30 hours)
When can these hours be accessed at the setting? (e.g. times / days / term time / stretched)
There is no charge connected to the Early Years Entitlement hours
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Additional hours
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Are additional hours available to be purchased alongside the Early Years Entitlement hours?
When can these additional hours be accessed? (e.g. at the beginning / end of the day)
What is the charge for these?
What are the alternatives available to parents who do not wish to purchase?
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Meals and snacks
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Are meals and snacks available to be purchased alongside the Early Years Entitlement hours?
What are the meals and / or snacks offered?
What is the charge for these?
What are the alternatives available to parents who do not wish to purchase? (e.g. packed lunch)
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Non-food Consumables
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Are non-food consumables available to be purchased alongside the Early Years Entitlement hours?
What are the items available to be purchased from the setting? (e.g. nappies, wipes)
What is the charge for these?
What are the alternatives available to parents who do not wish to purchase? (e.g. supply from home)
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Additional Voluntary Services
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Are additional services available to be purchased alongside the Early Years Entitlement hours?
What are the additional services available to be purchased from the setting? (e.g. trips, forest school sessions)
When are these services available?
What is the charge for these?
What are the alternatives available to parents who do not wish to purchase?
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The DfE has provided a template, which offers support with how chargeable extras should be displayed on the website:
Chargeable_extras_.docx
In September 2025, providers were forwarded a useful document which offers clear guidance around any additional charges. Please refer / review this document, which offers clear guidance around any additional charges to 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.
Also, by January 2026, invoicing and receipts for additional services should be itemised / broken down separately. This allows parents to see that their funded hours have been delivered free of charge and understand what fees have been paid for additional hours or optional services:
A1.36 of the guidance also sets out the categories providers are expected to break their costs down into to emphasise transparency of how the entitlement should be passed on to parents, including that any agreed costs should be clear on invoices and websites.
Please see the DfE’s expectations for invoices below:
- The early years entitlement hours (allowing parents to see they have received their child’s funded entitlement completely free of charge);
- Additional private paid hours
- Food charges
- Non-food consumables charges
- Activities charges
As long as the categories of optional chargeable extras are clear and transparent, including how many early years entitlement hours parents are getting per day / per week, a pragmatic approach to aggregating costs can be taken and every single individual cost does not need to be itemised.
Invoices and receipts should include the provider’s full details so that they can be identified as coming from a specific provider.
The Provider Agreement (April 2025) includes supporting invoice templates.
Please be reminded that information for parents should be clear, up-to-date and easily accessible – whilst ensuring the specifications outlined in both the Statutory Guidance and Provider Agreement continue to be met*:
- Charges should be published
- Invoices should be broken down / itemised
- Mandatory charges must not be applied to the funded hours
- Clarity is provided around voluntary consumables / extra optional activities
- Children are able to take up their funded hours in continuous blocks - there should be no artificial breaks
- Updates to information reflect the expansion
- Updates are included following Ofsted changes
*The above points are not an exhaustive list.
The local authority will be liaising with early years providers to ascertain that these requirements have been applied in line with the DfE’s Statutory Guidance and Provider Agreement.
The way the Census data will be collected has changed. The system’s administrators have linked the collection of this data via the provider portal ‘actuals’ submissions. This means that providers will not be able to submit their funded hours claim for the Jan/Feb 2026 period until they have completed and submitted their Census return via the provider portal.
You will be required to access the Early Years Census return via the ‘My Details’ tab once you have logged into the provider portal. It is vital that your Census details are submitted as this will enable you to submit your ‘actuals’ funded hours.
Although Census collects data for the week commencing 12 January 2026, we would encourage you to complete the Census when the portal opens. The Early Years Census will be available for completion when the portal opens from 02 January – 18 January 2026. Where the Census is completed prior to Census week, and changes in the provision occur, you will still be able to access your submitted details to make the relevant updates / changes.
Please be reminded that it is a statutory duty to complete this Census.
Maintained and academy schools complete the schools census, not this Early Years Census. However, if your school operates as a governor run provision, you will be required to complete this Early Years Census.
Please note: You are only required to complete the online Census IF you have funded children attending your provision during Census week. If children are temporarily absent, for example, sick or on holiday, you should include them. If your provision is temporarily closed, record the situation which would have applied during the week.
If you DO NOT have any funded children attending your provision during Census week, or have any queries about completing the return, please e-mail: info.fis@derbyshire.gov.uk.
If you do not submit your Census return, you will be unable to submit a claim for the funded hours, therefore will not receive a funding payment the week commencing 9 February 2026.
IMPORTANT: It has been recognised that many providers are leaving their funding submissions on the provider portal until the last minute and running into queries with their claims. We would strongly advise against this approach.
If you have any queries or anomalies regarding your claim or a child’s eligibility, please be aware that there is often a high volume of enquiries from providers close to the portal deadline. This may result in a risk that your query is not resolved before the portal closes.
To avoid delays or missed submissions, we recommend submitting your claims as early as possible.
The Wraparound Programme Funding is still available, and we are continuing to accept applications. 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.
The provider portal will also be open from Friday 02 January - Sunday 18 January 2026 for the submission of December 2025 ‘adjustments’.
Please ensure data is submitted accurately on to the system and all children’s hours are included.
Once all the information has been submitted, please ensure you have clicked ‘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 e-mail the relevant email 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.
Following each submission period, please check that the hours you have claimed are correct. You can do this by following the step by step guidance on the document ‘View Payments and Previous Claims’, which can be found on SchoolsNet via the following link: Funding and contracts.
From January 2026, census figures will be submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) each term, these are the number of hours that you claim via the provider portal. The local authority then request reimbursement from the DfE, for the number of funded hours claimed across Derbyshire.
Therefore, the local authority does not have additional funds to reimburse late claims beyond the normal adjustment period (please refer to your funding calendar).
To ensure eligibility for the following term, HMRC codes (start date and end date) must be regularly checked for existing children - this will ensure you don’t encounter problems when submitting data on to the provider portal.
Providers are reminded to utilise the guidance: ‘Check a Working Family Entitlement code and determine eligibility’ which can be found on ‘SchoolsNet’ using the following link: Check working family code and determine eligibility
It has come to light that some providers are sharing provider portal log-in details to submit funding data. Can we please remind everybody of the importance of complying to GDPR regulations, passwords are unique to each specific user and must be kept safe and not shared with anybody.
To ensure that funding claims are submitted within the published timescales, the local authority recommends that more than one person (where possible), working in the setting 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
IMPORTANT Please be reminded that parents must have applied for their HMRC working family code, the term before they wish to take up their working family’s entitlement funded place.
Providers are reminded that where parents have not applied for an HMRC code before the deadline date, for example: 31 December 2025, they will not be able to access the entitlement funding for the following term - in this case spring term 2026.
ALL HMRC codes for new children to the setting, must be checked before offering a place to a child, ensuring the start date is relevant to the term in which the child will be commencing their funded place.
Failure to do so may result in providers meeting this cost, as parents should not be charged for something they have previously been informed will be delivered for free.
Apply for code before:
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Eligible to start from:
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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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It has been noted that we have received a number of requests from schools for log in details for the School Access Module (SAM). Therefore, please see the information below:
School access module (SAM) provides schools with direct access to applications for school places.
Please add the web address for the Schools Access Module (SAM) to your favourites on your web browser or to your desktop.
SAM user guides for foundation, voluntary aided and academy schools, and for community and controlled schools are attached to this page.
If you need any advice, please email: admissions.transport@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone: 01629 537479.
School and college funding and finance on GOV.UK includes links to the school admissions code and school admissions appeals code, as well as guidance for parents, schools and local authorities.
With regards to your query about access to the School Access Module (SAM), I will direct your query to the relevant team: CS.Informationenquiries@derbyshire.gov.uk Please note that information regarding SAM is available by using the following link: School access module (SAM).
Important: 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
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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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