With you, with the child. Every step of the way.
Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council - Early Help Service
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A message from Lucy Butler (Executive Director Children, Young People & Learning)
Dear colleagues
We wanted to provide you with an update on the Early Years DSG for the 2021/22 financial year.
Under the Early Years funding regulations, 95% of the Early Years DSG funding for 3 and 4 year olds must be passed through to Early Years providers, with councils permitted to retain up to 5%. West Sussex County Council currently pass on 96% of the Early Years DSG to providers retaining 4% of this. This centrally retained funding is used for central services to administer the scheme, as well as enabling support for the most vulnerable children including those with SEND.
At the County Council meeting on 6 November Cabinet Members discussed a proposal to reduce the percentage of this fund supplied to providers by 1%. If approved this would bring us in line with many of our neighbouring authorities and allow us to continue to fund vital Early Help Services for our most vulnerable children, in receipt of the early years entitlements.
We received the final budget settlement from the Department for Education on 17 December 2020 and, officers are considering options of how we can manage the funding formula in a way that means we can minimise the impact of this on providers as much as possible.
The proposed change to pass through funding will not impact on 2 year old funding, the Disability Access Fund or the Early Years Pupil Premium.
Any changes to the early years funding formula would require us to consult with early years and childcare providers. We intend to open a consultation on this from 4 January – 15 January 2021 so the views of local providers can be considered before a Cabinet decision is made at County Council on 27 January 2021.
Your views are important to us and to the decisions our Cabinet Members make. As soon as the consultation goes live, we will send you the link to complete the consultation and we hope as many of you as possible will take the time to do this and share your views.
If you have any questions related to this please email free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk
Best wishes, Lucy Butler
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