Newsletter for Early Years Funding providers in West Sussex
Monday 8 January 2024
This term's newsletter includes:
- Statutory guidance for early education and childcare
- Provider Declaration 2024/2025
- Start dates for expanded childcare offer Summer 2024
- Reminder - Early Years Census 2024 and Spring Term Actuals
- Entering children's ethnicity on actuals
- Providers changing ownership and how it affects funding
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New statutory guidance for local authorities, which includes the expanded childcare entitlements, was published on 1 January 2024 but will come into force from 1 April 2024. The Early Years Funding Team is currently reviewing the guidance and will provide updates in relation to the offer and how it is applied in West Sussex. These updates will be in line with the timeline provided in our special newsletter on 30 November 2023.
This is advanced notice that a new version of the Free Entitlement (FE) Provider Declaration for 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 will be made available on our website early March 2024. Once available on our website we will invite you to sign up to continue to deliver FE from April 2024. The document will be updated to reflect the new statutory guidance and include the new expanded childcare offers as follows:
- April 2024 - eligible working families being able to access up to 15 hours of 2 year old funding, and
- September 2024 - eligible working families being able to access up to 15 hours for children 9 months (term after) and up.
Please note that eligibility codes will, as with the Extended Free Entitlement, need to have a start date prior to 31 March 2024 in order to be valid for the Summer Term. Additionally, some parents may be under the impression that they can begin accessing straight away on 1 April. However, as with all other existing funding, places can only begin from the beginning of the Summer Term, which this year is 15 April. We recommend making this clear to parents if and when they approach you with eligibility codes requesting places using expanded funding.
This is a reminder to please login to the Online Provider Portal to submit both your Spring Term Free Entitlement (FE) actuals claim and Early Years Census form. The Early Years Census is used the by Department for Education to calculate the amount of funding West Sussex County Council receives for free early education. It is therefore crucial that the Early Years Census is completed by 26 January 2024.
The Early Years Census is mandatory for all FE providers claiming funding for at least one child in Spring Term 2024. If you are registered to provide FE but are not claiming for any children in Spring Term, you do not need to complete the Early Years Census. However, all FE providers must submit Spring Term actuals data. Please read Important information - Census 2024 letter for further information.
When submitting your Free Entitlement (FE) child-level data for Spring Term Actuals, we would like to remind you to please include the child’s ethnicity information.
The ethnicity must match what the parent has specified on the Parent Declaration form (which must be completed before submitting a claim for the child). The option for 'Not Obtained' should be avoided and the option for 'Refused' is applicable when a parent has declined to share ethnicity information.
This information is shared with the Department for Education as part of the annual census who expect this information to be as accurate as possible. We are very grateful for your assistance.
If your setting is changing the nature of its ownership or if it is changing owners completely, it is very important that you inform the Early Years Funding Team as soon as possible. A change of ownership may mean a setting transitioning to a committee run setting or being taken over by another company.
A change in ownership means a setting must re-register to offer Free Entitlement (FE). This is necessary whether a setting re-registers with Ofsted or not. The sooner we are informed of a change of ownership, the sooner we can confirm eligibility to continue offering FE. Additionally, it is vital we are informed as soon as possible to ensure funding is paid correctly to the right owners.
For these reasons, please inform us as soon as possible by emailing free.entitlement@westsussex.gov.uk. It would be helpful to hear from both the previous owners and new owners in applicable circumstances. This means we can finalise funding with the previous owners and set up the new owners.
If you would like further support in relation to a change of ownership, you can request targeted support using our online form.
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