Newsletter for Early Years Funding providers in West Sussex
Monday 14 September 2026
This term's newsletter includes:
- Key dates and reminders
- Adjustments replace Post Headcount Exceptional Payment request forms
- Online Parent Declaration - available soon in open beta
- Update to how to provide information on chargeable extras and additional services
- Early Years Pupil Premium
- Claiming Disability Access Fund
- Applying to amend your Early Years Funded Entitlement offer
- Help us to answer your queries more efficiently
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Thursday 17 September 2026 - headcount day for autumn term.
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Tuesday 22 September 2026 - deadline for settings to submit termly census. This must be submitted before your actuals.
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Tuesday 22 September 2026 - deadline for settings to submit actuals for autumn term. Actuals are now open for you to complete and submit.
Guidance for completing your termly census and actuals is available on our Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) actuals web page. Note the deadline for submissions is earlier than usual. Please ensure all submissions have been completed by this date.
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Wednesday 23 September 2026 - adjustments will open (see article below).
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Thursday 1 October 2026 - The Department for Education Census Day. Any children starting before this day can begin accessing EYFE without an exceptional reason. Children starting after the WSCC headcount day will need to be claimed for via an adjustment request.
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Thursday 31 December 2026 - deadline for settings to submit adjustments.
Payment dates can be viewed on our How providers receive funding payments web page.
To use an EYFE for Working Families eligibility code in the autumn term, you should first use the working families eligibility checker and check the validity dates are as follows:
- Start dates must be 31 August 2026 or earlier.
- End dates must be 1 September 2026 or later, or
- the grace period end date must be 31 December 2026 or later, and the child must have previously accessed EYFE for Working Families at your provision.
If you are unable to claim EYFE for Working Families for a child and believe the code should work, you can complete the secure working families code support request form. Please do not email codes, National Insurance numbers and child details.
Starting this term, the process for requesting funding for children after headcount is changing. On Wednesday 23 September 2026, adjustments will open on the Online Provider Portal (OPP). The deadline for autumn term submissions is Thursday 31 December 2026.
Video guidance is available on YouTube. A step-by-step guide is also available on a new Requesting funding after headcount web page.
Adjustments will replace the Post Headcount Exceptional Payment request form.
As previously advised, this change is being introduced for a number of reasons. The primary benefit is that requests can be processed more quickly. Additionally, submitting an adjustment request will be very similar to submitting your actuals.
Key points:
- For autumn term, you can request funding after headcount, without the need for an exceptional reason, if a child starts attending between 21 September and 2 October 2026. We request that any claims for these children are submitted by Friday 16 October 2026 so they can be included in the termly census.
- Working family claims must have a valid eligibility code covering the autumn term.
- Claims will be paid based on the weeks the child has attended, not the full term, and will be paid at a later date.
- Please note, all children in attendance during the WSCC headcount must be claimed for as part of the providers actuals claim. WSCC will fund children attending during the WSCC headcount period for the full term.
- Adjustments must only be used to request more hours. Any submissions for less hours will be rejected. Providers are still expected to transfer funding if a child moves provider after headcount to another West Sussex EYFE provider, and may retain the funding if not. Providers may contact us for more information and to discuss specific children's funding.
Children eligible for the 9 Months Plus EYFE for Working Families and Early Learning for 2 year olds (Local Authority Issued EYFE) can start at any point during the term, provided they have a valid eligibility code. For all other EYFE age groups, claims submitted after the DfE census day will only be accepted in exceptional circumstances.
We have scheduled three free webinars which will show how to submit an adjustment request on the OPP.
These dates can be booked at the links below:
From 1 October, we will launch the new Online Parent Declaration form. Providers will be able to make full use of the new online form while we continue to develop and enhance it over the next year. This ongoing beta phase will allow us to make improvements based on your feedback, as well as any updates to statutory guidance introduced in the new year.
Our Online Parent Declaration engagement page contains guidance, resources, and opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback. The link to the form will be made available on our Online Parent Declaration Your Voice page on 1 October 2026, and shortly after on the Providing Early Years Funded Entitlement web page.
The online form offers a number of features and benefits:
- The form is completed collaboratively by the provider and parent. Providers complete one part, which is then sent by email to the parent who completes the second part. This form is returned to the provider for final review and completion.
- Both the parent and provider automatically receive a completed copy of the form once it has been submitted.
- The Early Years Funding Team will automatically receive a copy if the parent nominates your setting for Disability Access Fund (DAF), along with any evidence of eligibility which the parent can upload. This means you will not need to send this information separately.
- No printing is required.
- The form adapts to your needs. If you need to update information for an existing child, or the parent wishes to nominate your setting for DAF, you can reference or upload a previous form. The form will then only ask relevant questions, reducing the amount of information that needs to be completed.
- The Early Years Funding Team will also be able to access completed forms to help resolve queries with actuals, such as clashes of hours. This should help resolve issues more quickly and reduce potential delays to payments.
Please visit the Your Voice page to find out more, and to access the Online Parent Declaration from 1 October 2026.
Statutory guidance published by the Department for Education in February 2025 introduced a requirement for early years and childcare providers to clearly display any additional charges on both invoices and their websites.
Providers with a website must provide a link to their information on chargeable extras when completing a termly provider update form.
Providers without a website who provide EYFE to more than 10 children must instead complete both a termly provider update form, and the new Costs section found in My Details on the Online Provider Portal. This replaces the free-text box previously found in the termly provider update form.
Guidance is available on our Provider update web page. For those providers who have submitted information on chargeable extras previously, we are in the process of transferring this information to the Costs page for you. Please check that the information is correct and update it where necessary.
Please note that providers who have a website and provide the link, or who provide EYFE hours to fewer than 10 children, can still choose to complete the Costs page in the My Details section of the Online Provider Portal.
Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and Deprivation supplement combined is an additional payment of £1.80 per funded hour for up to 15 hours. It is available for children of all age ranges who are eligible and in receipt of Early Years Funded Entitlements (EYFE). EYPP is not applied to the 3 and 4 year old Extended EYFE for Working Families. Children may be eligible for EYPP if they meet certain economic criteria. In order for us to check a child's eligibility under this criteria, you must ensure that you tick the ‘EYPP' consent box under the parent/carer details tab. For more support and useful help guides, visit our Early Years Funded Entitlement actuals web page. Our existing children and new children help guides will help you with these steps.
Children may also be eligible if they:
- have been in local authority care for one day or more in England or Wales
- have been adopted from care in England or Wales
- have left care under a special guardianship order or child arrangements order in England or Wales.
To identify children eligible for EYPP under this criteria, please ask families if they meet any of the criteria. They will need to give you evidence to confirm this. Please check this evidence and once you are satisfied, you will need to submit this as part of your actuals claim. Please see our updated guidance for submitting actuals for more information.
The Disability Access Fund (DAF) helps children access early years places. It can support settings with things like making reasonable adjustments to their setting or building, either to support the individual child or to benefit all children at the setting. DAF is available to all age groups who claim Early Years Funded Entitlement, from 9 months plus to 3 and 4 year olds. If you wish to claim a DAF payment for a child this term, you will need to complete the DAF evidence form, and provide the following when completing the form:
- a copy of the letter confirming the child's current Disability Living Allowance award
- a copy of the child's parent declaration form (using the April 2026 version), signed by the parents/carers and provider, no later than headcount day (17 September 2026).
Please ensure that the parent declaration form is completed in full. If an out of date or incomplete version of the parent declaration form is provided, the claim will be declined, but you will be able to submit the correct paperwork the following term. If you send in the evidence by 17 September 2026, we will aim to check the evidence and give you the opportunity to rectify issues before headcount. If issues are resolved, we will be able to approve your claim and add the awarded DAF claim to your actuals payment.
If you need to re-sign up to offer Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) for any of the following reasons:
- the ownership of the setting has changed. This includes new owners, changes to the registered person or premises, and changing from an organisation or committee-run to business-run.
- changing your pattern of delivery. This could include adding a stretched or self-stretched offer, changing from stretched to self-stretched, adding a term time only offer.
- adding or removing an age group from your offer. For example, if you do not currently offer EYFE for 9 month olds but would like to do so, you will need to re-sign up.
You should read our apply to offer Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) web page and contact us to re-sign up by Friday 20 November 2026 for these changes to apply from spring 2027. Please note that approval of your application will be conditional on any actions identified during the review of your policies being actioned and evidence provided.
Providers who are changing ownership should contact us as soon as this is confirmed to avoid any delays to funding payments.
To help make sure that your query is dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible, please would you do the following when emailing the Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) team:
- make sure that you are using the correct email address - EYFE@westsussex.gov.uk should be used for all EYFE matters, apart from emails that are directly sent to you by the EYFE Finance Team
- make sure you include the email trail relating to your query, so we can understand what has already been discussed
- if the query is about a new topic, please start a new email.
Please also ensure you give us as much information as possible, such as:
- children's initials and dates of birth
- name/address of the setting you are sharing funding with
- what setting you are contacting us from.
Following these steps will allow us to give you tailored advice without multiple emails needing to be exchanged to find out further information.
The EYFE Finance Team deals with specific queries regarding individual estimate and actuals submissions (for example clash of hours queries). They will contact you via their EYFE Finance Team inbox. Please respond to them directly and include the email trail, so they can identify which issue you are responding to. The issues that the EYFE Finance Team contact you about will impact your payments, so please respond fully and without delay. If they have requested the parent declaration form for a specific child, please ensure that it is attached to your reply. They will only contact you regarding specific queries with your submitted claims.
If you need general EYFE related support and guidance, please email the Early Years Funding Team at EYFE@westsussex.gov.uk. If you need support with EYFE for Working Families eligibility codes, which you have checked using the Working Families eligibility checker, please use our secure Working Family eligibility code support form.
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