EARLY YEARS FUNDING NEW PROVIDER TRAINING

1. EARLY YEARS FUNDING NEW PROVIDER TRAINING

2. EARLY YEARS FUNDINGNEW PROVIDER TRAINING Part 1 We will cover: • What is early years funded provision? • Legislation & Statutory guidance • Terms and conditions of the funding • Eligibility • Quality requirements • How it can be delivered?

3. EARLY YEARS FUNDINGNEW PROVIDER TRAINING Part 2 • Fund Rates • Financial budgets • Payments processes • How to make a claim • Next steps

4. Where can children take up their funded entitlement ? The funded entitlement can be taken up in a range of provision • Providers on the Early Years Register • Day Nursery • Pre School • Independent school • Childminder • Out of school childcare including holiday care providers • a childminder registered with a Childminder Agency that is registered with Ofsted • Schools taking children age two and over and which are exempt from registration with Ofsted as an early years provider • School nursery classes • Nursery schools

5. Eligibility & Entitlement hours Which children are eligible for free early years funded hours? • Some 2 year olds - non working and low income families are entitled to 570 hours a year a term after their 2ndbirthday • All 3 and 4 year olds are entitled to 570 hours a year a term after their 3rd birthday – universal entitlement • 3 and 4 year olds of working parents are entitled to an additional 15hrs -570 hours extended entitlement 30 hours free childcare • All eligible children start from the start of the term after their second or third birthday. • There are 3 terms • Spring – start date 1st January • Summer – start date 1st April • Autumn – start date 1st September

6. Two Year Old Eligibility Criteria • They are entitled from the start of the next term after their 2nd birthday e.g. a child having their 2nd birthday on the 31st December is entitled from the 1st January but a child with a birthday on the 1st January will be entitled from 1st April • Income Support • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance • Income related Employment and Support Allowance • The “Guarantee” element of State Pension Credit • Tax credits and have an annual income under £16,190 before tax • Child who is looked after by the local council • Children who has a current statement of special educational needs (SEN) or an education, health and care plan • Disability Living Allowance - Parents accessing disability living allowance for their child • Child who has left care through special guardianship order, child arrangements order or adoption order • Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999A

7. Checking 2 year old eligibility • It is the providers responsibility to check eligibility of children before offering a place and before claiming funding • Provider must have a fully completed Early Years Funding Parent Agreement Form • Provider must retain the evidence as this may be requested by the council at any time.

9. How do providers check eligibility for a 2 year old? • The parents can do this with Bradford's online 2 year old checker and they will have an instant response. They can e-mail this to you or print it off and bring to you. • A parent may provide you with official correspondence for HMRC DWP, ensure it up to date. • Providers need to check that the parent and child’s details on that evidence are correct and the DOB is checked

10. If the check comes back negative that does not always mean the parent is not eligible and they will need to give further evidence for you to check

11. What if the family are no longer eligible under the 2 year old criteria? • Once a child has been awarded a 2 year old funded place they are entitled to remain in that place until they are eligible for the 3 & 4 year old funded place

12. 3 & 4 year olds eligibility criteria • All 3 and 4 year olds are entitled from the start of the next term after their third birthday e.g. a child having their 3rd birthday on the 31st December is entitled from the 1st January but a child with a birthday on the 1st January will be entitled from 1st April • Provider must check the child is of eligibility age using a passport or birth certificate

13. 3 & 4 year olds eligibility criteria Extended entitlement (30 hours free childcare) • They earn or expect to earn the equivalent to 16 hours at National Minimum or Living Wage over the coming three months. This applies whether they are in paid employment, self-employed or on zero hours contract. • Where one or both parents are on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, or if they are on statutory sick leave.   • Where one parent meets the income criteria and the other is unable to work because they are disabled, have caring responsibilities or have been assessed as having limited capability to work.(they will have to be accessing certain benefits which proves this) • Where a parent is in a ‘start-up period’ (i.e. they are newly self-employed) they do not need to demonstrate that they meet the income criteria for 12 months. • If a non-EEA national, the parent must have recourse to public funds. • If either or both parents’ income exceeds £100,000 they will not be eligible for the extended entitlement.

14. EligibilityExtended Entitlement 30 hours free childcare • It is the HMRC who determine eligibility of parents and not providers or the local authority. • If parents think they are eligible they need to go to the CHILDCARE CHOICESwebsite and set up an account and apply. • If they are successful they will be given an 11 digit eligibility code, parents must give the code to all the providers who are offering funded hours for their child. • The code the parents have will have a start and an end date. • The start date is the date the code was issuedand not the date the child can start (they can start from the term after their 3rd birthday) • The end date shows when the parents will need to reconfirm their code with HMRC.

15. How do providers check eligibility for a extended entitlement 30 hours free childcare 3 or 4 year old? • Parents must give their chosen provider/s their child's HMRC eligibility code and give the provider permission to check the code • They give permission by completing the Early Years Funding Parent Agreement Form • Provider must check a code is valid before offering a place, if a child starts before a code is checked then funding will not be paid.

16. How do providers check a code is valid? • Providers must check all eligibility codes through Bradford Funded Hours Checker • There is a step by step guidance available on how to do this. • You should keep evidence of this check. • Bradford Council will receive which codes have been checked, by who, and when

18. What if the family are no longer eligible for the extended entitlement? • Parent must confirm their eligibility code every 3 months, HMRC inform them of the date they need to do this. • If they do not the code will expire and the funding will come to an end. • If family circumstances change and they are no longer eligible HMRC will come to an end • The funding will not end immediately as HMRC will give expired codes a grace period this is to assist parents whose employment circumstances change. This helps providers to plan for loss of the additional funded hours. • They will still be entitled to the 15 universal hours.

19. How will provider know if a code as expired and in a grace period? • The council is required to carry out an audit on all eligibility codes 6 times per year, one at the start of term and one mid term. • Providers will be informed if any code they have checked have expired and have a grace period end date and when the funding will end. • Grace period end dates are always the last day in the term i.e. 31st March, 31st August, 31st December. • Provider should discuss with the parent when the funding will end, a parent letter template is provided for optional use. • The Grace period end date is when the parent’s eligibility ends and the funding will end; parents can choose to take up the funded hours up to this date, and a provider can continue to claim funding if the child continues to attend. • In some circumstances a code may expire before a child starts, children can not start in a grace period. Providers will be inform of these cases.

20. Legislation and Guidance • National terms and conditions for the Local Authority are set in the Government’s Early Education and Childcare Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities September 2017

21. Operational Guidance • The purpose of this guidance is to help local authorities and providers understand in more detail the Department of Education’s expectations about how the free entitlements should be delivered • Examples and Case studies are included

22. Terms and Conditionsof the Early Years Funding To fulfil the Statutory Guidance Bradford publishes the Early Years Funding Agreement • the document sets out terms, conditions and processes of accessing the funding. • It is updated annually and published in March each year. • Bradford School Online in the secure area • Read it alongside the Statutory and Operational Guidance and ensure you fulfil all the terms and conditions, • failure to meet terms and conditions will result in repayment of funding or removal of funding as an early years funded provider

23. Quality Requirements Evidence shows that higher quality provision has greater developmental benefits for children, particularly for the most disadvantaged children. • The local authority is required to ensure that all children are able to take up their free funded hours in a high quality setting. • Providers are required to be judged Good or Outstanding to provide funded places • Following an Ofsted Suspension and a less than Good Ofsted judgement the Local Authority will make a decision on further access to funding. Funding may be removed in full. • Bradford Achievement Service - Quality Support Officers and Early Years Consultants will liaise with you regarding the process.

24. How can all the funded hours be delivered? • no session to be longer than 10 hours • no minimum session length (subject to the requirements of registration on the Ofsted Early Years Register) • not before 6.00am or after 8.00pm • a maximum of two sites in a single day • Hours can be ‘stretched’ so they have less free hours per week over more than 38 weeks • It is up to you as a provider to decide what hours you can offer within this framework

25. Stretched or term time hours? • The majority of working families work all year round and not 38 weeks of the year • It is your decision if you offer the free funded hours to parents over the 38 weeks or all year round [up to 52 weeks], this is known as stretched. • Whatever providers offer you need to make this clear what and when parents will be charged for the additional services and childcare hours

26. This is an example of how you can calculate the number of hours a parent can access if they stretch their hours This will not always be the full 15 hours or 30 hours. The parents do not need to use all their entitlement so some parents may opt for less hours or to split with more than one provider .

27. Charging Models • Government funding is intended to cover the cost to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. It is not intended to cover the cost of meals, consumables, additional hours or additional services. • The provider can charge for meals and snacks as part of a free entitlement place and they can also charge for consumables such as nappies or sun cream and for services such as trips and yoga. These charges must be voluntary for the parent. Where parents are unable or unwilling to pay for meals and consumables, providers who choose to offer the free entitlements are responsible for setting their own policy on how to respond, with options including waiving or reducing the cost of meals and snacks or allowing parents to supply their own meals. • Any additional charges must be made clear to parents and must be consistent for all the children in the setting regardless of if they pay for childcare or have this free. • Parents should be clear when they register with you and on their invoice/ bill what were the free hours and what the additional charges were for.

28. For example you should not X Charge a parent the difference between the funding received for the free hours and the settings costs to deliver X Charge for additional hours at a higher rate than the setting’s published childcare fees X Charge a non refundable retainer when only accessing funded hours X Charge up front and reimbursing the parent when funding is received from the Local Authority X Condense the funded hours into less than 38 weeks, you can not provide more than15 universal funded hours in a week (or 30 if the child is eligible for the extended hours) X Reduce a parent’s childcare bill by the amount of funding received from the council and not by the number of free hours

29. Task In groups look at the scenarios and discuss

30. Recap- Key points • Children are only eligible a term after their birthday • It is the providers responsibility to check families eligible dates of birth and eligibility before offering a place and keep a record of this • Providers must complete a parent agreement for each child as well as your own contracts • Providers must be clear on your charging model • Providers must inform the LA if you receive a less then good OFSTED inspection • Providers must read the Funding Agreement and the Statutory and the Operational Guidance

31. What next? • Check your name and email on the sheet are accurate as this will be used to set up your online account • The Early Education Funding team will set up your Bradford Schools Online account asap • You will receive an activation email from IMT reporting • You must activate it before the next session as it will expire. • You can begin advertising – complete a Marketing material request form • The next session will cover Bradford Schools Online funding and payment process