Early Education Funding July 2018 Information Session Early Education Funding July 2018 Early Years and Childcare Service

Agenda Update / recap: Quality – Ofsted Update Revised guidance Checking codes / process Children in foster care Monthly payment consultation Memorandum of Understanding Stretched offer changes EYPP 30 hours communications Quality – Ofsted Update Early Years & Childcare Service

Revised guidance Includes introduction of 30 hours free childcare for children in foster care. Provides clarification as to when a child can take up a 30 hours place: ‘LAs must ensure that the child has a place no later than the beginning of the term following the child and the parent meeting the eligibility criteria, provided that the code remains valid on: 31st March to take up a place during the term beginning 1st April 31st August to take up a place during the term beginning 1st September 31st December to take up a place during the term beginning 1st January DfE has recently issued updated guidance for both the statutory and operational guidance to bring them more into line. A copy of the three updated guidance has recently been emailed out to all providers. Whilst there are some minor amendments, which are highlighted on the next slides, the main change is to incorporate the extension of the 30 hours to children in foster care. The guidance provides clarification as to when a child can take up a 30 hours place. Early Years & Childcare Service

Revised guidance However, Children should not start a new 30 hours place at a provider during the grace period. This includes in the following scenarios: Where a parent falls into their grace period before the child has started a 30 hours place; Where a parent falls into their grace period whilst their child is in a 30 hours place, and the parent seeks to move the child to a different provider Children should not start a 30 hours place if the are in the grace period therefore it is very important that providers check all dates relating to the 30 hours codes when they check the code on the portal.

Revised guidance LAs are encouraged to consider securing the additional free hours for parents who have applied/reconfirmed by the deadline date but receive their valid 30 hours code after the beginning of the term, up to the dates: Parent applied/reconfirmed by 31st August – code validity start date between 1st – 14th September Parent applied/reconfirmed by 31st December – code validity start date between 1st – 14th January Parent applied/reconfirmed by 31st March – code validity start date between 1st – 14th April No obligation/expectation that LAs secure additional free hours where the parent has applied after the 31st August, December or March deadline nor for codes issues after the relevant dates on earlier slide. The guidance includes clarification on the flexibility for accepting codes which have a validity start date after the 31st August/December/March application deadline date.

Revised guidance Code must be verified by the provider BEFORE allowing the child to take up the additional hours. Children should not start a new 30 hours place at a provider during the grace period. There have been several instances this term, where providers have not checked the code before allowing the child to take up their place, the provider has then realized mid way through the term that the code is not valid and then tried to issue the parent with a bill. The team have therefore received a large volume of calls from very upset parents, which were difficult to resolve as some of the providers had closed for half term. Please therefore could providers check ALL codes to ensure they are within the valid dates before a child takes up a 30 hours place. Early Years & Childcare Service

Revised guidance Charging: Providers....can charge for consumables such as nappies or sun cream, and for services such as trips and specialist tuition. LAs should ensure that providers are mindful of the impact of additional charges on the most disadvantaged parents. Audit of 30 hours codes: The exact dates that LAs use, and how frequently they audit, can be decided locally. LAs should be aware of the importance of prompting providers to notify parents they have fallen out of eligibility, in good time. Good practice is to notify parents within five working days. ‘yoga’ has now changed to ‘specialist tuition’ Early Years & Childcare Service

Children in foster care Children in foster care will be able to receive the 30 hours free childcare, if the following criteria are met: That accessing the extended hours is consistent with the child’s care plan, That, in single parent foster families, the foster parent engages in paid work outside their role as a foster parent. And in two parent foster families, both partners engage in paid work outside their role as a foster parent. Early Years & Childcare Service

Children in foster care If one parent is not a foster parent they must be in qualifying paid work and earn a minimum of the equivalent to 16 hours at minimum/national living wage Childcare Service unable to perform additional eligibility checks => parallel application process LAs perform additional checks and determine local process Early Years & Childcare Service

Children in foster care The local process is currently being determined and guidance will be issued to providers as soon as possible, once the process has been agreed with the social worker / foster care teams. Early Years & Childcare Service

Future funding arrangements “The LA should pay all providers, particularly childminders, monthly by September 2018 unless a provider requests and the LA agrees to continue an existing alternative sustainable method of payment.” We have consulted with providers regarding future funding arrangements: Option 1: stay with current system -85% payable at the start of term, balance payment just after half term. Option 2 – Monthly Payments Early Years & Childcare Service

Future funding arrangements Very good response: 123 providers - just over 55% Responses from providers across all sectors. The same payment method has to be used for all providers. Option 1 - 61% of the votes (75 providers), Option 2 - 39% of the votes (48 providers) => Option 1 will be the method which we will continue to use from the 1st September 2018. Early Years & Childcare Service

Memorandum of Understanding The LA is currently in the process of drafting a Memorandum of Understanding – we have been working with colleagues in our legal service and will have a draft document ready shortly which we will then share with the EEF Advisory group (previously the NEF Working Group) On Monday 16th July 2018. Early Years & Childcare Service

Grace periods Validity start date – date on which the parent has applied and been issued a code. Validity end date – the parents deadline for reconfirming. Grace period date – the last date on which they should receive their 30 hours place Parents should reconfirm every 3 months. The date when they need to reconfirm can be found in their government gateway account. They should be prompted by an email from HMRC 4 weeks before reconfirmation deadline and then again 2 weeks before. Once the reconfirmation deadline has lapsed they should receive an email saying their eligibility has lapsed but they will be able to remain in their place until the grace period has ended. Childcare Strategy Service

Hours will not be carried forward in the autumn term Hours will not be carried forward in the autumn term. The trial of carrying forward hours ( which we did for the summer term) did not really work for most providers and over claims took longer to resolve. The above screenshot shows the actuals tab on the portal. It also shows the 30 hours codes validity and end dates so you can see which children are in their grace period and who will need to re-confirm before they can access the extended entitlement for the Autumn term. The LA will carry out an audit of codes shortly so the validity dates will change if parents have renewed their eligibility. For those that have still not renewed their grace period end date still show as 31st August so you will need to prompt them to renew before 31st August. PLEASE NOTE – new children joining your setting for the autumn term cannot take up the extended entitlement if they are already in their grace period.

Checking 30 hours code There are two ways to check 30 hours codes: 1. Eligibility Checker Or 2. Adding a child to the current headcount via the funding tab. Early Years & Childcare Service

Using the Eligibility Checker

Enter required details

The checker confirms it is a valid code, but the code may not be eligible for the current term. Code dates still need to be checked. In the example shown above, the code ends 20th August, so whilst it is a valid code, a new family would need to renew the code before the start of the autumn term. An existing child would be in the grace period but would need to renew before the spring term.

Checking a code via the headcount. We encourage providers to enter their child details before 14th September, particularly if you are unsure how to check your codes correctly. It is easier for parents to sort out any reconfirmation issues in this ‘start of term’ window.

Disability Access Fund Introduced April 2017. Fixed sum of £615 per eligible child per year. To support providers to make initial reasonable adjustments and build the capacity of their setting to support disabled children. Child does not have to access the full 570 / 1140 hours entitlement to receive the full payment. Early Years & Childcare Service

Disability Access Fund The payment can only be made to one provider. If a child splits their entitlement, the parent must nominate which provider should receive the DAF. If the child changes provider within the year, the new provider will not receive another payment. 4 year olds in reception classes are not eligible for DAF. If you have a family who is eligible for DAF funding, please fully complete the DAF form, obtain a copy of evidence that the child is receiving DLA and then ring the funding team so that they can send you a secure email link so that you can return the form and evidence by secure email. Only tick the box on the portal if you have a signed application and supporting evidence If the child changes childcare provider within the year, the new setting will not receive another payment of the DAF. The new provider will need to wait until the following year.   Please note that four-year olds in primary school reception classes are not eligible for DAF funding. Funding can be pooled for example across partnerships to fund specific training etc. This would be a good example of use and evidence for Ofsted. (Similar to EYPP) Early Years & Childcare Service

Stretched / Flexible Offer We are changing the way you will claim stretched/flexible offers from the autumn term. From now on stretched/flexible funding will be claimed in 3 blocks of 4 months. Maximum 190/380 hours per 4 month funding block Autumn term – 1st September – 31st December Spring term – 1st January – to 30th April Summer term – 1st May to 31st August Early Years & Childcare Service

Stretched / Flexible Offer Example: Child attend 10 hours per week for the autumn term (1st September to 31st December). 1. Provider calculates how many hours they will claim over the 4 month period. This equates to 170 hours for the autumn term. 2. Provider converts to a term time equivalent by dividing total term hours by term weeks 170 hours / 12.67 weeks = 13.417 3. Round up to the nearest ¼ hour => 13.5 hrs 4. Provider enters 13.5 hrs for 12.67 wks on the portal. We will no longer accept 16 / 17 week claims. We will issue further guidance to all providers shortly.

EYPP – Amended Process From the autumn term 2018, the LA will run EYPP checks fortnightly for any new children entered onto the portal. As soon as a provider enters EYPP/Child Details onto the portal, they will be EYPP checked at the next fortnightly check run. You will then be able to see the result sooner in the Provider Portal. EYPP check – Need Parent NI number/ Parent DOB / Parent Surname. As soon as you enter these details they will be checked on the next EYPP run and the result will show on the summary page of the provider portal. Early Years & Childcare Service

30 hours communications Early Years & Childcare Service This is the current message which childcare choices are promoting to parents. Our LAT Info service are also sending out the same messages to families via social media   Early Years & Childcare Service

30 hours communications Partner Toolkit can be found on the provider page of the Childcare Choices website. Social media assets for LAs and providers to use to promote the 30 hours. There is a partner toolkit on the Childcare Choices website. The aim of the toolkit is to help you to promote 30 hours and Tax-Free Childcare so that parents can make the most of the support available. Materials, include FAQs and posters. Childcare Choice have updated their social media assets for LA and providers to use to promote the 30 hours as we approach the autumn deadline.   Early Years & Childcare Service

30 hours communications Early Years & Childcare Service These downloads can be found in the partner toolkit on the Childcare Choices website. Tips for using 30 hours, top things parents, providers and employers should know & customer journey. Materials include FAQs and posters. We encourage you to use the materials in the toolkit and also signpost your providers to the content. We would also be grateful if you could continue to remind parents who already have an eligibility code to reconfirm their eligibility for 30 hours and / or Tax-Free Childcare every 3 months   Early Years & Childcare Service

30 hours communications Early Years & Childcare Service These social medias assets can also be downloaded from the toolkit. They are also encouraging the sharing /retweeting of the messages which they place on their social media channels.   Early Years & Childcare Service

Provider / Parent surveys Providers – a big thank you to everyone for completing the recent provider survey on childcare sufficiency. Parents – recently launched a parent survey to help assess demand for childcare https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/79QLQRL

Ofsted Update Recent Ofsted inspections Current themes Local Authority support Future plans Notes to accompany this slide were sent out with the notes for the Leaders and Managers briefing.

Any questions? Early Years & Childcare Service