The following is City of York’s (CYC’s) complaint/concern procedure for parents or carers who have been unable to resolve funding disputes with their childcare provider regarding their child’s early education funded entitlement.

All children who meet the eligibility criteria, are entitled to a funded early education place, consisting of up to either 15 or 30 hours per week, for 38 weeks of the year.

These places are available in all settings that are registered with the local authority to provide funded Early Years provision and can be with:

• childminders
• independent schools
• maintained nursery schools
• nurseries
• nursery classes in maintained and academy primary schools
• out of school clubs
• playgroups

Step 1

In the first instance, parents and carers should always contact the provider(s) concerned to discuss the problem and if necessary, go through the provider’s internal complaints procedure to try and resolve the problem. However, if you have not been able to resolve your dispute with your provider then you can complain or raise a concern to CYC by following step 2.

Step 2

The complaint/concern must be made in writing to [email protected], or by post at:

You can expect an acknowledgement to your query within 5 working days. Depending on the nature of the query, timescales may vary accordingly, however you will be kept up to date.

Parents and carers will need to provide the following information:

• full details of the nature of the complaint
• full name and date of birth of the child concerned
• name and address of the provider where the child attends, if your child attends more than one provider please give details of all providers where your child attends
• give permission for the local authority to contact your provider(s) on your behalf
• total funding received at all providers for the term concerned

Step 3

If you have contacted the Early Years Funding team but they have not been able to resolve your concern, or you are not happy with the outcome of the investigation, the next step is for you to contact the Complaints, Feedback and Compliance Team either in writing, by email or telephone:

• telephone: 01904 554145
• email: [email protected]

Step 4

You can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). The LGSCO looks at complaints about councils and some other authorities and organisations. The service is free, independent and impartial.

The contact details are:

• telephone: 03000 610614
• website: The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) website