City of York Council Early Years Funding Policies and Procedures
City of York Council Early Years Funding Policies and Procedures
Read more about the City of York Council's Early Years Funding Policies and Procedures, including:
- Children attending more than one setting
- Attendance monitoring and safeguarding
- Extended holidays
- Closures
- Staff training days and public holidays
- Note for childminders
- Withdrawing from offering Funded Education places
- Data Protection
- Changes to provider details
- Funding a child who moves setting during the term
- Notice periods
- Settling in period
- Children starting late in the term
- Different local authority arrangements
Children attending more than one setting
A child can access their Funded Entitlement (FE) at more than one setting, although the child can only attend a maximum of 2 sites in a day. In line with the Department for Education statutory guidance, the local authority encourages strong partnership working between providers from all sectors (maintained schools, academies and free schools, private, voluntary and independent providers and childminders) to ensure maximum flexibility for parents to access the funded entitlement to meet their needs and the needs of their child.
The local authority encourages providers to offer flexible packages of the funded hours which meets the needs of the child and their parents. We would strongly encourage providers across all sectors to deliver the funded entitlement flexibly and allow families to take up their entitlement at more than one provider if that best meets the need of the family. This supports Shared Foundation Partnership working where providers are encouraged to work together within a locality to offer flexibility and meet the needs of their families.
Attendance monitoring and safeguarding
Providers must record the attendance of all funded children in a register which meets the requirements of Ofsted and City of York Council (CYC) internal and external audit departments. Attendance should be monitored regularly.
A provider can only claim for the funded entitlement that a child will be accessing at their setting during that term. The total amount of funded entitlement claimed for the child must match both the number of hours on the parent declaration form and the attendance register for that child. Failure to claim for the correct hours will result in the local authority recouping the funding claimed.
If a child does not attend for 2 consecutive days and their absence is unknown providers must contact the parent and carer to determine the reason for absence, where necessary, reminding them their place is funded by CYC and should be used on a regular basis. If attendance does not improve a letter should be sent to the parent and carer explaining that if they do not use their place within the next 2-weeks, it will no longer be available. Copies of any correspondence should be kept, and a note made on the register. If an audit highlights non-attendance or reduced attendance and no evidence is available to suggest that the parent has been contacted, the local authority may give consideration as to whether the funding should be reclaimed.
Exceptions will be made for individual circumstances such as children with additional needs or vulnerable children.
If there is a safeguarding concern over a child, the provider must contact Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) by telephone: 01904 551900 or email: [email protected].
If there are immediate concerns about the safety of a child, contact North Yorkshire Police on telephone: 999.
Extended holidays
Children may be absent due to extended family holidays, but parents must inform the provider of the period their child will be absent. During the extended absence their place will be funded for a maximum of 4 weeks per term if the provider has a return date for that child. If the holiday extends beyond 4 weeks or the child does not return, providers must inform CYC as funding may be reduced.
If the child returns at a later date their funded place may not be available until the start of the following term.
Closures
Closures lasting for one week or more must be discussed with the Funding Team to determine whether FE can be claimed during this period. This applies whether the reason for closure was unforeseen or planned, for example, fire, flood or planned building or redecoration work.
The period of closure must be notified to CYC as soon as possible so that the funding can be adjusted if the period of closure has already been claimed.
If the closure is planned providers should inform CYC at least one term in advance and the funding cannot be claimed for that period.
It's accepted that providers may have no choice but to close for a day or 2 in cases where it would be illegal to remain open, for example, if the heating fails and the temperature falls below the legal minimum or it is not possible to meet staff ratios due to illness. In these cases, the funding can still be claimed, and providers must put strategies in place to rectify the problem promptly.
Where possible, providers should make every effort to provide the funded children with additional hours to replace those they have missed during the period of closure.
Staff training days and public holidays
Providers must offer the full 38 weeks (or for registered number of weeks if less than 38 weeks) FE to all eligible children and therefore the funding cannot be claimed during a period of closure for staff training. Where a setting has to close for training, the FE should be offered at an alternative time in compensation. However, there is no obligation to offer alternative provision due to public holiday closure. We recommend that providers make parents aware of this during the registration process.
Note for childminders
Early years provision is defined in section 20 of the 2006 Act as the provision of childcare.
“Childcare”, as defined in section 18 of the 2006 Act, specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent, step-parent, foster parent (or other relative) or by a person who fosters the child privately or has parental responsibility for the child. Early years provision by a childminder (either independently registered with Ofsted or registered with a childminder agency) for a related child does not count as childcare in legal terms.
Government early education funding cannot be claimed by, or spent on, childminders providing childcare for their own child or a related child, even if they are claiming for other children. However, a local authority can choose to fund the parent providing childcare for their child, but this would have to be from other local authority funds.
Withdrawing from offering Funded Education places
If a provider wishes to withdraw from the directory and delivery of the FE, they must notify the Funding Team in writing as soon as possible. They must also inform all their parents by letter, giving at least a term’s or 3-months' notice to enable parents to make alternative arrangements.
Data Protection
Providers must:
- display a copy of the Privacy Notice on their notice board for visiting parents and carers
- ensure they have a process in place to issue this Privacy Notice to the parents and carers of all new children. This can be done at the same time as other communications are issued for example, as part of a brochure or an induction pack or during the enrolment and registration process
- if parents require additional information, refer them to the Early Education Funding Privacy Notice. Should parents and carers be unable to access the CYC website, you should arrange for a paper copy of the additional information to be made available upon request
- a Privacy Notice is incorporated within the Parental Declaration Form
- register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (not all providers have to register however this should be confirmed with the Information Commissioner's Office)
Changes to provider details
Providers must inform CYC whenever there is a change in circumstances, these include:
- a change of ownership, committee, manager or premises – contact the Family Information Service
- a change to the name or address of the contact responsible for administration of the FE - contact the Funding Team by email: [email protected]
- a change of bank details – email: [email protected]
If your setting changes ownership you'll be required to inform Ofsted.
If a change means the Provider is no longer eligible to receive the FE the provider will be removed from CYC’s Directory of Providers. Any funding already paid during that term may have to be repaid.
Funding a child who moves setting during the term
CYC will fund a child for half a term to allow for children who move provision during a term. To ensure that you receive the correct funding, indicate on the Notes section (Actuals Tab) of the portal where a child will only be at your setting for half a term.
The following policy is for children who take up a place for periods of time less than half a term:
- the local authority funds a minimum of half a term therefore if a child leaves a setting during the first half of the term, half a terms funding (12.67 or 2 weeks) will be paid to the setting that the child attended at the start of the term
- if a child leaves a setting after the start of the second half of the term, half a terms funding will be paid to the setting where the child attended at the start of the second half of the term.
For example, child attends Provider A for the first 4 weeks of the term, but parent wishes to move to Provider B. As the child had started provision with Provider A in the first half of the term, Provider A would be entitled to claim for the first half of the term as long as a parent declaration form has been completed and signed.
Provider B would only be entitled to claim from the second half of the term following completion of a signed parent declaration form.
In order to calculate a half term claim, you'll keep the weeks on the portal as 12.67, and half the number of hours claimed for example, if the child is doing 20 hours for the first half of term, the claim would be for 10 hours for 12.67 weeks.
In exceptional circumstances, where a child has started a new provision but leaves during their settling in period, there will be discretion for the local authority to waive this policy, to ensure the funding is allocated in a fair and appropriate manner.
Notice periods are a private arrangement between the provider and the parent and carer. The parent and carer should be made aware of any agreed notice periods before taking up a funded place for their child.
If a child moves to your provision from another provider, the provider must check with the parent and carer that they have informed the previous provider that the child will no longer be claiming the FE at their setting. You should clearly explain the funding procedure to the parent and carer, emphasising the checking process between providers, including schools, to ensure the child is not claiming more than 15 or 30 hours. This will help to avoid potential overclaims.
Notice periods
The local authority has a half term funding policy to account for children moving provision during the term. Notice periods are a private arrangement between the provider and the parent and carer. The parent and carer should be made aware of any agreed notice periods before taking up a funded place for their child.
Settling in period
Children may take up reduced hours during the settling in period, however you can claim for their normal pattern of attendance for the term, during this period. We recommend a maximum of a 3-week settling in period.
Children starting late in the term
CYC endeavour to be as flexible as possible in delivering the FE and do not recoup FE for a child who leaves a setting late in the term. If a child starts a setting very late in the term, we encourage providers to be flexible in allowing the child to access a FE place, despite them not having received funding for the child for that short period of time in a term.
Different local authority arrangements
If a child who is resident in City of York attends a provider located in another local authority, the other local authority will fund the funded early education place. Similarly, if a child who lives out of the York area attends a provider in York, CYC will fund the FE place.
Each local authority has different procedures for claiming funding and may also fund the entitlement at a different rate. If a child transfers to a new provider located in a different local authority mid-term, the local authority in which the new provider is located may not be able to fund the place until the start of the following term.
Lists of ‘out of area’ children are sent to each local authority every spring term in order to check that children are not being funded for more than their FE.
