Provider Information on Early Years Entitlements Funding
For more detailed information on Early Years Funding please refer to: 2024-25 Provider Agreement and the 2024-25 Further Information and Example Documentation Pack.
If you wish to register your school or childcare provision to receive funding for the early years entitlements please download: Registering for funded places
Early Years Funding Process: The Early Years Funding Portal for Nottingham City providers registered to offer funded places opens once per term for claims. Providers will receive an automated email with your personal link to the portal
- See the PVI Providers Guidance for more information on the portal and claiming.
- Or see the Schools and Academies Provider Guidance.
- Providers who have made a claim will receive a confirmation report on the portal, any adjustments to claims after the confirmation report stage can only be made via the Claims Adjustment Form. Adjustment forms are looked at towards the end of term and will not be included in main payments.
- Payments are made monthly (except for August) based on estimated and actual claims.
The Department for Education published an 'Easy Explainer: Early Years Funding Rates' document to explain how national LA funding rates for the early years entitlements (published November 2023) have been calculated and the processes that these hourly rates need to go through to reach an agreed local funding formulae and provider hourly rates for Nottingham City for 2024-25. Further information on how the DfE distribute funding to LA's using the national funding formulae to determine the hourly rates LA's receive & how LA's then determine the distribution of funding to providers, can be found here.
In January 2024, we undertook a consultation on the structure of local early years funding formula for 2024-25 and a summary of the headlines can be found here.
At the Annual Business Meeting on 22nd February 2024, we shared the hourly rates for 2024-25 and these are also detailed in the 2024-25 Provider Agreement.
As per current practice, and as stated in the Provider Agreement, providers are reminded that the monthly estimate payments are Government funding and not the provider’s money until the terms funding is reconciled with the actual hours the child has received. Any estimate payments made over and above the actual entitlement must be repaid to the LA as requested.
The Easy Explainer for the 2025/26 rates, published December 2024, can be found here, and it also explains the next steps we will be undertaking to develop the local provider hourly rate for 2025/26 which we will share at the next Annual Business Meeting on 6th February 2025.
For more information on the Portal and claiming funding, please refer to the Schools and Academies Provider Guidance.
In February 2024, the Early Years Team also held briefing sessions for schools on the new early years entitlements, upcoming funding rates and the importance of checking eligibility and submitting accurate claims to ensure schools receive all the funding they are entitled to for early years places. The information from these sessions can be reviewed here:
Further to lots of enquiries on school age ranges and offering entitlements, please note that a school’s age range is the age range for which the school normally makes provision for. If the school’s lower age range is 3-year-old and the child has turned 3, they wouldn’t need to change the age range. If the school is wanting to offer all three-terms of an entitlement for 2-year-olds then they may need to lower their age range to 2-year-old.
Further guidance on making changes to schools and academies can be found at:
This Information for Schools covers eligibility criteria, how parents apply, how schools can check eligibility codes, how parents can access a place and what happens if a parents circumstances change.
The Additional Information on 30 Hours page of the website may also be of use and a sample Parent Declaration Form for 30 Hours can be found in the 2024-25 Further Information and Example Documentation Pack.
Please remember that 30 hour places will start the term after the child turns 3, if their parents meets the eligibility criteria and their code has been verified. Therefore, parents should apply during the term that their child turns 3 so that funding can begin at the start of the following term. Funding for the 30 hours won’t be backdated or start half way through a term. Please remember funding is allocated on a participation basis.
The key messages are:
- The foster parents must engage in paid work outside their roles as foster parents;
- Applications are made through the foster child’s Social Worker, as accessing extended hours must be consistent with the child’s care plan;
- Foster care applications are managed by the Local Authority, not HMRC;
- Successful foster care eligibility codes will be validated by childcare providers following the usual process on the Portal; and
- Apart from the issuing of the code, all other rules around accessing a place, reconfirmation and the grace period remain the same as for all the working parent entitlements.
Further sources of information:
East Midlands Shared Services (EMSS) make the estimate and balance payments made to childcare providers for the early years entitlements for eligible children and previously issued printed remittance advice slips detailing payments made, which were posted to childcare providers for information.
Please note that printed remittance advice slips are no longer issued. Childcare providers can still receive remittances by email, but need to provide an email address to EMSS.
Other than the administration of the early years entitlements funding, the Early Years SEND Fund and the administration of the Disability Access Fund, there are no further current funding opportunities available direct from the Early Years Team.
Depending on the type of organisation your childcare business is and what you are seeking funding for, you may be able to apply for external funding opportunities. A sample of such funding organisations are shown below;
