Provider Information on Early Years Entitlements Funding
For any queries relating to funding, please email eyfunding@nottinghamcity.gov.uk and our Funding Team will aim to respond within 7 working days.
Please note that a lot of answers to queries submitted (such as payment dates, portal opening dates and how payments are calculated) can be found in the latest 2025-26 Provider Agreement and the 2025-26 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
Further Clarity from the Department for Education on Charging
The DfE statutory guidance for local authorities has been updated and comes into force on 1st April 2025. This guidance must reflect the law governing the delivery of the early education and childcare entitlements, which has not changed, The updated guidance pits transparency at the heart of how the entitlement should be passed on to parents.
There have been several queries raised with the Department around charging for consumables, and regarding providers setting a certain number of “fully free” places, with the rest being “funded” places, in respect of which providers impose additional mandatory charges. The legislation requires the local authority to secure that places are available free of charge to each eligible child in their area, the Department do not consider that offering free places only to some eligible children meets this duty.
Providers can choose to cap the number of early years entitlements places they offer within their setting overall, but all of the places that early years entitlements funding is received for must be accessed free of charge to parents. There must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours.
However, this does not prevent providers from charging for food and other consumables, as long as these charges are not mandatory.
The Department have issued the following Frequently Asked Questions documents around charging to provide further clarity and information:
Please also note that whilst the legislation requires local authorities to ensure that the 15- or 30-hour entitlement for working parents childcare is available “free of charge” to each eligible child. The statutory guidance reflects the legislation in the use of ‘free’. However, following feedback from the sector, since 2024 the Department has been using ‘Government-funded’ in parent-facing communications to support providers in reflecting that parents may be charged voluntary extra charges for some costs not covered by Government funding.
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 December 2024) 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 2025-26.
Our consultation on the funding rates for the early years entitlements for 2025/26 closed on 31st January 2025 and feedback was shared with early years providers in the PVI sector at the Annual Business Meeting on 6th February 2025 and with schools and academies at the Early Years Funding Briefing for Headteachers and Business Managers on 11th February 2025. Full presentations from these meetings can be found in the 'Information for Schools' section on this funding page and here for the PVI Sector.
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.
For more information on the Portal and claiming funding, please refer to the Schools and Academies Provider Guidance.
In February 2025, 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.
There is also a sample Parent Declaration Form which may of use in the 2025-26 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;
