30 Hours Update (December 2017)
Please cascade the following information to ALL staff who are dealing with the 30 hours places
or process within your school or childcare provision.
We are practically at the end of the first term of delivery for the 30 hours entitlement. This may be a time when you are going to look back over the last few months and review how your administration system and model of delivery have worked for you. As you look forward to the new year there may be a few lessons learned which means you will tweak the way you work or fill any gaps you have identified.Marketing your services to families is a continuous process because each term will bring along a new cohort of families that are eligible for a place. Word of mouth is the most successful marketing tool around, however you do need to ensure the information which is being passed around is correct. Therefore plan to send out regular, succinct and accurate messages to your current cohort of parents and don’t forget to update the information you have placed in the local community for example posters, postcards and business cards.
As we are now in December please send the message out to parents telling them to apply for a 30 hours code before the Christmas period to avoid the last minute rush with the application process. Please encourage parents to respond quickly to any requests for additional information from HMRC to allow them to process the application before the deadline. Parents experiencing technical difficulties should not delay contacting the HMRC Childcare Service Helpline for assistance: Telephone 0300 123 4097
NEW INFORMATION Extended Period for Codes: Spring Term Places
All local authorities have been asked to apply discretion through the provision of an extended period to parents who miss the 31st December 2017 deadline to have a code for a 30 hours place. Doncaster Council will follow the guidelines which have been given and support this request.
This means Doncaster Council will fund a 30 hours place for the spring term where a parent has received
a code with a validity start date on or before the 11th January 2018
This will allow extra time for parents to secure a spring term place. Schools and childcare providers please note:
- The validity start date on or before the 11th January 2018 will apply to allcodes:
- new 30 hours code; reconfirmations; temporary code (beginning with ’11…..’)
- Please note: a temporary code which is issued on the 11th January 2018 will take at least 1 working day to appear on the Eligibility Checking System (ECS) before the code can be validated
- No additional evidence is required
- When thecode has been checked the school or childcare provider needs to ensure both of the following criteria are correct before confirming a spring term place with the parent:
- the validity start date is on or before the 11th January 2018
- it is the term following the child’s 3rd birthday
Information for Schools
The majority of schools who are currently delivering the 30 hours entitlement places have had a meeting with either Steph Douglas, Dawn Wood or Sandra Hammond to discuss how this can be delivered in their school. In addition some schools have contacted Rebecca Brookes in finance with regards to checking if your delivery model is eligible for the flexibility rate. This has enabled schools to make informed decisions on the roll out, model of delivery and the practicalities of the day to day administration of the places. Recently there have been a few calls for information and support on future planning and potential ‘tweaks’ a school may make to the current process and delivery of places. I hope you will find the following information useful as a summary/reminder for schools that may have similar questions or concerns.
Financial Aspect – is the school eligible to receive the flexibility rate?
In the September Update Sheet an article titled ‘Offering Places Differently – Schools and Sessional Providers’ looked at how the traditional model of am and pm sessions could change to accommodate a straight through
6 hour day for children accessing a 30 hours place. This new delivery model would give the parents the option of collecting the children at the end of the 6 hour period, or for a small charge the child can stay to the end of the school day. The article also includes several points for consideration when making a decision on whether to adopt this new model of delivery.
Because the school is giving the parent a choice of collection times it complies with the requirement for the school to receive the flexibility rate for 30 hours children – Flexibility Declaration Form for 3 & 4 Year Olds: Example 4.
The school need to ensure they leave sufficient places available for any in term movement of children
Schools need to remember that throughout the year places can be allocated up to the schools Nursery Admission Number. If a nursery is not full and has places available, the school will need to estimate how many of these places will be required to accommodate ‘in term’ movement of children. This would include: children new to the Borough; movements within the Borough; and where there are changes in family circumstances requiring a child to attend a different nursery. To support the estimated figure of in term movement, a school should take into account historical figures/trends of spare nursery places and the number of in term movement children. This will help the school determine how many ‘spare’ nursery places can be made available to provide other services.
The school should have a contingency plan to mitigate the risk of the number of actual in term movement children being higher than the estimated figure
A contingency plan may include for example: the physical space in the nursery is large enough to accommodate more children than the schools PAN; current staffing is sufficient to support more children if required; there is an additional area which could be used as an overspill for nursery provision if required.
It is the schools decision on how they use spare nursery places. Of the service options outlined below, the school may decide to offer a combination of them, all of them or none of them
Once a school has identified how many spare nursery places are available or if they have additional space within the school, the following service options could be considered:
- Provision of places for two year olds eligible for a 15 hour free entitlement place
- Provision of places for 3 & 4 year olds eligible for the 30 hours free entitlement hours
- A flexible offer which enables a parent to have a choice of days, session lengths or both as opposed to the traditional nursery place of all morning sessions or all afternoon sessions
- ‘Paid for’ sessions, where a parents can pay for additional hours over and above their 15 hour or 30 hour free entitlement place
- Early Starters – if a school is to take early starters they must follow the admissions criteria for the order they offer a place
A sample School Admission Arrangement document is available on the Families Information Service website: It can be used by the school in whole, in part or not at all, or merely as a checklist against the schools current document.
Example menus for early years settings in England
Example menus and associated guidance has been developed to support early years providers to offer food and drink in line with current government dietary recommendations for infants and children aged 6 months to 4 years. The documents include example menus and useful information for early years settings to help show how they can meet theEarly Years Foundation Stage welfare requirementto provide ‘healthy, balanced and nutritious’ meals for children.
National Evaluation of 30 Hours Rollout
Starting in the New Year an evaluation on the first year of the national rollout of the 30 hours programme will be undertaken. This will be on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) by a joint team of researchers from Frontier Economics, the University of East London and NatCen Social Research.
Doncaster has been selected to take part in the evaluation alongside other authorities to achieve a balanced mix of areas in terms of local childcare provision and contextual factors. The evaluation will involve a survey of all providers and undertaking case studies to gain an in depth understanding of how the policy is being implemented. This will take place between February and April next year. Further information will be provided as the evaluation process moves forward.
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and 30 hours– Information from Childcare Works
You may be aware of an article in the Observer newspaper on 03/12/17, and later in the sector press. Childcare Works have met with the Department for Education (DfE) to discuss this report and they have shared the following information.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated a complaint which questioned whether the government’s information about 30 hours on the Childcare Choices website was misleading.TheDfE responded to the ASA by reiterating their public statements that government funding is intended to deliver 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare but is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services. They also clarified 30 hours are available over 38 weeks of the year, as is the case with all of the pre-existing entitlements.
Although information on charging is publically available to parents in the statutory and operational guidance, the DfE agreed it would be helpful for this to be incorporated into the Childcare Choices website and was already in the process of updating the website with this information. This is the first full year roll-out for 30 hours and the government routinely updates the Childcare Choices website to ensure it is relevant and helpful to parents. The latest update included information on charging as follows:
“The 30 hours free childcare offer is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables (such as nappies or sun cream), additional hours or additional activities (such as trips). Providers may charge a fee for these additions. If you choose to pay for these it is an arrangement between you and the childcare provider. However, youmust not be required to pay any fee as a condition of taking up a 30 hoursplace, and must be offered alternative options.”
The DfE wants to reiterate that the information provided on Childcare Choices is accurate and some additional information has been included to support parents understand what they can, and cannot, expect from 30 hours.
The ASA agreed with the changes made to the website, they have taken the view that the purpose of the Childcare Choices website is clear to readers and provides sufficient general information. As such, the ASA decided to close the file in relation to this parent’s complaint.
Action for Children: Eat Better Start Better
Getting children eating well for life means starting early. Whether you run a nursery, work in a children’s centre, look after children as a childminder or if you oversee early years education in a local authority, Action for Children are here to help you deliver great food for under-fives.
The‘Eat Better, Start Better’ guidance and supporting material have been developed to help early years providers and practitioners to meet the Early Years Foundation Stage welfare requirement for the provision of healthy, balanced and nutritious food and drink.
This guidance, updated in 2017 reflects the government’s dietary recommendations for children aged 6 months to 5 years and sets out the food and drink guidelines for early years settings in England. Following the advice in this new guidance when providing food and drink will help you to meet the nutritional requirements of young children in your care. Action for Children are now signposting people to visit the webpage to both download the guidance but also to purchase hard copies of the guide.
Please continue to signpost parents to:
The parentsonline childcare account for them to reconfirm their eligibility for the 30 hours entitlement every 3 months
to apply for information
HMRC Customer Service Helpline, Telephone 0300 123 4097 for queries regarding the application process
Sandra Hammond, Programme Manager Telephone: 01302 862118 Email:
Doncaster Council, School Organisation, Civic Office, Floor 3, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU