Section C – Payment for2,3 and 4 year olds

(‘Statutory guidance for local authorities: Early education and childcare’ DfE September 2013)

It is Suffolk County Council’s (SCC) duty to ensure:

  • Funded places are entirely free of charge to parents/carers;
  • Places are offered flexibly to meet the needs of parents/carers;
  • The proper use of public funds

It is a criminal offence to make false claims for funding and any suspected false claims will be treated seriously and the appropriate action taken.

Funding for 2 year olds living in economic disadvantage

The hourly rate paid to you for funded 2 year olds is £5.15 an hour.

If a 2 year old attends your setting or whose parent/carer contacts you directly to attend your setting, you can check if the family receive a qualifying benefit. If they can prove receipt of one of the qualifying benefits you must:

a)Photocopy the proof (see ‘Proof of Benefits’ document)

b)Complete form SEYF1a for 2 year olds

c)Ask the parent/carer to complete form SEYF1 The Parent/carer (Declaration and Funding) Authorisation form

d)Keep the photocopy of proof seen with the SEYF1a and SEYF1for audit purposes.

Some 2 year olds may be placed with you by a Families Information Outreach Coordinators (FIOC). For these childrenyou will receive a completed Two Year old Funding Applicationform which has already been checked for eligibility. You must keep these forms for audit purposes.

Single Funding Formula forthree and four year olds

Suffolk has an agreed single funding formula which is applied across the maintained and non-maintained sectors. Providers will be paid according to this formula.

The Formula is in 3 parts:

1.Baseline Formula

2.Supplementary Formula (Block allowance which applies to private and voluntary providers only)

3.Disadvantage Formula

1. Baseline Formula

The baseline formula consists of an hourly rate for each of four bands. The most highly qualified person working directly with the funded3 and 4 year old children will determine the band. Other staff, in such a way as to meet the EYFS staffing ratios and requirements, must support this person.

SCC’s funding formula is based on four hourly rate bands which depend on the person with the highest level of qualification working directly with the 3 and 4 year olds.

Band / Hourly rate / Qualification level
A / £ 3.70 / Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) or Early Years Professional (EYP) Status
B / £ 3.50 / Level 5/6
C / £ 3.30 / Level 4
D / £ 3.10 / Level 3 Group provision
E / £ 3.10 / TEMPORARY RATE PENDING REVIEW
Registered Childminder not qualified at band A, B, C above.

The named member of staff working directly with the funded 3 and 4 year olds must work directly with those children for at least 75% of their entitlement in order to generate the payment of a particular hourly rate.

If the member of staff with the highest level of qualification spends any time away from the children, the provider can substitute with staff holding lower qualifications - providing the staffing ratios meet EYFS requirements.

Qualification status

In order to make sure that the correct hourly rate is paid,SCCwill verify the qualification status of your provider.

You must complete a copy of the SEYF4 (Early Education Funding Verification Form) and return it to SCCby the published dates shown on the claim form.

Your provision will be given a qualification status that determines the band. Once the hourly rate is determined by SCC, you will continue to be paid at that hourly rate each term. The leader/manager will be asked to sign a copy of SEYF3 (Early Years Education Summary Form) confirming that there is no change.

If the member of staff with the highest level of qualification changes at any time you must complete a new SEYF4. The form must be completed and submitted, together with a copy of the qualification certificate for the member of staff, by the date shown on the form.

We will then review the qualification status of your provision and if necessary adjust the rate band and hence the hourly rate that you are paid. Adjustments to hourly rates can take place only three times a year and the hourly rate will be revised from the beginning of the following term.

Calculating the hourly rate

One hourly rate will be calculated for each provider. For the majority of providers this will be straightforward, as they will have one group of children, led by a single member of staff.

For a minority of providers this may be more complex. For example:

  • Where a provider operates with more than one group of funded3 and 4 year olds and the staff leading these groups hold differing levels of qualification, or
  • Where a provider has only one group of children but employs two different members of staff, holding differing levels of qualification, who lead the group on different days of the week.

In either of the above cases, when completing the SEYF4, you will need to make this clear. We will then calculate the hourly rate based on the information given.

Please note:We will make a judgement based on the information you provide, whether you qualify for payment of 50% of the funded hours claimed at one rate band and 50% at another. We cannot be any more flexible than this.

How to check qualifications and ratios

You must comply with the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five years old. Staffing arrangements and how they must be organised are outlined in Section 3 of the framework –‘The Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements’.

If you are unsure whether your staff members hold ‘full relevant qualifications’ (as required) use the qualification finder on the Teaching Agency website:

Qualified Teacher Status

The following teaching qualifications are appropriate to be counted in the qualified staffing ratio and can be used to determine payment of the highest hourly rate if they are gained in the Early Years Foundation Stage or Key Stage 1:

  • Certificate of Education (Cert Ed.)
  • Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.)
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)
  • Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

This is also confirmed on the Teaching Agency website.

The ratios for all other staff must be those prescribed by the EYFS Statutory Guidance.

2. Supplementary Formula (block allowance which applies to private and voluntary providers only)

The supplementary formula applies to private and voluntary providers only. It does not apply to Maintained or Independent schools.

On top of the hourly rates, you will receive a block allowance. The block allowance is intended to contribute towards some of the additional costs. For example, Ofsted registration, insurance, accounting and so on which schools do not have to meet, and secondly some recognition of additional premises costs.

  • For group providers, on school sites and benefiting from a ‘peppercorn rent’ the block allowance is £1035 a year, paid in termly amounts of £345.
  • For all other providers, the block allowance is £2070 a year, paid in termly amounts of £690.
  • For childminders the block allowance is £216 a year, paid in termly amounts of £72.

The block allowance will be paid to any provider for any term where there are more than 5 funded children, including funded 2 year olds.

The block allowance will be paid to a childminder for any term that he or she has at least one funded child.

3. Disadvantage Formula

Statistically, children living in disadvantaged circumstances are less emotionally secure and have less well-developed social and language skills than their peers at age 3. They can also make slower educational progress than their peers throughout their school life. In recognition of the additional costs that can result from the support of these children, additional formula funding is made available to enable you to make additional provision to help compensate for this disadvantage.

To calculate the formula we will use ‘A Classification of Residential Neighbourhood’ (ACORN) data. ACORN is a geo-demographic classification using census and other data to classify postcodes into neighbourhood categories. Many local authorities and health authorities use this data. For more information go to:

We will use the postcodes of children to find out how many live in neighbourhoods classified as economically disadvantaged. For any child living in one of these neighbourhoods, a payment at a rate of £70 per child will be made each term.

Payments

Payments will be made according to the agreed formula, using information received from providers on their termly Early Education Claim Forms.

Information about how to claim Early Years Education and the claim forms you need are available on Suffolk CPD online (Login and select ‘EYFS resources’ tab to get to the Suffolk County Council homepage) visit:

SCC will carry out checks, for example where claims are received for a child which exceeds theirfree entitlement. In such circumstances, the funds will be recovered from the provider(s) concerned.

a)Claims and payments for early education funding –2, 3 and 4 year olds

  • All funded 3 and 4 year olds and eligible funded 2 year olds must be claimed for on one child level funding claim formSEYF2
  • For eligible funded 2 year olds you must identify how they qualify for funding on the claim form.
  • All parts of each early education funding claim form must be completed in accordance with the instructions provided each term. Incorrect or incomplete forms will delay your payment. Where funding forms are received after the deadline set each term SCC reserves the right to make an administrative charge of £20 for each late payment made to a provider. Funding will only be paid from the day the late claim is received.
  • An advance payment will be made to you at the start of term. The level of the advance will be calculated by reference to the number of children who still qualify for funding and the number of hours claimed in previous terms. From the Spring Term 2014 your advance will include an element for previously funded 2 year olds.
  • We will aim to get the balance of the funding credited to your bank account within 10 working days of receipt of the correctly completed funding claim forms. Incomplete or incorrectly completed forms will delay your payment.

3 and 4 year olds only

  • Payment of the disadvantage formula will be made separately, and always in the second half of the term. This payment will also be shown as ‘Early Education Funding’ on the remittance advice and will be divisible by £70.
  • Any early education funding claim forms received after the deadline will not be included in the calculation for the disadvantage element of the formula for that term.
  • You will receive a termly payments statement, towards the end of each term;this will show you how the payments have been calculated. This will include:
  • The amount you received as an advance
  • The amount of the balance
  • The hours paid at a specified hourly rate
  • The block allowance
  • Any disadvantage allocation.

b)SCC’s Policy on 2, 3 and 4 year old children who join/leave a provider part way through a term is that:

There will be no funding adjustment for children who leave or join a provider after the head count date in each term. As a member of the List of Providers you will be required to accept a child for a free place part way through a term if you have space available, but will not be able to claim for that child until the head count day in the following term. Please see the exception to this rule in the paragraph below. You will not be required to give up funding for children who leave after head count day. This arrangement is known as ‘Swings and Roundabouts’.

The funding will not follow the child from one provider to another. Please ensure parents/carers are made aware of this when planning their early education arrangements each term.

Exception

If a NEW child starts after headcount day and is shown not to have claimed a place in Suffolk during the same term then we will fund the place from the date the child starts (in full weeks only). An additional claim will have to be submitted on the NEW SEYF2a form (now available on CPD online). Please enter the number of weeks, to the nearest full week, that you are claiming for that child. Please include a copy of both sides of the SEYF1 for each child on these claims (and SEYF1a as applicable for a 2 year old) as childrenmay not be on the system already. All these additional payments will be made in the last week of the term in which they apply.

Financial Documentation

  • Registers –You must complete registers. Registers are treated as financial documentation so must be retained for seven financial years plus the current year. Please note:You must comply with any request for a hard copy of current registers from any member of the SCC.
  • You must retain copies of all the funding claim forms, the original parent/carer declaration and funding forms and all other financial records for seven financial years plus the current year.
  • In the Spring Term 2014 parents/carers will need to complete a new parent authorisation form. In future terms if all the information on the PAF form remains the same the parent/carer can resign an existing PAF for a further 2 terms. It is the providers’ responsibility to ensure when asking parent/carers to resign an existing form that the parent/carer has reviewed all the information on the form and confirms it all remains the same. If a parent/carer requests different hours, attends hours at another setting or wishes to change any of their child’s details then they will have to complete a new PAF.
  • Please ensure where an existing PAF is resigned it is retained with the current terms funding paperwork as they will be required for audit.
  • Where SCChas reasonable grounds to be concerned that a provider may not be compliant with the conditions set out in the list of providers pack, it reserves the power to delay payment of early education funding until the concerns have been resolved. See also section F.

List of Providers – Section C Page 1 of 6 November 2013

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