Are they breaking the law

[wendywu]

My friend in Surrey has been told that to claim the 3 year old funding she has to have a level 3 and join the network. ! She has a good so i thought that she could now draw down the funding anyway.

What is the situation now, how does the law stand. I am getting really fed up with all the conflicting advice. Should i advise her to go and see her MP if our LA is in the wrong

[AgentTink]

My friend in Surrey has been told that to claim the 3 year old funding she has to have a level 3 and join the network. ! She has a good so i thought that she could now draw down the funding anyway.

What is the situation now, how does the law stand. I am getting really fed up with all the conflicting advice. Should i advise her to go and see her MP if our LA is in the wrong

Unfortunatly LA's are doing as they please at the moment and some are allowing CM's to access funding just based purley on their Ofsted Grade, as set out in the Statutory document sent to LA's in July about how to award the funding, whilst others are offering CM's the right to draw funding but with criteria attached.

My LA at the present time is not offering the funding to all CM's as they "are waiting for the law to change". I have sent a letter to the DfE about this and the law will be getting changed at some point but at the present time they are 'asking' the LA's to give the funding, but the DfE will not at the present time force them to.

[hectors house]

Your friend needs to refer them to "more affordable childcare" in which it says you only need a Good or Outstanding to deliver the funding. My LA are still asking for a level 3 certificate (which I do have) but I have told them that they shouldn't be still asking for that!

[Simona]

Unfortunatly LA's are doing as they please at the moment and some are allowing CM's to access funding just based purley on their Ofsted Grade, as set out in the Statutory document sent to LA's in July about how to award the funding, whilst others are offering CM's the right to draw funding but with criteria attached.

My LA at the present time is not offering the funding to all CM's as they "are waiting for the law to change". I have sent a letter to the DfE about this and the law will be getting changed at some point but at the present time they are 'asking' the LA's to give the funding, but the DfE will not at the present time force them to.

Another contradiction AgentTink created by the govt!!!..statutory means legal as in 'EYFS' (lets give it a try in refusing to do it!!) but for the funding LAs can ignore it?

I really do not blame those cms who are fed up being messed about by their LA...
on the other hand I do see the LAs' point of view that they must keep high standards by only allowing cms with some sort of QA in the scheme and not wanting Ofsted to be the sole judge of it...from the mess Ofsted are creating at the moment I can see their point of view!

They must have a reason for being so confident and defying the DfE et al...eventually we will know whether they have provided childcare for all 2, 3 and 4 year olds as it is their duty to do.

[wendywu]

Thanks for the replies. So when will it be law that an Ofsted Good or Outstanding can claim the funding on their grade alone ?? What time frame are we looking at

[tori4]

My LA sent us the recently published

Early years statutory guidance abt funding etc

It's pretty clear they can not enforce extra training to qualify for funding will try and add file

... Sorry cant add file here is the link and quote
http://education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/sta...actice-for-las


Quote
3.2 Base their decision whether to fund a provider to deliver early education places solely on the provider’s Ofsted5 inspection judgement, and not undertake a separate assessment of the quality of the provider.


3.6 Fund new providers registered with Ofsted until their first full Ofsted inspection judgement is published.

D.4 Ensure that it is voluntary for providers judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted to take up training delivered directly or commissioned by the local authority. Take up of local authority training should not be a condition of a provider judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by
Ofsted receiving funding to deliver early education places.

Hope this helps xT

[sarah707]

there is a complaint letter in Nursery World this week from a childminder who had to wait so long for her LA to catch up that she lost out on the first term - and children had to go elsewhere for their funded sessions - so it's not just your LA!

xx

[AgentTink]

there is a complaint letter in Nursery World this week from a childminder who had to wait so long for her LA to catch up that she lost out on the first term - and children had to go elsewhere for their funded sessions - so it's not just your LA!

xx

Sarah is this online or was it in the magazine? I would love to see it. x

[AgentTink]

Thanks for the replies. So when will it be law that an Ofsted Good or Outstanding can claim the funding on their grade alone ?? What time frame are we looking at

Wendy here was my responce from the DfE when i asked when was thr law changing:

Thank you for your email of 8 August, about the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities.

The statutory guidance is a tool designed to support local authorities (LAs) to meet their statutory duty. It sets out what LAs ‘should’ do to fulfil their statutory responsibilities. Where there is a specific and absolute legal duty on a LA required by legislation then it sets out what they ‘must’ do. LAs have a statutory duty to fund early education places with providers who deliver the full Early Years Foundation Stage and are registered with Ofsted.


Statutory guidance sets out the government’s expectation that LAs should fund two-year-old places in early years providers (including childminders) with an ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ Ofsted rating. Only in circumstances where there is not sufficient ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ provision should they fund a provider rated ‘satisfactory/ requires improvements’. For three and four-year-olds, LAs should fund all early years providers (including childminders) with an ‘outstanding’, ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory/requires improvement’ Ofsted rating to deliver early education places.

LAs should not place additional quality criteria on 'good' or 'outstanding' providers to qualify for early education funding and may only place quality conditions on 'satisfactory/requires improvement' providers if those conditions relate directly to Ofsted inspection judgements. The government intends to change the law to reflect this position at the earliest opportunity but is not able to provide a timescale until this has been agreed.


All LAs must have regard to the statutory guidance when securing funded early education places and they should not depart from it unless they have good reason to do so. If you are not satisfied with the LAs explanation as to why it is not complying with aspects of the statutory guidance then you may wish to follow it's complaints procedure.

[Simona]

Wendy here was my responce from the DfE when i asked when was thr law changing:

Thank you for your email of 8 August, about the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities.

The statutory guidance is a tool designed to support local authorities (LAs) to meet their statutory duty. It sets out what LAs ‘should’ do to fulfil their statutory responsibilities. Where there is a specific and absolute legal duty on a LA required by legislation then it sets out what they ‘must’ do. LAs have a statutory duty to fund early education places with providers who deliver the full Early Years Foundation Stage and are registered with Ofsted.


Statutory guidance sets out the government’s expectation that LAs should fund two-year-old places in early years providers (including childminders) with an ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ Ofsted rating. Only in circumstances where there is not sufficient ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ provision should they fund a provider rated ‘satisfactory/ requires improvements’. For three and four-year-olds, LAs should fund all early years providers (including childminders) with an ‘outstanding’, ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory/requires improvement’ Ofsted rating to deliver early education places.

LAs should not place additional quality criteria on 'good' or 'outstanding' providers to qualify for early education funding and may only place quality conditions on 'satisfactory/requires improvement' providers if those conditions relate directly to Ofsted inspection judgements. The government intends to change the law to reflect this position at the earliest opportunity but is not able to provide a timescale until this has been agreed.


All LAs must have regard to the statutory guidance when securing funded early education places and they should not depart from it unless they have good reason to do so. If you are not satisfied with the LAs explanation as to why it is not complying with aspects of the statutory guidance then you may wish to follow it's complaints procedure.

Pretty much the standard letter we all received about what LA SHOULD do but not MUST do...not really a clear answer.
Legislation will come in time, at the earliest opportunity....how strange some things can be implemented immediately, such as the new inspection regime, while others have to wait!

The 2 year old scheme is the govt flagship policy so what if it fails?
Truss was asked this in Parliament and she knew of 50,000 places secured in April...she needs 130,000 now and the same from 2014

There are 67,000+ providers of which 54,000+ are cms and only 10% of cms could do the funding before...so what is Truss doing by delaying any action to ensure we can access this blessed funding?
House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 02 Sep 2013 (pt 0003)

Not really sure what the govt is doing by delaying making a decision now?

[wendywu]

Bit of a mess then really and I thought it was all cut and dry now , sigh ........