2,3 & 4 year old funding

[AgentTink]

got this through yesterday

In response to the Government’s recent report ‘More affordable childcare’ that ‘sets out the steps the government is taking to address the challenges in providing affordable childcare for parents’ and the subsequent revision of the Department for Education’s ‘Early education and childcare – Statutory guidance for local authorities – September 2013’, Hampshire County Council are running a series of EYE Provider briefings to inform further the implications this guidance has on the LA’s duties and funding providers for early years education. These briefings will help to clarify the changes that will need to be made to the current Hampshire Early Years Education Funding Payment Terms and Conditions of providing Early Years Education. As part of PACEY’s support service contract with Hampshire we have set up to provide some additional sessions scheduled at more accessible times and will have content specifically related for childminders.

In response to these revised statutory duties this briefing will also outline the changes to the Early Years Single Funding Formula proposed from April 2014 and which will be consulted upon through October. Details of this consultation will be made available at the briefing but will also be published shortly on the Services for Young Children webpage. We will email you all the link as soon as this goes live.

One main area of change will be that in the Government’s requirement of local authority’s to remove barriers to accessing EYE funding. Therefore, any Good or Outstanding childminder registered by OFSTED ‘who has in their care an ‘eligible child (who) wants to take up a place there’ will no longer be required to gain accreditation for Early Years Education via a quality assurance scheme. The briefings will provide opportunity to give further detail regarding this and the Government’s and Hampshire’s future intentions to continue to support Childminders to deliver high quality early years education and childcare. Please let me assure you, Hampshire County Council remains committed to Childminders delivering high quality EYE and knows that parents and children benefit from childminding as a childcare choice.

there is going to be a childminder only meeting soon,once I have been I'll keep you updated! They are also holding a General Provider Briefing!

I emailed and heard nothing at all until now!

Ruby, no wonder hampshire were so keen on being 'committed to childminders'...they have just been named as one of the councils taking part in the trials

[Simona]

Ruby, no wonder hampshire were so keen on being 'committed to childminders'...they have just been named as one of the councils taking part in the trials

Yes the message was loud and clear but it is obvious that those LAs who wanted to be chosen for the trials HAD to include cms...
I would bet a great deal of money it would have been part of the terms and conditions and many LAs who applied for the trials also suddenly opened the scheme to all cms....sad they thought we would not notice

[Simona]

If you have seen the transcript of the evidence given by Truss to the Education Select Committee and also listened to the various interviews she is flagging up the fact that cms are now able to access the funding

She has also been told many are refusing to do the funding due to the low level of the Free Entitlement .....YES!!! at last we are making it clear that is a problem and one she needs to address herself

She is not aware that many LAs are still putting barriers in our way and has asked for anyone to write to her
I am going to try to find 5 minutes later to do so

[bunyip]

Barriers seem to be coming down very slowly. there has been some progress in my area, but LA still clinging to a few additional conditions. I suspect they're worried about legal challenges - e.g. supporting a setting that may breach the Equality Act. It means they're still judging settings on things that are Ofsted's sole responsibility to regulate. Trouble is, Ofsted only regulate and grade us, and wouldn't accept responsibility if we were breaking certain other laws: DDA, Data Protection, etc. LA's don't want to be held responsibility for promoting a setting that might be in breach of some legislation that is related to childcare, but essentially outside Ofsted's remit.

Or to put it another way, the UK regime has botched it again.

[bunyip]

My main fears about the funding are...........

The flat rate funded fee does not provide any incentive to offer the quality or flexibility that can set one CM apart from another, or make a CM the better choice over a nursery. This is not going to encourage CMs to offer evening/weekend/unsociable hours care to a whole group of working parents.

The provision must be "free at the point of provision" - so no supplementary charges for trips, meals, etc. and no top-up fees if the government rate falls below your own. (As an aside, this is in stark contrast to the way the regime pays contractors to build railways, school, Olympic venues, etc. - then throw more money at them on demand when they find the accountants got it wrong first time around. ) I was advised to get round this by defining timed "sessions" and having a 1-hour unfunded lunchtime slot, in which I could charge a higher rate, plus a meal charge. All very well, but again, this isn't offering anything to parents who don't do the stereotypical nine-to-five job, is it?

More worrying is the fact that we only get funding for actual attendance. This leaves us entirely at the mercy of parents who might decide to take a day/week/longer off and just not send the child. This really damages settings like my local preschool which rely on funding. They've had at least 3 children who simply stopped attending. It didn't cost the parents a thing. The preschool were given no notice and had no recourse to debt reclamation, etc. In effect, the client can give immediate notice (if they can be bothered to do even that) and walk away with no obligations, and the setting loses money whilst desperately scrambling around to try and fill the place.

[Simona]

Thank you Bunyip...yes barriers appear to be coming down and many LAs have told cms if their grade is good/outstanding then the funding can be accessed

Many LAs also give cms a contract ...possibly called Local Conditions of Grant...or whatever they call it which allows a cm to go on the Directory of Providers...sounds familiar?

It is when cms read the contract that that they find additional conditions

For instance mine says I have to sign the contract then I will be audited to see if I am suitable to give the funding
I am suitable because of my grade so what is the extra audit for?

There are also various other conditions we need to meet which my LA has not explained so many cms are deciding to leave it for the moment which is exactly what Truss is not aware of.

Worth reporting if funding is of importance to cms

[bunyip]

Still waiting to receive a copy of my LA's "provider agreement" cos their printer broke down over a week or 2 back. Clearly they don't have another printer anywhere in the county.

Fill you with confidence, doesn't it?