Northamptonshire Childminders - reply from council re: funding

As I expected Northamptonshire are going down the "how difficult can we be" route.


"The County Council will of course do all that it needs to in order to comply with statutory requirements. However the new guidance was only published last week and it takes time to go through all the relevant decision making processes and consultations required to establish new policies and procedures. We are still in the early stages of this. When and if appropriate there will be an opportunity to feed in your views through Northamptonshire Childminding Association as your representatives on the Cross Sector Provider Group.



Currently we require childminders who wish to deliver funded early learning to meet a set of requirements which include having a Level 3 child care and early education qualification, being a member of an affiliated network and attending the network meetings, and completing a quality plan to demonstrate they can offer the full Early Years Foundation Stage learning and development requirements. We believe this gives some consistency with the requirements for settings. The recent publication of the DfE guidance suggesting that we can no longer apply such requirements has caused some confusion because the apparent inclusion of childminders who are not accredited, is actually in conflict with other recently published Government guidance on qualifications for early years providers. We are currently waiting for confirmation from the Department from Education on this issue to inform a decision regarding our strategic position on this matter.



In answer to your particular queries –



1) What date will the process for the claiming of funding for all good and outstanding providers be published? The Customer Service Standards say you should have provided me with a date for an answer to my query.

Changes to our policies and procedures will need to going through a decision-making and approval process. If we are not in a position to implement any changes efficiently and effectively for the September funding block then we will introduce them in January. We will ensure that all providers are fully informed of new processes and their responsibilities through the web pages, the Early Years bulletin and briefing sessions as appropriate. The existing procedures and responsibilities are available for your information at http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/e...ber%202012.pdf but may be subject to change.


2) What should childminders who are good and outstanding tell parents who want funding for Sept '13? Obviously they need to know now.

Parents of eligible children have a choice of over 300 settings and a number of accredited childminders where they can receive their free entitlement; their details are accessible through the Family Information Service.



3) If childminders lose business to other providers because the LA has not published the procedure early enough how do they claim compensation for lost revenue?

The process for childminders to become eligible for funding has been in place for many years. All eligible providers sign up to a legal contract in order to receive the funding. The ultimate choice of which provider to use is for the parent. Compensation for lost revenue is not appropriate.



We are pleased that you are keen to take up the opportunity of delivering the free entitlement. By following all the correct decision making processes we will support this by ensuring that children will receive a good quality experience and providers will be fully aware of the conditions of grant and the responsibilities that accompany the use of public money."



Words are beyond me. We are losing business because they won't publish the criteria in time, how is backdating going to work? We and parents can't take a chance that they might receive funding through their childminder so they go elsewhere. It doesn't look like they want to give up their hold on this and get rid of the onerous criteria they list does it?

So if you have the time, email the NCA, your local councillor and the council in protest. This guidance is Statutory NOT a suggestion as they state and it must be followed from 1st Sept.

I have forwarded to Pacey. I think now is the time they need to step up and legally challenge LAs who don't follow the guidance and help us claim for loss of earnings. Similarly any other professional associations.

To all you Northamptonshire childminders, please share the above so everyone knows what they are up against and try and contact anyone who can help ensure this council follows this guidance properly.

Thanks in advance

Anni

Good feedback....

All LAs have to rewrite their own Code of Practice which states who can do the funding...it was in place before and you have listed the criteria: belonging to a network and accreditation etc etc
(Mine is doing the same and I await for conditions they will impose despite the fact they have told us cms can now access the funding)

In the past LAs were able to do so but, as Ofsted becomes the 'sole arbitrer' of quality from Sept, LAs cannot impose conditions but of course they will try

I can see their point...quality was important and now quality is judged by Ofsted and then we do not see them again for 4 years!!
They may decide to continue with the network and make it compulsory for all cms to join?? Level 3 is not compulsory but they can impose that too I suppose

My opinion, of course, is that this business with having network accredited cms did not work because those who did not belong but were getting good/o's grades were not able to pass the FE and parents were paying more....now cms are needed to fill the gaps for 2 year olds
I always said networks had to be open to all cms...

Why oh why was this anomaly not sorted out years ago when the EYFS 2008 came out and cms were delivering it on equal terms ??
Pacey was also very much in favour of networks and never listened when we told them the system discriminated against many good cms...what will they do now?

Yes it will take a bit for the LAs to sort out their conditions but in the end they have to place those 2 yo...
This won't stop here and it will drag on...keep us informed and I will feedback to the DfE or indeed you can if you feel you want to tell them yourself which is much better...the more cms write in the better!

Thanks Simona. I contacted the DFE straight away (again) with the council's response. I entirely agree that all childminders should be treated equally when it comes to networks etc. All in one or not at all. I don't object to being in a supportive network as long as they don't demand duplication and only the bare minimum of paperwork which is proven to improve outcomes for the children, not for the sake of it. I have a level 3 too which I don't particularly object to even if the council refused to fund me to do it.

I think that the organisations that should be representing us have vested interests in retaining bureaucratic networks as they get funding and jobs by running them. This money should be given to the front line and then free training and support could be fairly shared between all childminders and the free entitlement levels could be increased. I think this is the Governments aim.

What worries me most is that the local authority seem to think that children getting FE need all this quality assurance and protection. But the vast majority of children aren't with networked/accredited cms and they don't seem interested in those. So yes to all cms being given equal support, training and funding but no to the extra paperwork burden that the LAs seem to think this should mean. Also a big no to syphoning off money that should benefit all cms and ultimately the children they care for to run networks benefitting the few (though even they get less FE due to the costs of running them.)

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Originally Posted by 4365

Thanks Simona. I contacted the DFE straight away (again) with the council's response. I entirely agree that all childminders should be treated equally when it comes to networks etc. All in one or not at all. I don't object to being in a supportive network as long as they don't demand duplication and only the bare minimum of paperwork which is proven to improve outcomes for the children, not for the sake of it. I have a level 3 too which I don't particularly object to even if the council refused to fund me to do it.

I think that the organisations that should be representing us have vested interests in retaining bureaucratic networks as they get funding and jobs by running them. This money should be given to the front line and then free training and support could be fairly shared between all childminders and the free entitlement levels could be increased. I think this is the Governments aim.

What worries me most is that the local authority seem to think that children getting FE need all this quality assurance and protection. But the vast majority of children aren't with networked/accredited cms and they don't seem interested in those. So yes to all cms being given equal support, training and funding but no to the extra paperwork burden that the LAs seem to think this should mean. Also a big no to syphoning off money that should benefit all cms and ultimately the children they care for to run networks benefitting the few (though even they get less FE due to the costs of running them.)

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I entirely agree with you on every point!
I will share what my LA gets up to as soon as I have news but I hope it does not entail having to write another chain of emails to the DfE!!
Let us know what reply you get from them!

If anyone else is complaining to their Local Authority about this once you have been though their complaints procedure without a satisfactory outcome you might like to try the Local Authority Ombudsman

Local Government Ombudsman • Home

It's free and a fairly easy process, I have successfully used them before. Might be worth a go? I have to wait until 6th Aug for a final reply from Northants and then I will move up to the Ombudsman. I will let you all know what is happening as the NCA and council here haven't made a single announcement since the Guidance was published.

There maybe some movement from Northamptonshire County Council. The Northamptonshire Childminding Association have this on their website

"The Government has published guidance for local authorities which includes the delivery of early education funded places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds. It states that all childminders who have been awarded a good or outstanding Ofsted grade should automatically be eligible to claim funding for eligible 2 year olds and all 3 and 4 year olds from September 2013. This will have a huge impact on the local authority and Northamptonshire County Council has advised us that they are meeting at senior level to discuss all the implications. We will, of course, keep you informed about the progress but meanwhile if you are not a network childminder and you care for children who will be eligible for a place from September and whose parents want to take the place up with you then please let us know; it will be helpful if we have an idea of the numbers of childminders wanting to register."


I don't know if this is the councils position - automatic funding - now. I am waiting for confirmation from them. I am still taking my complaint forward as it doesn't look like the criteria or process for claiming will be published ready for the 1st Sept even though they MUST be ready for this date under the STATUTORY guidance.

Hope this helps some of you and don't forget to inform the NCA if you want to claim funding for September!

Anni

I have just had a reply to my complaint to Northants and it looks like childminders will be able to access funding if good/outstanding without needing to be accredited etc. I can't believe it yet and they are updating their website next week including the application to join the scheme and the provider agreement so I will be checking that to make sure they comply with the guidance before dropping my complaint completely. I have been emailing every day and some lovely parents (legal experts) gave me a bit of help too. They should be emailing all good and outstanding childminders with further info ready for the next funding block.

Hope this helps any of you Northants people, now some of the bureaucracy is going they should be able to improve the rates they pay for the free-entitlement to providers...but one step at a time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 4365

I have just had a reply to my complaint to Northants and it looks like childminders will be able to access funding if good/outstanding without needing to be accredited etc. I can't believe it yet and they are updating their website next week including the application to join the scheme and the provider agreement so I will be checking that to make sure they comply with the guidance before dropping my complaint completely. I have been emailing every day and some lovely parents (legal experts) gave me a bit of help too. They should be emailing all good and outstanding childminders with further info ready for the next funding block.

Hope this helps any of you Northants people, now some of the bureaucracy is going they should be able to improve the rates they pay for the free-entitlement to providers...but one step at a time.

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Very very well done...perseverance works in the end.
You have been very tenacious and hopefully been rewarded

Thanks Simona. If it wasn't for people like you who put the info like the guidance on here in the first place and then all the support I have had I wouldn't have got so far...I probably wouldn't have known about it at all. So thank you!