Early Years Education (EYE) Funding

EYE, Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and Disability Access Fund (DAF) claims must be supported by a Parent Declaration Form, and the appropriate privacy notice provided to parents/carers.

• Parent Declaration Form

View privacy notices

Parents/carers must complete part 5 of the form and indicate if their child attends more than one setting. Agreement must be reached between parents/carers and all providers as to how the Universal/Funded hours and Extended/Expanded hours will be split, taking into account providers funding offer. Consideration must be given where one provider offers standard and the other stretched.

Disadvantaged 2 year old funding

Parents apply through the Education Online Portal. If the child is eligible, the parent must provide you with evidence of eligibility with an application reference number. If the parent has a reference number issued by another authority, this must be verified with that authority. To support a parent/carer to apply for disadvantaged 2 year old funding, you can make an assisted application on their behalf through your provider portal before you accept them for an EYE Funded place.

Once you have verified that the child has a valid disadvantaged 2 year old reference number, you can add the child to your next headcount task (please do not enter the reference number on the claim). A Hampshire reference number is in the format of TYF-MMYY-XXXXXX. If the child has a code from another authority, you will need to contact Services for Young Children after you have submitted your claim to provide the reference number details so we can process your claim.

Further 2 Year Old Funding information and resources

Working Families Entitlement

Parents must have applied through the Government childcare accounts. You must validate all eligibility codes in the Working Families Entitlement tile of the Provider Portal. You must ensure the eligibility dates are valid for the period of funding that you are claiming for (start date on or before 31 December, 31 March or 31 August). Once the codes have been validated in the Provider Portal the extended/expanded hours columns will be available to add your claim. Please note that first time claims cannot be made in the grace period.

Further Working Families Entitlement information and resources

Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)

If you think a child may be eligible for EYPP, you must add the parent/carer information provided in part 4 of the Parent Declaration form to the child record in the headcount task. The EYPP supplement will be added to the payment made for eligible children and will be detailed in your EYE Funding Summary Report.

Further EYPP information and resources.

Disability Access Fund (DAF)

EYE funded children in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) may be able to claim DAF. You can apply for DAF in the Provider Portal using the Disability Access Fund tile, providing a copy of the DLA award letter and the signed parent declaration form. DAF is claimed once per child’s funding year by the nominated provider, and is paid separately from other EYE funding, and will be detailed in your EYE Funding Summary Report.

Further DAF information and resources.

Deferred/decelerated entry to year R and home schooling

If a parent defers or decelerates their child's entry into year R, or chooses elective home education, a deferred/decelerated/home schooled declaration form must be completed so you can continue to receive EYE funding for that child.

Deferred

Where the admission authority has offered a child a place at a school, the child's transition can be deferred until later in the school year, but not beyond the point at which they reach statutory school age. A child can be deferred to start school at the start of spring or summer terms, joining their usual cohort the term after their fifth birthday. They would then complete either 2 terms or 1 term in Year R.

Decelerated

Summer-born children (born 1 April - 31 August) can be admitted to Year R in the September after they turn five - a year later than they would usually start school. The child would join a younger cohort when transitioning to school.

Elective Home Education (Home-Schooling)

Parents or carers may decide to provide home-based education for their children instead of sending them to school. This is called elective home education (EHE).

For deferred, decelerated or home educated children, EYE funding can be claimed until the end of the term in which a child turns five. The following term in which a child is of statutory school age, EYE funding is no longer available. EYE funding cannot be claimed in the term the child starts school.

EYE funding is available up to 570 hours a year, this can be delivered either as a standard offer or as a stretched offer. A child’s funding year commences the period after their birthday and does not follow the academic calendar (September to July).

• The standard offer allows you to claim up to 15 hours a week over 38 weeks (approximately in line with the school academic year).
• The stretched offer spreads the 570 hours over more than 38 weeks and up to 52 weeks with fewer hours per week, e.g., 51 weeks x 11.17 hours a week or 48 weeks x 11.87 hours a week.

There are three funding periods over the year and providers may choose exactly how many weeks they wish to claim in any funding period, ensuring they do not exceed their maximum weeks.

For providers claiming on a standard offer an example would be:

• 14 weeks in the autumn period
• 11 weeks in the spring and
• 13 weeks in the summer

For providers claiming on a 51 week stretched offer an example would be:

• 16 weeks in the autumn period
• 13 weeks in the spring period and
• 22 weeks in the summer period

The exact days across the year the 570 hours are delivered is for providers to agree with the parents/carers according to their opening pattern.

If a 3 or 4 year old child is eligible for up to 1140 EYE funded hours care must be taken to claim the correct number of Universal/Funded hours and Extended/Expanded hours in the headcount columns.

If the child is attending more than one setting, you must ensure that you consult with the other provider and agree between you the number of hours you are each claiming per week.

For more information about claiming your headcount, including podcasts, and guidance on using the Provider Portal please look at Moodle.

Please also refer to our Headcount Claiming FAQs

What to do if the correct funding columns are not open in your headcount claim in the provider portal for children with a Working Families Entitlement Eligibility code

1. Ensure you have checked the code in the provider portal.
2. Check that the code has a start date prior to the first day of the current funding period and has not yet reached the eligibility end date.
3. Check the code is not in the grace period if you have not claimed the funded hours before for the child.
4. Ensure you have selected the code in the child details box (this will link the code check to the child record in your portal).

Once you have been through the steps above, and verified the code is eligible, re-open your headcount claim and the relevant columns should now be open.

If you find the code is not eligible for use at this time, (see 2 and 3 above) please follow the information on Working Families Entitlement tile Appeals process for codes not obtained or reconfirmed in time (also called Amber cases) and complete the appeal form to see if Services for Young Children can amend the eligibility dates in this instance.

Headcount tasks are issued each funding period for you to submit your claims (see the Headcount important dates, deadlines, and maximum hours document above). You can download a copy of your headcount submission to Microsoft Excel. Once payments are made you will receive an EYE Funding Summary Report via the Provider Portal. It is important that you check the this against your submitted claim and contact Services for Young Children immediately if you have any queries.

Late claims

If a child starts after the adjustment period has ended, or you realise you have made an error in your claim, you must and contact Services for Young Children immediately with the details. All revisions must be received before the end of the funding period to which they relate, to ensure they can be added to your claim. If we agree to process a late funding claim that is raised with us after the last headcount task has closed, there will be an administration charge of at least £50.

Changes agreed in a subsequent funding period will only be approved in exceptional circumstances.

For information on use of the Provider Portal please see Moodle.