Claims Process – Spring 2024
Birth Certificates
The child’s original birth certificate must be seen as evidence of age eligiblity for early education funding. The data must be added to the provider portal and proof of DOB box ticked. Once this has been completed any copies of birth certificates may be destroyed.
Offering places for 2yr old funding
You must ensure that a child has been approved for 2 yr old funding by Solihull MBC before offering a place. The parent/carer should be able to show you their approval letter or if they are unable to, you may call the Family Information Service to confirm. Any claim received for a child who has not been approved will not be funded until they have applied and received their approval letter.
30 hours eligibility checker
Before offering a place for a child for the extended hours you will need to ensure they have a valid eligibility code for the upcoming term. You can validate their eligibility code using the eligibility checker on the provider portal.
If the eligibility checker tells you that the eligibility code is not valid then you will need to inform the parent and ask them to contact HMRC to check their details are correct. HMRC are available on 0300 123 4097.
Privacy Notice
You need to issue the latest privacy notice to the parents of any newly funded children. You can access this in the forms and guidance section.
Advance claim
If you are a PVI setting or Academy you can submit an estimate of the total number of funded hours you will be claiming this term for all of your children. You do this on the estimates tab on the provider portal in order to receive an advance payment of 75% of these hours on 24th January 2024.
The deadline to submit your estimate is 8th January 2024. If you submit an estimate after this date you will receive a late advance payment on 21st February 2024.
Instructions for completing this task can be found here. You can find an Estimate Calculator which can help you to calculate your estimate figure here.
Please ensure you add the estimate of children’s total funded hours to the correct age group on the provider portal.
Headcount claim
You are required to submit funding data for each child you are claiming for that term during headcount week. The data must show the hours and weeks each child is claiming for the term as per the offer the parent has accepted at the setting or school. This process is completed on the actuals tab of the provider portal. You must gather the required information from parents to submit a claim on the provider portal. You can use the Parental Declaration Form in order to gather this. The deadline for your headcount claim is 2nd February 2024.
This is also where you submit your parent data for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) checks and to apply for Disability Access Funding (DAF). To refer a child for Inclusion / High Needs funding you need to complete the referral form for the panel. For more information please click here.
Your headcount payment will be paid on 20th March 2024. This will be your funding balance for the term. The amount you will receive will be the total funding for the term minus any advance already received in the term. Your headcount payment will include an EYPP and Deprivation supplement on universal hours for eligible children and also any DAF due.
Any funded children who you claimed for in Autumn 2023 will have been carried forward to Spring 2024 on the provider portal so you will just need to check and update their details. You will need to add new funded children and delete any funded children who have left. If you are not claiming for any children this term please advise us by emailing eefenquiries@solihull.gov.uk to prevent us from chasing outstanding claims.
Instructions for completing this task can be found here.
Early leavers / Late starters
If children leave early or start late at your setting you can edit your headcount data on the provider portal up until 1st March 2024. After this date you will need to send us a completed Early Leaver Form for children who have left. For children that have started late we will require a Late Starter Form and a completed parental declaration form to enable us to process the claim.
When a child moves from one setting to another a notice period (maximum 4 calendar weeks) must be completed at the original setting before funding can start at the new setting. This applies to all funded providers including Schools.
If a child is in their notice period on Census day then the child should be recorded as ‘Present during Census’ at the original setting.
For late starters you must always check whether funding has been accessed elsewhere in the term already. If the child has been elsewhere you must ensure that the notice period has finished before you start the child at your setting.
For early leavers you must ensure you reduce the number of weeks claimed on the provider portal or early leaver form to enable the child to start funding elsewhere following your notice period.
Part Early Leave / Late Start
It is possible for a child to move some of their funding hours to another setting, rather than leaving altogether.
Example: If an offer of 15 hours universal and 15 hours extended has been accepted and the child is in attendance at one setting, they can reduce the extended hours to 6 hours / week at that first setting and start attending 9 hours / week extended at the new setting.
This would be a PART early leave and late start, rather than an increase/decrease of hours as the original early education funding offer at child level has not changed, i.e. 15 hours universal and 15 hours extended.
Staggered Starts at school are excluded from this as the offer for the term has been taken at the school and so the PVI sector cannot be accessed in that term unless the offer at the school is received late.
A child cannot increase hours mid term. The funding must be paid according to the offer accepted for the term at headcount.
This rule applies to both universal and extended hours, so you may not start the term claiming 15 hours universal, then commence an extended place later in the term, as this would be an increase.
Dual Attenders
If a dual attender is at school nursery, we currently expect the school to offer Universal hours and the PVI setting to offer the balance of Universal hours plus any Extended hours available.
Bank Holidays
Bank Holidays will be funded. If you would not normally charge for bank holidays, then you must identify this as an overpayment of grant, spend it on appropriate early years resources which will benefit all funded children and keep receipts for audit purposes.
Alternatively, the funding for that week could be re-allocated to a different day within the claim period ensuring funding limits are complied with.
Charging Parents
You may charge a parent where the parent requires hours additional to those for which you receive funding.
Parents of eligible children must pay no mandatory charge in respect of the child’s minimum free entitlement of 15 hours per week except a refundable deposit where the refund is timely.
Providers must ensure that parents’ bills are set out clearly, so that parents can easily recognise and understand what hours they have accessed in relation to the free entitlement and how any fees relate to additional services or hours.
To calculate the amount to Invoice the Parent / Carer for additional hours attended
– Start with the FULL SESSION FEE that would apply if the place was unfunded.
– From this, calculate the HOURLY RATE charged by your setting.
nb: If a sessional rate is used, divide the rate by the minimum number of qualifying hours for that rate to apply.
– Multiply the number of FUNDED HOURS by YOUR CALCULATED HOURLY RATE.
– DEDUCT THIS AMOUNT from the Session Fee.
DO NOT DEDUCT FUNDED HRS AT THE EEF HOURLY RATE as this will calculate the wrong invoice amount.
OR
– Calculate the HOURLY RATE charged by your setting.
nb: If a sessional / half day / full day rate is used, then divide the rate by the minimum number of qualifying hours for that rate to apply.
– Multiply the number of NON FUNDED HOURS that would normally be charged for by YOUR CALCULATED HOURLY RATE.
For a more detailed document please visit – https://www.solgrid.org.uk/eyc/eef/forms-and-guidance/
To calculate EQUAL MONTHLY FEES OVER A SET PERIOD:-
– Calculate the Total Amount to be Invoiced over a set number of months.
– Divide this Total by the same number of months to get equal monthly payments.