Free Early Years Entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds

City of York Early Years Inclusion Fund

Targeted Support:

A small amount of additional funding is available to support (support through additional staffing, equipment or resources) pre-school children with disabilities or additional needs who do not have a Statement of Special Educational Needs.

Priority will be given to children with ‘high need, low incidence’ although support for children with ‘high incidence, low need’ will also be considered if the child is at Early Years Action Plus (SEN Code of Practice 2001).

• Download the Early Years Inclusion Fund covering letter
• Download the Early Years Inclusion Fund application form

A guide for Practitioners

The Policy and Planning team can give advice and support on any query that you have relating to the Free Early Years entitlement for three and four year olds.

This could be:

• Information regarding the payment of the funding to the settings e.g. the amount of funding made, timescales for completing the forms, when payments should have been received etc
• Offering the enhanced entitlement flexibly 
• If you think you have received the incorrect amount of funding
• For advice on filling out and completing the claim/census form and to find out more about the different formats in which this information can be entered.
• For notification of a change of contact details to which the claim/census forms are sent,
• If a child starts or leaves a setting after submission of claim/census form.

The Policy and Planning team can be contacted on 01904 554208,  554442 or 554348.

What is the claims process? (for all providers except childminders)

Free Early Years Funding is made in two payments for each term:

• An initial payment made at the beginning of the term based on estimated take-up
• A second payment, during the second half of term, once all claims have been received and finalised

The initial payment:

• The initial payment is usually based on 85% of the funding that you received in the same term the previous year.
• You will receive a letter informing you of the initial payment you can expect to receive and your declaration forms approximately 4 weeks prior to the end of the previous term.
• If you think that the funding you expect to receive for the next term is going to be significantly different to this proposed first payment, you can contact the Policy and Planning Team up to the first day of the term to inform them of numbers you are expecting that term and your payment will be amended to reflect this.
• The Policy and Planning team will process the initial payment on the 2nd day of each term.
• This payment will then take up to 10 working days to reach your bank account.

Census dates are the third Thursday in January, the third Thursday in May and the first Thursday in October. Claim forms are to be submitted shortly after the census date. There will be a short period after this date for telephone adjustments to be made. The onus is on you, the provider, to ensure that you apply for the funding for a child either on full term or half term basis. It is important you make parents aware of these cut off dates and conditions of moving their children from setting to setting.

The final payment:

• will be made during the second half of the term, once all overclaims are resolved and claims finalised.

The Claims process for childminders

Childminders will receive the full payment (i.e. 100%) on receipt of their claim.