Funding Models for Delivery of the Funded Early Years Entitlement

Funding can be delivered via different models, and these differ due to various setting types and their hours of operating. The Wizard funding portal allows settings to individually maximize their stretched funding offer according to their own open weeks per year.

How many funded early education hours are children entitled to each year?

The maximum annual entitlement for children accessing the 9mth – 35mth Working Parent Entitlement, the disadvantaged or low income 2-year-old entitlement and the Universal 3- and 4-year-old entitlement is 570 hours.

The maximum annual entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds accessing the Working Parent Entitlement (previously called the extended entitlement or “30 hours”) is 1140 hours.

How many funded hours are available in each term (funding period)?

The number of funded hours available each term for children eligible for 570 funded hours are as follows:

Term	Hours available
Autumn term	210 hours
Spring term	165 hours
Summer term	195 hours

The number of funded hours available each term for children eligible for 1140 funded hours (3- and 4-year-olds with a valid Working Parent Entitlement code) are as follows:

Term	Hours available
Autumn term	420 hours
Spring term	330 hours
Summer term	390 hours

Term Time Model – For families taking their funded early years entitlement over 38 weeks per year, this calculates to 15 hours per week, or 30 hours per week for 3- & 4-year-olds with a valid entitlement code.

How do I convert the term time hours to a stretched offer?

There are two ways that providers can convert the term time hours to a stretched offer, and this applies to all entitlements. These are:

Termly stretched - stretching the maximum termly hours by the number of weeks the provider is open in each funding period.

Funding period	Dates within funding period
Autumn term	1st September to 31st December
Spring term	1st January to 31st March
Summer term	1st April to 31st August

Where a provider is open 52 weeks of the year, they can stretch the maximum hours over each period in the following way:

Where a child is entitled to 570 hours annually:

Autumn Term = 210 term time hours / 17 weeks = 12.35 stretched hours offered each week Spring Term = 165 term time hours / 13 weeks = 12.69 stretched hours offered each week Summer Term = 195 term time hours / 22 weeks = 8.86 stretched hours offered each week

Where a child is entitled to 1140 hours annually:

Autumn Term = 420 term time hours / 17 weeks = 24.70 stretched hours offered each week Spring Term = 330 term time hours / 13 weeks = 25.38 stretched hours offered each week Summer Term = 390 term time hours / 22 weeks = 17.72 stretched hours offered each week

For providers open fewer weeks, you will need to divide the maximum term time hours by the number of weeks you are open within the funding period (term) e.g. if you are closed for one week in Autumn term for Christmas you would divide 210 hours by 16 weeks = 13.12 stretched hours each week.

When stretching the hours on a termly basis, parents who are eligible for Tax Free Childcare will need to update their childcare account to reflect the amount to be paid each period as it will vary across the year.

Yearly stretched - providers can offer the maximum funded hours stretched over all the weeks they are open in the year, which provides continuity of hours.

To calculate the weekly allocation of hours for a provider’s individual stretched offer, providers would need to take the maximum number of hours annually (570, or a of maximum 1140) and divide this by the number of weeks that the entitlement is to be taken over (up to a maximum of 52 weeks).

Please see examples below:

40-week model: For children eligible for 570 hours/year at a setting open 40 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 570 hours divided by 40 weeks = 14.25 hours (14 hrs and 15 minutes) per week.

For 3- & 4-year-olds with a 30-hour eligibility code entitled to 1140 hours/year at a setting open 40 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 1140 hours divided by 40 weeks = 28.5 hours (28 hrs and 30 minutes) per week.

48-week model: For children eligible for 570 hours/year at a setting open 48 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 570 hours divided by 48 weeks = 11.87 hours (11 hrs and 52 minutes) per week.

For 3- & 4-year-olds with a 30-hour eligibility code entitled to 1140 hours/year at a setting open 48 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 1140 hours divided by 48 weeks = 23.75 hours (23 hrs and 45 minutes) per week.

51-week model: For children eligible for 570 hours/year at a setting open 51 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 570 hours divided by 51 weeks = 11.17 hours (11 hrs and 10 minutes) per week.

For 3- & 4-year-olds with a 30-hour eligibility code entitled to 1140 hours/year at a setting open 51 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 1140 hours divided by 51 weeks = 22.35 hours (22 hrs and 21 minutes) per week.

52-week model: For children eligible for 570 hours/year at a setting open 52 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 570 hours divided by 52 weeks = 10.96 hours (10 hrs and 57 minutes) per week.

For 3- & 4-year-olds with a 30-hour eligibility code entitled to 1140 hours/year at a setting open 52 weeks, funding can be stretched in the following format: 1140 hours divided by 52 weeks = 21.92 hours (21 hrs and 55 minutes) per week.

Providers would need to be aware that when claiming in this way, if a child leaves mid-way through the year the child may not have accessed the number of funded hours that have been claimed.

When accepting the early years provider’s offer to stretch the funding across the year, the parent or carer must be aware that if they choose to leave the setting part way through the year, the funded hours remaining to use at a different setting may be fewer than expected if the bulk of funded hours have already been accessed.

Providers may need to calculate the number of funded hours that have been claimed and how many have been delivered to the parent to see whether additional funded sessions need to be offered, or whether there may be any chargeable hours.

For support in calculating this, please email nurseryeducationfunding@peterborough.gov.uk

To convert “decimal hours" to "hours and minutes", first separate the whole number; this is the number of hours.
Next, multiply the decimal part by 60 to find the number of minutes.

Example
Convert 12.4 hours to hours and minutes.
The whole number is 12, so the answer will include 12 hours.
The decimal part is 0.4, and we multiply this by 60 to get 24. This is the number of minutes.
12.4 hours can also be written as 12 hours and 24 minutes.

What happens when a child attends more than one setting (splitting the funding)?

If a child attends more than one setting, all claims should be made on a term-time equivalent basis, the providers will not be able to offer their own yearly stretched hours.

It will be up to each provider if they wish to stretch the maximum termly funded hours over the number of weeks they are each open that term or deliver them on a term time basis. It may be that the hours are delivered on a term time basis at one provider and stretched at another provider.

Example:

It is Autumn term and child attends Setting A for 6 hours per week term time (6 hrs x 14 Term time weeks = 84 hours

From the maximum termly hours for Autumn of 210, child has used 84 at setting A and has 126 remaining.

Child can then access the remaining 126 hours stretched at setting B who are open for 16 weeks in Autumn term (126 / 16 = 7.87 funded hours per week)