Nursery education funding

To offer government funded places, providers must sign up to Peterborough's Provider Agreement. 

Please contact laura.adams@peterborough.gov.uk for your agreement and for more information.

Once we have received your signed agreement, Hannah Oliviero (Settings Finance Officer) will begin the process to get your payment details set up, and provide instructions and support with claiming.

All funding queries should be directed to nurseryeducationfunding@peterborough.gov.uk.

The city council pays childcare providers to deliver the funded early education entitlement (FEEE) to children.

The amount paid is determined by the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF) in line with government regulations. It is designed to improve fairness and transparency in the way that funding is allocated to local authorities and subsequently to providers.

In Peterborough, this is made up of a universal hourly base rate, a deprivation supplement (children living in the 30 percent most deprived areas qualify) and a flexibility supplement (for settings meeting criteria).

Funding rates

Funding hourly rates effective from 1 April 2024 for all provider types are as follows: 

EYNFF supplements effective from 1 April 2024:

What is Early Years Pupil Premium?

The government introduced an Early Years Pupil Premium for qualifying children accessing their funded entitlements. The purpose of this funding is to support settings in narrowing the attainment gap between the least and most deprived families in the country.

Funding rate for EYPP

EYPP is paid at a national rate of £0.68 per funded hour, per child, on top of their funding hourly rate. This equates to an additional £387.60 for a child receiving the full 570 hour entitlement. 

There are no conditions from the government about how additional income generated by EYPP is spent. However, it is the expectation that providers should demonstrate commitment to improving the quality of early years provision for their disadvantaged children. Providers will be held to account for the quality of the early years education that they provide to disadvantaged children through Ofsted inspection.

Qualifying criteria

To be eligible for EYPP, the child's parent/carer must be receiving one or more of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• Income based Job Seekers Allowance
• Income related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guarantee element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided they are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after the parent/carer no longer qualifies for Working Tax Credit.
• Universal Credit (provided household income is below £7,400 a year after tax, excluding any benefits)

Or the child:

• Has been looked after by the local authority by at least one day
• Has been adopted from care
• Has left care through special guardianship
• Is subject to a child arrangement order

Checking a child's eligibility for EYPP

The Parent and Provider Agreement form allows Providers to collect the relevant information and consent from parent/carers to submit their details for eligibility checks. 

Providers will be required to complete their EYPP Eligibility Checker on the Wizard Provider Portal with the following information for EYPP checks to take place:

• Parent surname
• Parent forename
• Parent date of birth
• Parent National Insurance Number or National Asylum Support Service (NASS) reference
• Child’s forename
• Child’s surname.

The results will be immediate as there is a direct link with the Government Eligibility Checking Service system. If the check was successful, the result will display as ‘Found and Eligible’ and the system will generate a code that will link to the child and generate the EYPP funding at headcount. A list of eligible checks will also be in the ‘EYPP Entitlement Summary’ section on your portal.  

Please note the EYPP Checker is for economic (i.e. benefits related) eligibility checks only. If the child qualifies due to adoption, special guardianship, child arrangement order or they are a looked after child, please contact nurseryeducationfunding@peterborough.gov.uk in the first instance. 

Recent changes to EYPP mean that there is no longer a requirement to re-check EYPP status annually. This means that once EYPP eligibility is awarded, it remains in place for the duration of the child’s funded entitlement and you do not need to submit details again for rechecking. 

What is DAF?

The Disability Access Fund (DAF) is available to support providers to make reasonable adjustments to their settings and/or help with building capacity for the eligible child or for the benefit of children as a whole attending the setting.  

This consists of an annual allocation of £910 (from 1 April 2024). Only one annual allocation of DAF can be made for each child. If the child is splitting their hours across more than one setting, the parent/carer will need to nominate the main setting to receive the DAF through the Parent/Carer and Provider Agreement.  

Who is eligible for DAF?

 DAF covers eligible children accessing all funded entitlements.  Children must be receiving their funded entitlement and be in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to qualify. Settings must have seen and uploaded a copy of the child’s DLA award letter. The child does not have to be taking up the full entitlement to access DAF.  

How can I claim DAF?

To access this funding, use the ‘DAF Claim’ link in your Wizard Provider portal. You will be asked to input the child’s details and upload the DAF evidence (DWP letter confirming DLA).

A parent and provider agreement must be signed for each funded child accessing your setting, before funding commences. Parent and provider agreement forms will be checked when you have an audit with the Settings Finance Officer. 

The Settings Finance Team have produced guidance to support you with making funding claims and submitting eligibility checks on the Wizard provider portal. 

Please email nurseryeducationfunding@peterborough.gov.uk if you require additional support or further training. 

The Year Planner 2024 and 2025 is available to show you the maximum hours available to claim in each funding period/term.

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:

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 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:

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

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:

Where a child is entitled to 1140 hours:

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.

2. 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.

If providers choose this method, there will need to be an agreement between the provider and the parent to bank and keep track of hours as the provider will be ‘banking’ hours in Autumn and Spring term to cover the additional hours in Summer term.

Providers need to be particularly aware of children starting in Summer term but not completing a funding year with them (e.g. leaving to start school in the following Autumn term) as they may not receive sufficient funded hours to cover the whole summer period, not having any ‘banked’ hours from previous terms. In which case only the term time funded hours should be offered stretched over the provider’s Summer term open weeks.

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.

If a child leaves a setting or falls out of eligibility within a funded year providers may need to calculate the number of funded hours that have been claimed vs how many hours have been delivered to the parent to see whether additional funded sessions need to be offered, or whether there may be any chargeable hours.

Example below for a 52 week per year setting claiming 570 hours per year

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

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.

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)