The instructions on this page were different in the following release(s):
3.80

Early Years Overview

Early Years is used to enter and maintain records of childcare providers and funded services. It records information about the children attending Early Years settings, including the number of hours funded through free entitlement, and enables payments to be made to the childcare providers.

Headcount & Thirty Hour Entitlement

Headcount uses the One Provider Self Service portal. The portal enables the Local Authority to create requests (tasks) for information relating to children receiving funded nursery provision. The providers can inturn respond to those requests by submitting online forms. After the providers submit their headcount data, the information is incorporated into the Local Authority’s One database.

Early Years Headcount uses the Portal Back Office to match incoming student and Carers information with those who already exist in the One database.

The Thirty Hour Entitlement portal enables providers and Local Authorities to check the eligibility of working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds to an extra 15 hours of free childcare in addition to the universal entitlement of 15 hours per week.

Parents apply to HMRC for extended childcare and, if they are eligible, they are given an eligibility code to take to their childcare provider. Thirty Hour Entitlement in the Citizen Portal enables parents and carers to check the validity of their extended entitlement code. They can see personalised information such as when the child can start receiving the extended funding. They can choose to share the results of their check with providers and apply for placements.

Providers can use the Provider Portal to check the validity of eligibility codes using the DWP Eligibility Checking Service (ECS)

Two Year Old Funding

Two year old funding applications are made via the Citizen Self Service portal, and imported into One. Students and parents (carers and guardians) are matched via the Portal Back Office functionality

Local Authorities (LAs) have a statutory duty to secure funded early education for eligible two year olds.

Applications for Two Year Old Funding are made by the applicant via the Citizen Self Service portal

These applications are reviewed by the local authority via the Provider Portal. The applications are then imported into the One Early Years module.

Disability Access Fund

The Department for Education (DfE) introduced the Disability Access Fund (DAF) in April 2017 to enable Early Years settings to provide increased support for children with disabilities.

Three and four year-old children are eligible for the Disability Access Fund if they meet the following criteria:

• The child is in receipt of the child disability living allowance (DLA).
• The child accesses the funded entitlement at the Early Years provider.

The three year-old funding period starts on the first day of the payment period following the child’s third birthday. The three year-old funding period then includes the following two payment periods.

Providers that take three and four year-old children who are eligible for the Disability Access Fund are entitled to receive an annual payment of £828 per child. The payment is made to a single Early Years setting nominated by the child’s parents or carers. The parent or carer needs to complete a DAF declaration form each year and confirm which provider receives the payment.

The parent or carer submits the completed DAF declaration form to the provider so that they can apply for the Disability Access Fund.

If the Local Authority has a licence for the Provider Portal Headcount, Early Years providers can use the Provider portal to make claims for DAF and the Local Authority DAF manager can use the Provider portal to approve or reject DAF applications.

The Student Details record in the One v4 Client is updated with details of the DAF approval.

Local Authorities that are not using Provider Portal Headcount can manually enter details of approved DAF applications in the student details record.

The Local Authority financial approver can generate and authorise DAF payments to the provider using the One v4 Client.

For configuring the Provider portal, refer to the Technical Guide: Deploying and Configuring the One Provider Self Service Portal for Local Authorities. This is available on ServiceNow.

Refer to: Managing Early Years Payment, regarding making Early Years payments in the v4 Client.

Self Update Provider Portal

The Self Update Provider Portal (SUPP) enables Early Years providers to view the information that is stored about them and their services in One Early Years v4. Providers can use the portal to add missing information or update incorrect information.

Local Authority can view and manage the changes submitted by providers using the Self Update portal and decide how to action them before updating the One v4 Client.

Manage Early Payments

Manage Early Years payment is intended for Local Authority staff using One Early Years to manage their early years provision and to make payments to childcare providers for free entitlement.

The government provides funding for all three and four-year-old children, starting from the funding period after their third birthday until they start school, to attend an Ofsted registered early years setting. Some two-year olds are also eligible for funding.

Registered early years settings provide funded services and make claims for payment on behalf of parents or carers, by submitting headcount information to the Local Authority.

One Early Years enables the Local Authority to manage their early years provision and record information on young children, including the number of hours they are attending, and the number of hours funded through free entitlement.

Early Years Pupil Premium

Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is additional funding for early years settings to improve the provision for disadvantaged 3 and 4-year olds.

Local Authorities are responsible for checking whether individual children meet the eligibility criteria for EYPP. Information about the child’s carers is used to determine whether or not the child is eligible.

In v4 Client, the Early Years module enables Local Authorities to check eligibility for EYPP for children in the correct age range through the government’s Eligibility Checking Service (ECS).

EYPP payments are calculated automatically for children who are eligible (but not if there is a Looked After Child (LAC) assessment). The payment is based on the correct EYPP Single Funded Formula rate for the payment period and the calculated funded hours. This includes where the payment for funded hours is shared between providers or services.

The Provider Portal Headcount module enables the Local Authority to collect the required information for making an eligibility check on economic grounds (surname, date of birth, NI or NASS number of a child’s parents or carers) as part of a headcount collection task. Settings can inform as to which children are eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium via the Provider Portal messaging system. As such, settings can plan expenditure to raise achievement in those children who are identified as being most in need.

Better Start

The One Better Start Assessment portal uses the One Provider portal. It enables the Local Authority to collect and analyse progress, developmental and attainment data for 0-5 year olds directly from the providers.

Assessment templates can be defined by each local authority to support statutory and local assessment collections. Assessment information recorded by providers is automatically updated and held centrally against children’s records in One PULSE. This enables regular progress checks to record whether children are below, in accordance with or above age expectation per assessment statement.

Better Start uses the Portal Back Office in One v4 Online to match incoming student information with existing details in the One database.