Advice to Local Authorities

Local Authorities can configure how their providers record claims for extended hours on the Headcount grid in Provider Portal. After consulting with Early Years customers, it was decided that Capita would provide two options for this:

Providers recording their claims for universal hours and extended hours in separate columns.
With this option, providers will only be able to enter values in the extended hours columns for children that are eligible for extended childcare. Local Authorities that have decided to use this option are planning to update their declaration forms and privacy notices so that providers ask parents to declare whether their children are using their universal entitlement, extended entitlement, or both with them. Local Authorities believe that receiving the hours split out like this will help when it comes to resolving apportionments.

Providers recording their claims for universal hours and extended hours in the same column.
With this option, providers will only be able to record claimed hours up to the extended hours cap for children that are eligible for extended childcare. For children that are not eligible for extended childcare, providers will only be able record claimed hours up to the universal cap. Local Authorities that preferred this option believed that their providers would not know if universal hours or extended hours were being claimed with them because parents would not be familiar with the concept.

This is configured using the Combine Universal and Extended Pay Hours Columns option via Provider Portal | Headcount | Headcount Configuration.

It is advised that Local Authorities do not select the option of combining the columns for claiming universal and extended hours for their providers on Headcount, as well as giving them the ability to record multiple line attendance. This scenario can cause issues for providers where they cannot submit their Headcount task because the system calculates that the universal cap has been reached, despite the child still potentially having extended hours remaining that can be claimed for. Refer to: KB-476377 on ServiceNow for more information.

These options are configured using the Combine Universal and Extended Pay Hours Columns option and the Add Line check box via Provider Portal | Headcount | Headcount Configuration.
After consultation with Local Authorities, it was decided that there would not be a requirement for extended caps to be set differently to universal caps, because they are both 15 hours per week. As a result, different caps cannot be set for universal and extended hours.

The Offers Extended Childcare checkbox in Early Years v4 can be set for each service and signifies whether that service offers extended childcare. Services that do not offer extended childcare places should have a cross in this check box, which results in this service being unable to claim extended hours for their children on Headcount. This check box is ticked by default and it is recommended that Local Authorities change the state of this check box where necessary during their set up for the term that starts on 1st September 2017.

This is updated on the Service Provision Details screen in the v4 Client via Focus | Early Years | Search Service Provision.

There is a global configuration setting for Local Authorities which controls whether they fund children that are found to be eligible in the middle of the term after the child’s third birthday (as opposed to funding them from the start of the following term). If the Local Authority wants to fund these children, then providers will be able to claim extended hours for them on Headcount and the Local Authority will be able to process payments for them in Early Years v4. By default, funding for mid-term eligible children is disabled. It is recommended that Local Authorities decide how they would like to manage this process during their set up for the term that starts on 1st September 2017.

This set up on the Mid-Term Funding for Extended Childcare panel in the v4 Client via Focus | Early Years | Early Years Setup | Payment Setup Options.

Weeks and hours information can be pre-populated on Headcount for providers based on settings configured by the Local Authority. The values that are pre-populated are those that are stored against the funded service in Early Years v4 at the point the Headcount task is created. Local Authorities can use the Carry Over routine to efficiently populate values against the funded service. For example, ahead of the term that starts on the 1st September 2017, Local Authorities may choose to carry over paid hours from the summer term to the interim hours of the autumn term. When the Local Authority creates the Forecast Headcount task, these carried over hours will be pre-populated for providers, which will hopefully save them time when entering data. It is also worth noting that new functionality has been introduced in the Carry Over routine, which gives Local Authorities the ability to carry over interim weeks to actual weeks within the same term.

This option is set on the Headcount Grid Configuration panel via Provider Portal | Headcount | Headcount Configuration.

The Carry Over routine is accessed in the v4 Client via Focus | Early Years | Carry Over/Update.

Local Authorities can define each supplement / SFF code whether it applies to universal, extended hours or both. This gives flexibility if the Local Authority wants to have a different hourly rate between extended hours and universal hours, for example, to pay EYPP / Deprivation supplements to just the universal hours claimed.

This is set up in the v4 Client by clicking the Add button on the Single Funding Formulas panel via Focus | Early Years | Early Years Setup | Payment Setup Options.

Automatic rechecking functionality is available and the parameters controlling this are defined by the Local Authority. The time at which the rechecking runs is flexible and is defined using a scheduled task. If required, the scheduled task can be set to run daily, but the Local Authority can run it at any time. The check records that will be included in the automatic recheck are based on a configurable number of days before and after the end date of an eligible check record. Providers and the Local Authority can then view the results of these rechecks.

The scheduled task is set up in the v4 Client via Tools | Administration | Schedule Task. The batch size and length of time between checks is configured via Provider Portal | 30 Hours Free Childcare | Configuration.

A number of v4 Early Years routines, processes and screens have been modified to accommodate extended hours functionality. This includes additional database fields. To report on extended hours, you will need to consider amending your existing reports or creating additional ones.

To know when a child is reaching the end date of their eligibility or are in their grace period, Local Authorities can:

Grant themselves access to their providers’ accounts so that they can view the Expiration Dashboard on a provider level and monitor children that are nearing the end date or are in their grace period.
Create a report to provide the required information.
View the information on the Student Details | Early Years Additional Information panel.

Refer to the following for information regarding:

Configuring the Provider portal, refer to the Technical Guide: Deploying and Configuring the One Provider Self Service Portal for Local Authorities.

Setting up the Thirty Hour Entitlement portal, refer to the Technical Guide: Setting Up One Early Years Thirty Hours Entitlement for Local Authorities.

Early Years Headcount, refer to One Early Years Headcount Provider Portal.

Setting up Early Years in the v4 Client, refer to One Early Years Setup

Early Years payments in the v4 Client, refer to One Early Years - Managing Early Years Payments.

Creating a scheduled task, refer to the Technical Guide: v4 Scheduled Tasks