Introduction
From September 2010 all 3 and 4 year old children who attend provision registered to receive free entitlement (Nursery Education Grant) funding from South Gloucestershire Council will be eligible to access up to two years of free early years provision before they reach compulsory school age (the term after their 5th birthday). Children become eligible in the term following their 3rd birthday.
The Grant funds 15 hours of early year's provision per week for a maximum of 38 weeks or 3 terms per annum (12 weeks in the period 1 January to 31 March, 13 weeks in the period 1 April to 31 August and 13 weeks in the period 1 September to 31 December).
The Government has set a national framework for delivery, outside of which, local authorities should not fund providers to deliver the free entitlement. The limits are:
- No session can be longer than 10 hours
- No session can be shorter than 2.5 hours
- Sessions cannot start before 8am or finish after 6pm
- The full 15 hours can be taken over no fewer than 3 days (this would permit up to 12.5 hours over 2 days)
- Parents can access the free entitlement at a maximum 2 providers at any one time
Please note:
These limits are not what local authorities should make available to parents. The limits are parameters outside of which the local flexible entitlement should not operate. There is no national expectation that local authorities will expect all providers to offer the sessions at the outer limits as a matter of course.
Providers are free to decide their session lengths and the start and end times of those sessions and the weeks in which they offer free entitlement sessions within the 3 terms shown above. In doing so they must take the needs of parents into account and ensure their session times make sound business sense.
Providers must publish the start and end times of their free entitlement sessions together with the weeks in which they are offered.
Conditions relating to free entitlement and chargeable hours
- Providers should not impose on parents conditions of access to which they must agree in order to take-up their free hours
- Parents must not be obligated to purchase additional hours or pay lunch time charges in order to secure free provision
- A provider cannot stipulate that a parent must access their full entitlement at their provision only
- Providers must not charge ''top up'' fees (the difference between what a provider would normally charge and the funding they receive from the Council to deliver the free entitlement) in relation to any free hours. Providers should also ensure no other fees are being charged in relation to the free entitlement, for example for registration or uniform. If the practice continues local authorities may consider removing the provider from the Directory of Providers eligible to deliver the free entitlement and withdraw free entitlement funding.
- Providers must not charge parents in advance for free entitlement hours and refund those fees at a later date
- Should a child be in attendance for more than the maximum free entitlement hours per week/term the provider is entitled to charge for all hours attended in excess of those hours
- Should the number of weeks in a term be more than the weeks funded by the free entitlement the provider is entitled to charge for all hours attended in those weeks
- The rates which providers charge for their privately funded hours are a matter for them to decide and may not be dictated by local authorities
Providers - How to register to receive the free entitlement
To be eligible to receive free entitlement (Nursery Education Grant) funding from South Gloucestershire Council, providers are required to sign the South Gloucestershire Council Provider Agreement. The 'Agreement' sets out the conditions that providers must adhere to when delivering the Free Entitlement. A copy of the 'Agreement' can be downloaded from the documents section below.
Introduction
From September 2010 all 3 and 4 year old children who attend provision registered to receive free entitlement (Nursery Education Grant) funding from South Gloucestershire Council will be eligible to access up to two years of free early years provision before they reach compulsory school age (the term after their 5th birthday). Children become eligible in the term following their 3rd birthday.
The Grant funds 15 hours of early year's provision per week for a maximum of 38 weeks or 3 terms per annum (12 weeks in the period 1 January to 31 March, 13 weeks in the period 1 April to 31 August and 13 weeks in the period 1 September to 31 December).
The Government has set a national framework for delivery, outside of which, local authorities should not fund providers to deliver the free entitlement. The limits are:
- No session can be longer than 10 hours
- No session can be shorter than 2.5 hours
- Sessions cannot start before 8am or finish after 6pm
- The full 15 hours can be taken over no fewer than 3 days (this would permit up to 12.5 hours over 2 days)
- Parents can access the free entitlement at a maximum 2 providers at any one time
Please note:
These limits are not what local authorities should make available to parents. The limits are parameters outside of which the local flexible entitlement should not operate. There is no national expectation that local authorities will expect all providers to offer the sessions at the outer limits as a matter of course.
Providers are free to decide their session lengths and the start and end times of those sessions and the weeks in which they offer free entitlement sessions within the 3 terms shown above. In doing so they must take the needs of parents into account and ensure their session times make sound business sense.
Providers must publish the start and end times of their free entitlement sessions together with the weeks in which they are offered.
Conditions relating to free entitlement and chargeable hours
- Providers should not impose on parents conditions of access to which they must agree in order to take-up their free hours
- Parents must not be obligated to purchase additional hours or pay lunch time charges in order to secure free provision
- A provider cannot stipulate that a parent must access their full entitlement at their provision only
- Providers must not charge ''top up'' fees (the difference between what a provider would normally charge and the funding they receive from the Council to deliver the free entitlement) in relation to any free hours. Providers should also ensure no other fees are being charged in relation to the free entitlement, for example for registration or uniform. If the practice continues local authorities may consider removing the provider from the Directory of Providers eligible to deliver the free entitlement and withdraw free entitlement funding.
- Providers must not charge parents in advance for free entitlement hours and refund those fees at a later date
- Should a child be in attendance for more than the maximum free entitlement hours per week/term the provider is entitled to charge for all hours attended in excess of those hours
- Should the number of weeks in a term be more than the weeks funded by the free entitlement the provider is entitled to charge for all hours attended in those weeks
- The rates which providers charge for their privately funded hours are a matter for them to decide and may not be dictated by local authorities
Providers - How to register to receive the free entitlement
To be eligible to receive free entitlement (Nursery Education Grant) funding from South Gloucestershire Council, providers are required to sign the South Gloucestershire Council Provider Agreement. The 'Agreement' sets out the conditions that providers must adhere to when delivering the Free Entitlement. A copy of the 'Agreement' can be downloaded from the documents section below.