Coventry Schools' Early Education Funding Entitlement

Schools should deliver flexible packages of childcare, which support families to take up the Early Education Funding. Entitlement within the parameters set out in the statutory documents. Models should include standalone fully funded sessions and may additionally include models which offer a combination of privately paid for and funded hours. For children accessing funded hours before and after lunch, the lunchtime period should form part of the core funded hours and must not be charged as a ‘privately paid for’ hour. Government requirements stipulate, that children should be able to take up their funded entitlement place in continuous blocks of time.

To enable parents to make an informed decision about where their child takes up an early education entitlement place, schools should publish information about delivery models which include but is not limited to:

• The daily times covered by the core funded hours. Each school should set out which hours will be offered as ‘core hours’ and publish this in their information for parents. E.g. 8.30am – 2.30 pm for a 30-hour place
• The times and costs of any additional ‘privately paid for’ hours. E.g. outside of the designated core hours (8.30am – 2.30 pm for the purposes of this example)
• Any additional charges, which are not covered by the funded entitlement must be offered to parents as a voluntary ‘buy-in’ e.g. meals and consumable items, such as nappies, sun cream etc. Any additionally agreed ‘privately paid for hours’ will be subject to a private contract which is separate from the funding terms highlighted herein.
• Where the school asks parents to make voluntary charges, e.g. for the items such as those listed above, they must have a policy/statement which sets out alternative options for parents who are unable or unwilling to pay voluntary charges for items /services. For example, allowing the parent to supply their own items.

Tables 1 and 2 – Examples of funding delivery models

Table 2

Examples of models offering a combination of privately paid for and funded hours.
For the purposes of these examples we have assumed the core funded nursery hours to be 8.30-am 2.30pm. School finishing time in these examples is 3.30pm.

Model 1

Model 1 assumes that the child is eligible to receive 15 hours of funding per week. The parent is opting to pay for additional periods which fall outside of the core funded hours. e.g. 7.45am to the start of the nursery core funded hours.

Model 2

Model 2 assumes that the child is eligible to receive 15 hours of funding per week. The parent is opting to pay for additional hours which fall outside of the core funded hours. e.g. 11.30am–12.30pm.

Model 3

Model 3 assumes that the child is eligible to receive 30 hours of funding per week and the parent is opting to pay for additional hours which fall outside of the core funded hours.(e.g. 2.30pm to end of school day at 3.30pm).