24U Team
Shropshire Council
Early Years - Learning & Skills
Tel: 01743 254452
Email: [email protected]
www.shropshire.gov.uk\24U
Two year old funding (24U) administrative process for Early Years providers
Provider qualifying criteria
You will be aware that only providers that have good or outstanding Ofsted grade are
allowed to provide places for 24U children. Also, that satisfactory settings are not able to
continue to take any more 24U children if there are good or outstanding providers nearby.
The local authority is not required to fund places with providers who do not meet the
quality standards as currently set out in the Shropshire Council local agreement with
providers receiving funding from the local authority for the provision of the free entitlement
for two, three and four year olds, Section 3, A3 –13.7 (January 2014). Please note, parents
are informed of this at the time their child becomes eligible and advised to contact the
Family Information Service if they need support to find a good or outstanding setting in their
area.
If you are a setting with a previous Ofsted judgement of satisfactory, or a setting that has
been recently inspected resulting in an Ofsted judgement of requiring improvement, you
must contact the local authority to discuss whether we will continue to fund two year old
places at your setting.
If your most recent Ofsted judgment is inadequate we cannot fund two year old places at
your setting under any circumstances.
If you have any questions relating to any of the above, please contact Early Years &
Childcare Manager, Neville Ward. [email protected]
Steps you need to take to receive 24U funding
If a parent contacts you to arrange childcare for their child …
1. All parents that have applied for 24U for their child, if eligible, will receive a 24U
confirmation letter. We ask them to keep this confirmation of funding in a safe
place and take to their chosen childcare provider, along with specific forms of ID
(LINK to example confirmation letter)
2. Contact the Learning & Skills team email [email protected] to be set up to
receive funding payments from Shropshire Council
3. You must then verify back to the 24U team that you have seen the parent’s letter
and ID documents by completing a 24U Verification Form (LINK to verification form
templates - Word and pdf versions). We recommend that you save these electronic
copies as templates to use whenever a 24U eligible child joins your setting. Once
you have agreed with the parents the days and hours their child will be attending,
please complete the Verification Form and return to [email protected], we will
confirm receipt
4. Once receiving funding payments, on a regular basis you will be sent a Funding
Payment sheet (often referred to as ‘provisional/actual headcount form’), on which
you enter the details of all funded children (2, 3 and 4 year olds) attending your
setting for each given period. However please note that in order to receive funding
for a 24U eligible child you MUST have firstly returned your Verification Form
24U Information Sheet (LINK to 24U Information sheet). This general information sheet is
widely distributed and explains to parents and childcare providers alike how 24U works e.g.
eligibility criteria, funded hours and how they can be taken, when, where, plus other useful
information.
Changing your Early Years Funding (LINK to Changing your Early Years funding form).
Should a child move from your setting at any time during their agreed funding period, you
will need to complete and return this form to [email protected]
Late/Non Attendance/Left Setting monitoring (LINK to Late/Non Attendance/Left Setting
form)
Similar to above, this form also needs to be completed but returned in this instance to
[email protected] at the end of each term (and also if a 24U child leaves your setting
before the end of their funded period). Please note this particular information will be
shared with Children’s Centre Services to enable them to assess whether the family in
question might require Children Centre support.
24U resources
In order for you to promote your setting and show that you are available to care for 24U
eligible children we have resources to support you. If you would like to receive
Information/Application Packs for parents and other 24U resources please contact
[email protected] and we will arrange to get a supply to you. Please remember to
confirm your Ofsted URN number and your address.
Forums
Regular update events known as Forums take place across the county throughout the year,
re 24U and Early Years. You will hear about Forum dates and agenda’s through our weekly
Early Years (email) Update.
Early Years (email) Updates
We use our weekly updates to notify providers about current issues and information
affecting the childcare provision (both locally and nationally). To sign up to receive this
email please follow this link and click on the Subscribe for updates button on the top menu
bar http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/education-and-learning/
And finally a few key points/reminders …
Your setting will not receive funding for any eligible child who has not had their eligibility
confirmed by the 24U team.
Parent’s responsibility
Regardless of their circumstances parents can only be certain of their eligibility for a 24U
place if they:
1. Complete an application form and return it to 24U.
2. Receive a 24U confirmation letter. Please note that since January 2015 confirmation
letters have included a unique 24U reference number for each child and the date
from which their funding will commence. If a parent presents you with a letter
issued prior to Jan-15 and therefore does not have a unique reference number, in
this circumstance only please complete the Verification Form using the child’s name
and date of birth.
Setting’s responsibility
These are the steps you must then follow to receive funding for an eligible two year old
child:
1. A parent must present their confirmation letter to you. We recommend that you
retain a copy of the letter for your records. The parent retains the original letter.
2. You must check the appropriate documents (as detailed in the confirmation letter)
to identify the child and confirm their details.
3. You must then complete and email a Verification Form back to the 24U inbox:
[email protected] and we will acknowledge receipt.
4. Please note - we are informing all settings that with immediate effect any two year
old child entered on headcount forms must have been already verified with the 24U
team otherwise payment will not be possible.
5. We recognise that parents come along to you with their 24U confirmation letters all
the time. If you have only just sent in your headcount form (and confirmed to 24U
via your Verification Form), a separate interim manual payment will be generated.
To complete the process simply add this child’s name to your next headcount form.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us - please see our
contact details on Page 1.