Early years funding updates

To try and co-ordinate important messages we are including funding updates on this webpage. This will include everything that is current. We recommend that you ‘bookmark’ or save this webpage as a ‘favourite’ so you can easily refer to it.

• Updates - Autumn 2025

  As we begin the 25/26 academic year, we thought it may be a good opportunity to provide some updates with regards to Early Years funding.

  From September 2025, the childcare offer has been extended so that up to 30 hours per week of funded childcare is available to all under 5s of eligible working parents.  Please note that 30 hours is not available to all children. 2-year-olds who are in receipt of the ‘targeted’ funding only, or 3- & 4-year-olds who are in receipt of the ‘universal’ funding only, can access up to 15 hours per week of funded childcare . There will be some 2-year-olds that don’t qualify for targeted or working entitlements, so please ensure that eligibility is confirmed before a child joins your setting, or that a parent is aware of any fees/charges if they are not eligible.

  It’s essential that you continue to check working entitlement codes. If a 3- or 4-year-old becomes ineligible for 30 hours (working entitlement), they will still be able to access the 15 hours (universal entitlement) but under 3’s won’t have access to any funding.  The eligibility dates for codes and grace periods apply to all ages.  Please refer to the ‘Review Previous Checks’ section of the provider portal where you can view eligibility and grace period dates and the ‘Expiration Dashboard’ will allow you to re-run checks for those that are showing as no longer eligible.  Please also refer to our Working Entitlement update for providers if you have any queries.

  With the extension to the childcare offer, we are seeing an increase in the number of conflicts each term where funded hours claimed with 2 or more providers result in an overclaim of either weekly or termly hours.  Conflicts have to be resolved before we can make our Headcount/Amendment payments.  As soon as data is submitted, we email providers if there is an overclaim and have a small window for responses to ensure payments meet our payment schedule.  To support providers, we have updated our provider process for children sharing early years funding (Headcount) and provider process for children sharing early years funding (Amendment). If you have children attending your setting that are sharing funding with another provider/s you must follow this process. Failure to do so may result in administrative charges as per our provider agreement.

  The Academic Calendar 2025/2026 has been finalised and uploaded to the website. Providers can set their own term dates, so the calendar is intended to be used as a guide. We have shown the maximum number of hours that can be claimed in each funding period to try and prevent children from running out of funding prior to the end of the academic year.  You will need to calculate the funding that you require for each child, each term/funding period, as the number of hours will be dependent on their individual pattern of attendance. You need to be mindful that each child has an entitlement, and those that become eligible in Spring/Summer have a pro-rata amount.  Some children may drop out of eligibility for working entitlements, 3- & 4-year-olds may reduce to 15 hours per week and under 3’s may have no funding.  Please note that the headcount weeks may be subject to change.

  Autumn headcount weeks is Sunday 21st September to Saturday 27th September 2025. The task deadline will be Sunday 5^th October and payments will be processed approximately 6 weeks after the deadline as per our payment schedule.

  We have two online training sessions planned for September on how to complete the autumn headcount tasks. The dates/times and links are advertised on our updates page under ‘Online support/training sessions and videos’.

  We have updated the EYPP pages on our website and added a section ‘Ofsted & EYPP’. This section includes information on how the funding can be used and things you should consider for children who are in receipt of EYPP.

  Payments:

  • Summer amendment payments (if applicable) will be processed by 30^th September 2025.
  • Autumn forecasts (where applicable) have been calculated. We will be sending an email in the next week which will detail the full amount of the autumn forecast (where applicable) and how this is broken down into equal monthly instalments (September – December). Payments will be processed/uploaded within 5 working days of each month and can take up to 3 working days to reach bank accounts. You will receive a remittance email for each payment. If a remittance is not received this may be due to an overpayment from a previous headcount or amendment, so please refer to your financial breakdown report that is issued on the provider portal.
• 2 Year Old Funding

  We have received a number of enquiries from parents that have been turned away from a setting as they haven’t provided an 11-digit code for the two-year-old funding. Children can be awarded two-year-old funding as ‘targeted’ or ‘working entitlement.’

  If they are ‘targeted’ they will have a TYF878 number. You will need to see confirmation from the parent that they are entitled to this funding. This could be an email or portal message. The evidence will also show the earliest date that they can take up the funded place. You cannot run a check on a TYF878 code or enter it on to a task.

  If they are ‘working entitlement’ they will have an 11-digit code that start ‘50’, ‘11’ or in some cases ‘40’. You should run a check on the code through the provider portal in the usual way to confirm eligibility.

  If two-year-old funding has been awarded by another Local Authority, please direct the parent to the Citizen’s Portal (devon.cc/tyf) to make an application so they can get their TYF878 reference.

  We recommend that if a child joins you without the relevant eligibility/evidence that their contracts are issued as if they are a fee-paying child.

• Early Years Expansion Grant (EYEG)

  For 2025/26 we have received a grant of £966,227 from the Department for Education (DfE) for the final phase of the roll-out of the working entitlements.  From September 2025, the working entitlements for eligible 2-year-olds and under will increase to up to 30 hours per week.

  Local authorities must distribute the funding in a clear and transparent manner and consider specific growth needs in their area to meet their sufficiency duty.

  Whilst the funding is calculated on uplifting the 2-year-old and under 2’s funding rate, due to provider feedback, we have decided to distribute an increase across all ages (£778K) and retain some funding (£188K) for revenue grants in areas where we know new development will be required in 2025.  Due to more 3- & 4-year-olds accessing a higher number of funded hours, it does reduce the amount of increase we can allow on each of the funding rates.

  The increases in hourly rates from 1^st April 2025 (summer funding period) is as follows:

  3- & 4-year-olds = 6p per hour

  2-year-olds = 4p per hour

  Under 2’s  = 4p per hour

  Therefore, the new hourly rates from 1^st April 2025 will be:

  3- & 4-year-olds = £5.56

  2-year-olds = £7.46

  Under 2’s = £9.96

  All hourly rates above include 10p for universal SEND and 4p for universal Deprivation.

  The increased hourly rates will be used to calculate the funding due for summer once the summer headcount tasks have been submitted. This will be shown on the financial breakdown report that will be issued via the provider portal once the balancing headcount payment is made at the end of June.  Please note that we will not be amending monthly forecast payments.

  This is a one-year grant so these increases will be removed from the funding rates from April 2026 and the normal DfE increases will be allocated once known.

  If you are looking at a further development for 2-year-olds or under in an area of need, please speak with your EYCA so we can advise on the grant availability.

  Please ensure this communication is shared with the business owners, directors, finance colleagues and anyone else who needs to be aware.

• Updated Statutory Guidance re: Charges

  Further to our email sent on Friday 28^th March, we have made some amendments to our existing provider agreement with regards to charges and notice periods. The changes are as follows:

  Section 4: Charging parents – opening statement added

  Section 4: Charging parents – Notice periods 4.21 amended

  Section 4: Charging parents – Notice period original 4.21 now 4.22

  Section 10: Termination and withdrawal of funding – Ofsted/ISI outcomes 10.6 amended

   Any reference to consumables, service charges or additional charges are now referred to as ‘chargeable extras’.

  We will continue to make amendments/updates to the provider agreement as and when required.

  Following the release of the Statutory Guidance and our briefing sessions, we have some FAQ’s from both the DfE and from our Devon providers which we hope you will find useful.  We can’t cover every different scenario but hope it sets the options available to you if you are thinking about making changes to your model and/or your additional charges.

  DfE Charging – FAQs

  Provider FAQs for Chargeable Extras

  The DfE have advised that they will not be encouraging parents to opt-out of charges and we are not planning on publicising the changes to parents but you must continue to have options available.  Likewise, you do not need to highlight alternative options to parents and can simply say that you have reviewed your charging policies and have made changes to meet the Statutory Guidance requirements and if parents have any queries, to contact you to discuss.  The DFE are requesting that Chargeable Extra’s, are listed as hours, food, consumables and activities.  The DfE have a template that can be used to agree with parents the services they require and the charges.  To support providers we have drafted a template policy that can be used to set-out your offer along with other charges that may apply to funded or non-funded time.

  It is not a requirement that you use these templates but it is a requirement that all settings are open and transparent with your charges.  Your fees and charges should be published on your websites or social media pages.  We are looking at the Provider Self Update to see if the information can be held centrally and will update you further with our progress.

  Template – DfE Chargeable Extras

  Template – Devon Policy for Chargeable Extras

  Chargeable Extras and itemised invoicing need to be fully implemented by January 2026.  LA’s can exempt providers caring for 10 or fewer children but being transparent applies to all settings.  Pupil numbers fluctuate through the year, and we want to be consistent with all sectors. This is therefore a requirement of all funded providers in Devon.

  We know providers are being asked for detailed invoices for parents who are claiming childcare through their Universal Credit claims so if you have your own invoicing systems, you may want to make changes sooner.  If you are using software packages, it will take time for them to be updated.

  If you have an example of an invoice that has been queried by DWP for a Universal Credit claim and parents are happy for you to share their details, please email copy of invoice and any communications so that we can follow this up with our DWP contact.

  If you have any specific topics that you would like us to cover, please let us know and we will do our best to plan an appropriate session.

• Online support/training sessions and videos

  Autumn Headcount Task – Virtual training sessions

  • Friday 19th September 2025 from 11.00am to 12.00 noon
  • Wednesday 24th September 2025 from 6.30pm to 7.30pm

  These sessions will cover how to complete your autumn headcount tasks. The same content will be covered at both sessions.

  There is no requirement to book a place, please click on the relevant link to join.

  Training videos

  We have also produced some training videos to help with the completion of tasks:

  • How to add a child to your Headcount Task – video guide
  • How to run a working entitlement eligibility code check – video guide
  • Two year old Headcount Task – video guide
  • How to edit your 3 & 4 year old Headcount Task – video guide
  • Working entitlement funding code – video guide

  More videos will be added as they become available.

  Presentations

  • Calculating funding claims for summer
• Review of impact for Individual Inclusion Funding

  To ensure Individual Inclusion Funding (IIF) is allocated and meeting the needs of children across Devon, we have changed the way we collect information about the progress and outcomes of children with SEND.

  Further to our previous correspondence, the termly Review of Impact (RoI) for children in receipt of IIF needs to be completed online on the link below:

  Individual Inclusion Funding Termly review of impact

  The deadline for completion is 28^th February 2025 for all children that have been allocated IIF from Autumn 2024 or before. This will ensure that we have funding available and allocated for the Summer 2025 term.

  As a new process, we would like the RoI to be completed, even if funding is not required in Summer so that we have a record of the child’s progress.

  For children who are newly funded in Spring with IIF your first RoI is due for completion by 31^st May 2025.

  The RoI will be monitored by our Early Years Consultant colleagues who may contact you if they have any queries.

• Registered email address for funding purposes

  If you change your email address, and this is also used for funding purposes i.e. provider portal, remittance etc. please email eyef@devon.gov.uk to advise and ask for this to be updated. If we have an incorrect email address you won’t receive conflict, audit emails, you may be missing out on important information regarding funding, and it will cause problems if you need to reset your provider portal password. 

  You may also need to register a new egress account for the new email in order to share sensitive and confidential information with us. Please visit Egress support for more information 

  Please could we also ask that funding information is shared with other staff/colleagues where relevant and appropriate.

• Polylino EAL Resources

  The Early Years and Childcare service has a number of licences available for Polylino resources. 

  Polylino is a multilingual digital picture book service for early years providers. It provides nursery practitioners and managers with a multilingual digital library aligned with the EYFS  curriculum which can be used to support language and literacy development in the nursery and at home.  

  More information is available on YouTube or by visiting the website.  

  If this is something that would support EAL children in your setting, please sign up for the free trial on the Polylino website and if you would like to apply for licences, please complete the Polylino EAL resources for early years children application form