Early years funding – meeting the requirements of the statutory guidance

As we start the new academic year with the final roll-out of the working entitlements, we want to ensure that all providers are compliant when delivering the early years funding entitlements to families in Devon.

Following the updated Statutory Guidance in February we held a number of meetings with providers and have various information on our updates page to support providers with their offer.

The overarching principle is that there cannot be any conditions attached to the funding entitlements that mean parents must access and pay for additional hours or chargeable extras.

This would include:

• Having a funded session within a day and expecting parents to purchase the hours before and after the session
• Insisting on a minimum number of days / sessions / hours attendance in a week or that certain days are booked as a condition of being offered a funded space
• Having charges for consumables and food and not allowing parents to bring in their own items and a packed lunch

Please can we also refer you to Section 4: Charging Parents in our provider agreement

We have received a number of queries from parent/carers about opting out of additional charges. As a result of this, some settings have been audited over the summer, and they have had to make changes to their offer.

Our updates page has a section ‘Updated Statutory Guidance re: Charges’ which includes FAQ’s from the DfE and our local sessions as well as templates which you may wish to use.

By January 2026 all Chargeable Extras need to be available online and the DfE have issued a template on how these fees should be listed in an open and transparent way to parents.

If you need any support regarding your offer, please speak with your EYCA in the first instance.

Early Years Funding Team