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 \u2018bookmark\u2019 or save this webpage as a \u2018favourite\u2019 so you can easily refer to it.<\/p>\n
The summer headcount tasks are now available with a deadline of 23.59 on Sunday 17th<\/sup> May 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Summer funding period is from 1st<\/sup> April 2026 to 31st<\/sup> August 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you claimed hours for 1st<\/sup> to 3rd<\/sup> April on your spring headcount or amendment task, these hours must be deducted from the first week of your summer funding claim.<\/p>\n There are several bank holidays within the summer funding period. As per our provider agreement<\/a>, you are able to claim funding for bank holidays if you are open and providing childcare. If you are not open, you should reduce your claim for children that would usually attend, unless you are able to offer the hours elsewhere during that week, and reduce parent fees, or offer them within the summer funding period (up to a maximum of 15\/30 hours per week).<\/p>\n Headcount week is 3rd<\/sup> to the 9th<\/sup> May 2026<\/strong>. If you are closed on Monday 4th<\/sup> May (bank holiday) the \u2018hours attended in headcount week\u2019 should be the child\u2019s usual attendance had it not been a bank holiday and the termly claim should be amended accordingly (unless you are able to offer the hours elsewhere).<\/p>\n The 570 hours remaining report<\/strong> will be issued via the provider portal shortly. If a child has hours remaining, they can use these in the summer funding period as long as they do not exceed 15\/30 hours (as applicable) in any week or more than 10 hours per day (as per the DfE framework). Providers have the flexibility to offer and maximise the funding for parents if they have empty spaces and can offer additional hours\/days.<\/p>\n If a child is sharing funding with another provider, you must<\/strong> follow our Provider process for children sharing early years funding (headcount)<\/a> and ensure any claim does not exceed the hours remaining. Any claims that exceed the hours remaining on the 570 report will be reduced and there will be an administration charge. Please ensure that you check your total termly claims before submitting.<\/p>\n Please note that you must submit all<\/u> your headcount tasks, even if you do not have any funded children in a particular age group. This is a condition of funding as per our provider agreement.<\/strong><\/p>\n Weekly and termly hours should be split 50\/50 and half recorded in the \u2018universal\u2019 column and the other half in the \u2018working entitlement\u2019 column. For example, a child claiming 30 hours per week & 400 hours for the funding period, would be recorded as 15 hours in both weekly \u2018universal\u2019 and \u2018working entitlement\u2019 columns and 200 hours in both \u2018universal\u2019 and \u2018working entitlement\u2019 hours for the funding period columns.<\/p>\n Weekly hours can be claimed in multiples of 0.25 but this cannot be split across the weekly columns, for example, a child claiming 14.25 hours per week would be recorded as 7.25 hours in \u2018universal\u2019 and 7 hours in \u2018working entitlement\u2019.<\/p>\n Your total termly hours for the funding period must be in multiples of 0.5 hours. If the child has a total of 242.5 hours for the funding period, you cannot record 121.25 in each column. Please record 121.5 in the universal column and 121 in the working entitlement column.<\/p>\n The deadline for submissions is 23.59 on Sunday 17th May 2026. <\/strong><\/p>\n Please note that our Early Years Funding Helpdesk is open from 9.00am until 4.00pm Monday to Friday and we are only able to provide support during these times. <\/strong><\/p>\n Can we claim 30 hours if a 2-year-old funded child is entitled to targeted\/families receiving additional support (FRAS\/ELF2) and working entitlements?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, if a child is eligible for both the targeted\/families receiving additional support (FRAS\/ELF2) and working entitlement you can claim up to 30 hours per week.<\/p>\n How do I record the funding if a 2-year-old child is entitled to the targeted\/families receiving additional support (FRAS\/ELF2) and working entitlements?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hours should be recorded in all four columns. <\/strong>Please maximise the funding in the \u2018targeted\/universal\u2019 columns first and add any balance of hours (if applicable) to the \u2018working entitlement\u2019 columns.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Why are the working entitlement boxes not available for my 2-year-old claim?<\/strong><\/p>\n The working entitlement boxes will not appear if there isn’t an \u2019WE\u2019 icon in the funding column on the task. Please ensure that you have run a check on the working entitlement code and that it is eligible for the summer funding period by looking at the eligibility dates or the \u2018earliest start date for working entitlement funding\u2019 in review previous checks.<\/p>\n If you have run a check, and the child is eligible, please click on the \u2018edit child details\u2019 to the left of the child\u2019s name on the task and enter the working entitlement code into the relevant field. Once you have saved the changes, the \u2018WE\u2019 icon should appear in the funding column and allow you to enter the hours on to the task.<\/p>\n Please note that when you run a Working Entitlement code check and select \u2018Check new child,\u2019 the code will not automatically be added to child\u2019s details on the headcount task.<\/p>\n When I enter 20 hours on the 3- & 4-year-old task it is imputing 15 hours in the Universal column and 5 hours in the Working Entitlements column, it is not splitting it 50%?<\/strong><\/p>\n You will have to overtype the weekly hour fields and record 50% of the weekly hours in each column for universal and working entitlements.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n Further to your feedback and our review of monthly funding payments, we can confirm that the responses showed a preference for option 1<\/strong>, that we continue with our current process.<\/p>\n This option also included a payment schedule so that the dates were clear and transparent as they do vary each month depending on weekends and bank holidays.\u00a0 We also said that we would stick with the schedule going forward as in the past there have been occasions where we have been able to process payments slightly earlier and we feel that this may have caused some confusion if the following month the payment was processed on the deadline date.<\/p>\n However, some further feedback from providers suggest that they were happy with the existing payment schedule and happy to receive payments earlier. We will therefore, where possible, continue to generate payments earlier subject to tasks, workload and staffing.\u00a0 The schedule attached shows the latest date that the payment will be processed and received each month.<\/p>\n We hope the schedule gives all providers the information they require and will stop future email and telephone enquiries regarding payment dates.\u00a0 We are a small team, and these queries do cause delays in processing the large amount of data that is required for us to meet our payment deadlines.<\/p>\nCompleting the headcount task\/s<\/u><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Please remember<\/u><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Frequently asked questions:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The table below confirms the deadlines for payment processing and the date when providers will receive their payment.<\/strong><\/h4>\n