Nursery World has learned that this attempt to claw back funding for missed hours is happening in some of the most deprived areas in the country, where providers have worked hard to build up trust with the local community and encourage parents to bring children to nursery.
Training and support group Early Years Equality claims that the practice is now widespread among local authorities and that they have heard from settings who are faced with losing several thousand pounds for unused hours, with money automatically deducted from their next term's free entitlement funding.
Councils are putting the onus on nurseries to recoup money from parents, despite the fact that Government guidance in the Code of Practice states that parents must not be charged for free nursery education places.
Auditing the books
Local authorities are using audits to go through nurseries' books and check whether parents have used all their 15 hours a week.
Early Years Equality chief executive Chrissy Meleady said, 'This is a clear differential and unfavourable treatment of the early years sector, causing providers detriment and great concern.'
The organisation says that areas where providers have reported to them that the practice is taking place include Sheffield, the London Borough of Newham, York, Peterborough, Slough, Somerset, Telford and Wrekin, Worcestershire, and Leeds.
These include private voluntary and community early years settings. No cases have been reported in maintained nurseries.
Providers are obliged by Ofsted to record the time children arrive and leave nursery, allowing councils to monitor the actual take-up of hours.
If parents are not able to give a valid reason for non-attendance, councils are reclaiming money for unused hours and telling the provider to recoup the cost of offering the free session directly from parents.
Darnall Community Nursery in Sheffield was audited last September for the summer term and billed £2,082 for unused funded hours, which was deducted from the next term's funding.
Cases for reclaimed funding include where a child attended regularly for 13 hours a week, instead of 15, and where parents have collected children early.
The local council questioned an instance where a mother with post-natal depression had been unable to send her child to nursery. It agreed eventually not to pursue the claim.
However, Darnall Community Nursery's business manager, Linda Edwards, said missed hours were reclaimed which involved a child with severe asthma and allergies, 'who sometimes arrived late because his medication needed time to kick in'.
Ms Edwards said that the nursery would not try to reclaim any funding from parents.
'The Darnall ward has the lowest income in the country and the majority of parents access only the free nursery education funded places for threeand four-year-olds. The nursery is full with a waiting list,' she said. 'We have grave concerns about what the local authority wants us to do to the most vulnerable children and parents.'
A project director at another Sheffield community nursery that has worked hard to engage Roma families recently relocated from Slovakia said that she is alarmed at the message that this gives out to the most disenfranchised communities.
Sally Pearse of Tinsley Green Nursery said, 'It flies in the face of everything we're trying to achieve. It's a disincentive to be inclusive, if we are expected to claw back money from vulnerable families. It's adding a punitive element and destroying those relationships we're trying to build.'
She added, 'If you're a nursery reliant on free entitlement funding for the year, there are also serious issues for your cash flow and sustainability.'
Rehaila Sharif, whose four-year-old attends Darnall and who is on the management committee, said, 'It seems like a very unfair situation. By law, children don't need to be in education until they are five. It's wrong for the local authority to claim back the money. Attending on time and regular attendance is important, but community nurseries in deprived areas should be encouraging parents to attend, not making it more difficult.
'My nephew has just started nursery and he is not settling in yet. What happens if he has a tantrum and my sister-in-law can't get him there on time? She could incur a cost. It's supposed to be about free, flexible nursery places, but there's no flexibility there.'
Graham Sinclair, Sheffield City Council's assistant director of business strategy, said, 'The audits are carried out to meet the Department for Education requirements and are undertaken approximately every two years.
We have reclaimed £4,154 from 15 of our nursery settings, but nearly half of this sum was reclaimed from just one of the settings that had submitted a number of incorrect claims. We have set procedures in place now to avoid this happening again.
'We do not feel the sustainability of the nurseries has been affected by the adjustments made to funding claims, with nearly all the sums being small.
'In the majority of cases the funding in question should not have been claimed, but we are definitely not punishing providers. We are adopting an inclusive and co-operative approach to support all our settings.'
Reasons for absence
A DfE spokesperson said, 'Local authorities should not reclaim the funding they give to providers to deliver free early education places if a child is unexpectedly absent for a short period.
'They can use their discretion when absence is recurring or for extended periods, but they should consider the reasons for the child's absence and the impact that reclaiming funding will have on the setting beforehand. They should set out the grounds on which they will reclaim funding in their agreements with providers. Parents should never be charged for their child's free early education.'
WHAT THE CODE STATES
Linda Edwards at Darnall Community Nursery says, 'The Code says parents must not be charged for free nursery education places and then refunded, as the provider successfully claims the funding from the local authority. It does not say parents cannot be charged for free nursery education places when the local authority rejects the providers' claim, because the child did not fully attend all hours. I believe this is because the Government did not consider this would be expected of providers by local authorities.'
Some councils are using this loophole to add their own conditions. Parents must sign an agreement to say that they want the 15 hours, but there is no statutory duty for parents to attend for the full 15 hours. Sheffield's guidance states: 'Providers must repay on demand any payment of funding if that payment was ... made for a child that received funding despite not attending.'
The council's letter to parents says, 'Your child's funding is linked to attendance. In some circumstances it will be paid even if they are absent, e.g. if they are ill. If you take a family holiday during the 38 funded weeks, only the first two weeks of your holiday will be funded each term. Your provider may have to charge you for any missed time, so please ensure you tell them before planning any absences to avoid receiving an unexpected bill later.'
LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESPOND
Somerset County Council
We do audits in Somerset as we have to be sure that public money is being claimed appropriately.
In a very small minority of cases, it is found that the setting claimed funding that the child was not booked in for, for example, the child is only booked in for 180 hours in the funding period and the setting has claimed for 210. If this is discovered, then we will reclaim the difference.
However, if the child is on holiday and the settings policy is to charge for the holiday, then funding is paid. It is also the same if the child was booked in for a session but the parents didn't bring the child for some reason, funding would be paid as long as it was in the settings policy to charge for it.
where a child is picked up half an hour early, we would not reclaim the funding as long as the child was booked in for the whole time. If this was discovered as part of the audit, money would not be reclaimed.
Any money reclaimed as part of the audit has not, to our knowledge, caused any major issues for nurseries. The amount of money that we have reclaimed is very small as the majority of groups claim appropriately."
If people know of any nurseries in Somerset that have reported problems with the above, can you please let us know as this information has been sent out to all settings in the Somerset Code of Practice, but we may need to send a reminder.
Worcestershire County Council
Worcestershire County Council pay funding termly, based on the number of hours a child is registered to attend. For example, if a child is registered to attend for 12 hours per week, the provider would be funded for 12 hours.
Equally, if a child's funded hours are increased/decreased during the term, an adjustment is made to ensure that the provider receives funding for the actual take-up of the free entitlement.
If a child is picked up early and/or dropped off late, the number of hours paid is not amended. Providers will have staffed their setting based on the number of hours a child is registered to attend. This is replicated if a child is off sick, or a parent chooses to take their child on holiday during the funding period.
Worcestershire County Council aims to audit 10% of Nursery Education Funding (NEF) providers every term. Audits are completed to check that:
- NEF (nursery education funding) claims are made accurately.
- Funded providers are adhering to the Code of Practice and the Worcestershire Provider Agreement.
- Parents, whose children are in receipt of NEF, are clear about the way the free hours are administered at their chosen provider."
York City Council
Here in York we do not have a policy which claws back funding for missed hours for the three- and four-year-old entitlement. Indeed, our main focus for children not attending their free early years entitlement would be a safeguarding concern for those instances where the non attendance has not been reported to the setting.
The only occasions where we may have asked providers to repay funding has been for a small number of places relating to the two-year-old Pathfinder project. As you will be aware, due to the limited number of places that we can fund under this project, we would only have reclaimed funding for places not taken up if this would have resulted in fewer children being able to access the two-year-old places and we would not be able to support as many vulnerable and hard to reach children and families.
Has your nursery had funding reclaimed by the local authority for missed free entitlement hours? What are your experiences? Email us at news.nw@haymarket.com
