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Early Education & ChildcareStaffordshire County Council
Staffordshire Place 1Tipping Street
StaffordST16 2DH
Tel: 01785 278 201
13 October 2017Dear Headteacher,
Further to my letter on 18 July, entitled ‘Nursery provision in schools: Advanced notice of changes’, we have received many questions and requests from schools for greater clarity regarding a number of matters.
This communication pack provides a single response to the questions raised and new information on admissions and SEND:
Answers to specific questions raised by schools – pages 3-8; Nursery Admissions Information (including a transitional offer) - page 9-12; Support for children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) –
pages 13-14.
I have acknowledged, in the Answers to Questions overleaf, that the timing of my previous letter has caused problems for schools and many frustrations have resulted from some unanswered questions. We are committed to working better with schools, to providing ongoing support and to keeping you informed to help implement these changes.
Officers will continue to answer questions, provide advice/support to individual schools and can attend Headteacher Forums across districts, over the coming months, as and when required. Please contact:
Matt Biggs - [email protected] or 07964 624 632; Laura Ballinger - [email protected] or 07977 006 056.
Yours faithfully
Andrew MarsdenCounty Commissioner for Access to Learning
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Schools operating Nursery Provision Updated Questions and Answers (as at 13.10.17)
1. Finance
Q Is the ‘extended hours’ rate less than the ‘universal’ hours rate?
A No, all providers (including schools) now receive the same hourly rate following government guidance and SCC’s consultation (December/January 2017). This was communicated in March 2017 and was implemented from April 2017. The rate for universal hours and extended hours is the same.
Q Can a school use their delegated budget to prop up a shortfall in their Governor Run nursery provision?
A When a ‘Pupil Focused’ (77, 78 or 79 cost code) account number is established for the nursery provision, schools can transfer funds from the school budget to financially support the nursery if this runs at a ‘loss’.
If schools choose to set up a ‘Community Focussed’ (92, 96 cost code) or already operate this type of provision they can, current practice will still allow the school to support a deficit balance from the school budget, but the Schools Finance Team would review the viability going forward if the deficit value concerned is increasing (see Appendix)
Schools will also need to advise their payroll provider of the new cost centre so that pay can be coded directly.
Please note: due to time restraints, the Entrust finance team have set up a 77 code for all nurseries that were previously ‘maintained’. In order for the account to be transferred when My Finance goes live they will journal £1 from the teacher costs on the main cost centre to the new cost centre.
SCC has been notified of a small number of schools that were given verbal information that a school’s delegated budget could not be used to support Governor Run provision. We apologise for any confusion caused and schools should now refer to the response above for absolute clarity.
Q My school has already received budget for nursery based on my previous year’s attendance/school census. We have now recorded the ‘actual’ number of children for autumn term on the Early Years Portal. How and when will my budget be adjusted?
A For LA maintained schools – at present an indicative allocation is put in the Total Resource Allocation (TRA), this is then adjusted in the following financial year’s TRA to reflect actuals in the previous year. Adjustments will be made on a termly basis. School budgets will be adjusted so that only the actual funding relating to the summer term 2017 remains in their budget allocation and they will receive payments through the Early Years portal for the autumn term 2017 onwards.
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For academies – adjustments are made to the indicative budget on a termly basis, based on the census data actuals. Academies will still be doing this termly via the Early Years Portal; therefore SCC will continue to undertake adjustments on a termly basis as previous.
Q What reimbursement will schools get if Nursery Admissions is no longer going to be administered by SCC?
A None: there is no separate budget allocated for nursery admissions. SCC does not offer any grant to other Early Years providers or governor-run provision to support their admissions process.
Q Is the ‘designation’ of my school affected by this decision? If children in early years are no longer classified as ‘registered pupils’ does the overall size of the school change and does that alter Headteacher’s pay?
A We are seeking clarification on this matter and will send a further communication out in the very near future.
Q What is the breakdown of how SCC use the top slice of Early Education funding?
A Councils are permitted to retain 7% of their Early Years Dedicated School Grant (DSG) in 2017-18 and this was authorised by Schools Forum earlier this year. Next year, the centrally retained element has to reduce to 5% under government guidelines. The centrally retained element is used to meet statutory obligations including administration of entitlements which includes financial transactions and eligibility checking, to manage sufficiency and provide support to the sector in terms of development and quality.
2. HR
Q Who is responsible legally and financially if redundancies have to be made?
Schools and trusts are responsible for taking decisions on staffing structures. However, there are no financial implications resulting from this policy change and therefore it is at the discretion of each school if they wish to change their staffing structure.
Q If Governing Bodies no longer wish to operate a nursery, who will cover the costs of redundancy?
A Maintained schools are required to meet 70% of redundancy costs and a 30% contribution is made from Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). This decision was made at Schools Forum on 23 September, 2014. http://moderngov.staffordshire.gov.uk/documents/g5052/Printed%20minutes%2023rd-Sep-2014%2014.00%20Schools%20Forum.pdf?T=1 (see minute 14)
Co-operative Trust Schools and Academies are advised to seek their own HR advice regarding this matter.
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3. Implementation
Q How soon does this have to be implemented?
A Schools were required to implement these changes from September 2017.
Q Is this now an additional responsibility for Governing Bodies?
A This is not an additional responsibility. Governing bodies remain responsible for the strategic oversight of the whole school, including early years, whether children are classified as ‘pupils’ of the school or ‘non-pupils’ of the school.
Q What statutory requirements will be needed as a ‘Governor Run’ nursery?
A The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Guidance is relevant to all Early Years provision regardless of Governance structure, so therefore, there is no change.
Q Does there have to be a separate Ofsted registration?
A No, a separate Ofsted registration is not required. The nursery provision remains the responsibility of the Governing Body and will be inspected at the same time as the school.
Q As a result of the greater flexibility and autonomy resulting from this change, if we do wish do re-model our nursery provision, what support is available to us?
A Information, advice and support to all schools is covered in SCC’s Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) with Entrust. Please contact [email protected].
Q From what age can Governors agree to accept children into nursery?
A Schools can accept children from two years of age without having to register independently with Ofsted. For more information, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/590004/Registering_school-based_provision.pdf
As at present, where a change of age-range has been approved, maintained schools would record this on the government’s Get information about schools website (formerly Edubase).
Academies would need to submit a fast track request to lower the school age range. This will not require a formal business case. For more information, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/504321/Making_significant_changes_to_an_open_academy.pdf
Schools that wish to consider offering places for two year olds should refer to SCC’s published Sufficiency Report Cards which contain information on places and vacancies in their local area. For more information, please visit:
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https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/education/childcare/ChildcareCounts/ChildcareCounts.aspx
Some children from aged 2 may be eligible for funding under the Think2 scheme. For more information, please visit:https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/think2
Schools wishing to now charge for hours outside the funded entitlements are encouraged to develop a suitable pricing structure. For any advice and guidance on this, schools should contact the Early Years Business Team at Entrust via email: [email protected]
Some families could get support with additional childcare costs, for further information families should be signposted to our website: https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/education/childcare/families/Childcare/HelpCosts/Costs.aspx
Q There is additional work involved from the requirement to now input children on the Early Years Provider Portal
A All providers offering funded entitlements (schools and private) now need access to the portal as it has the essential functions available to validate codes for 30 hour childcare. Even schools who wish to offer just the standard/universal15 hours need access to this service because families may be choosing a school as their second provider (ie. for their extended 15 hours) and therefore schools need to validate eligibility codes. SCC has distributed a ‘Parental Declaration’ form to help all providers determine where universal and extended hours are being taken.
https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/education/childcare/childcare/freefundedplaces/Parental-Declaration-Privacy-Notice.pdf
Q Third party vendors (eg. services connected to SIMS/data management systems) have advised that nursery children need to be added to the school census. Is this correct?
A No, in Staffordshire all nursery children will be recorded on the Early Years Census via the Early Years Portal.
Q How will this impact on schools that are sharing their 30 hours with other external providers?
A There will be no change or impact as families, when required, will still be able to share their 30 hours of funded childcare between two sites. Schools are advised to use the parental declaration form to establish universal and extended hours.
https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/education/childcare/childcare/freefundedplaces/Parental-Declaration-Privacy-Notice.pdf
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Q What support will be given with the conversion process? Will there be standard documents for schools to use?
A There is no ‘conversion’ required. Schools can continue to deliver Early Years Foundation Stage via their school nursery. Advice and document templates will be provided regarding school admissions, where requested.
Q How can schools get information of two year olds who are eligible for Think2 (Funded Early Education Entitlement for less advantaged two year olds)?
A SCC receives seven lists per year from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and conducts communication send outs to families to encourage applications. Under the terms and conditions of the information release from DWP, SCC is not permitted to share details of families with schools and providers directly due to data protection.
Schools can encourage parents to apply for the Think2 funded entitlement (or apply on their behalf with parental consent) by visiting: https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Think2
Q How can families looking for Early Education Funded places find out about what we provide at our school?
A SCC signposts families to the Family Information Service Directory https://staffs.fsd.org.uk to find local provision. Schools are advised to check their details are accurate and update this free service. This can be done by visiting: https://staffs.fsd.org.uk/kb5/staffordshire/fsd/register.page.
Q Our school uses an Information Management System with ‘bolt on’ services provided by third party vendors. These seem to be affected as a result of children now being recorded on a ‘guest’ status as opposed to ‘pupil’ status. How can this be resolved?
A SCC is in contact with third party vendors (eg. ‘Parent Pay’) to try and seek a solution. Further information relating to this matter will be communicated in due course
4. Engagement
Q. This timescale was far too short, schools needed to know by March last year when they set their budgets and allocated staff
A SCC acknowledges that the timing of this communication was poor. However, the Operational Guidance was not published by the Department for Education (DfE) until March 2017. The DfE recognised that there were issues with the ‘schools’ table which set out types of provision/census requirements within this document and promised to revise the guidance in the very near future. Due to a snap General Election and imposed purdah period, SCC was then unable to obtain advice and guidance regarding proposed changes. The revised guidance was not published until early July, providing us with an extremely short window to finalise our communication to schools regarding these changes.
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Q There has been no consultation on these changes and therefore is this legal? Do stakeholders have to be consulted and if so the minimum consultation timeframes?
A Nursery places are non-statutory and after seeking advice from SCC Legal team it was determined that a formal consultation was not required. There are no required changes to the delivery of your nursery provision although there are new administrative requirements. The number of nursery places available remain unchanged and staffing structures can remain the same. As a result of this decision, schools now have greater flexibility and autonomy to make decisions about how the nursery provision operates in the future.
Q Why were these changes not communicated to us in a more effective way?
A The LA informed schools via emails to ‘Office@’, ‘Headteacher@’ and the School Bag. These are the usual trusted and consistent mechanisms for communication with schools.
Q Who exactly has been consulted within HR and legal services?
A SCC Legal team and Entrust HR have provided advice regarding these changes Officers from other services provided advice including SCC Finance, Capita One, Admissions, Free School Meals and Entrust finance, early years and SIMS teams. SCC HR were not included as there is no impact on employment from this policy change.
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Nursery Admissions (as at 13.10.17)
National context
Nationally, the vast majority of schools in other Local Authorities are already administering their own nursery admissions, with more flexible intakes and offering up to 5 terms, based upon a child’s eligibility for early education funding.
There is no statutory duty for LAs to coordinate admissions to nursery and the DfE School Admissions Code, which outlines the duties of admission authorities in relation to school admission arrangements, does not apply to early years settings.
Local context
Staffordshire’ system of an annual September intake of rising four year olds, to what were previously known as maintained nursery classes, no longer meets the demands of families. This is as a result of national policy changes and the enhanced package of early educational entitlements now available to parents.
The changes will give all schools with early years settings the opportunity to develop a more flexible offer for families, i.e., admitting children from the first term after their 3 rd
birthday for a funded place, which will help ensure flexibility and the future viability of school nurseries. Due to the variety of admission arrangements that will be operating across the county it will no longer be appropriate to try and coordinate this process.
The change means that schools should administer their own admission arrangements from the 2018-19 intake onwards (but see the options below).
Options for 2018/19 academic year
Schools have two options for the 2018/19 year.
Option 1: Schools can introduce their own flexible nursery admissions arrangements from September 2018. To do this, during the autumn term ideally, governing bodies or trusts would:
agree their own admission arrangements; set their own oversubscription criteria, in line with Equalities Act 2010 (see
FAQs); introduce their own application process (application form and closing dates).
Option 2: Those schools who require more time to manage these changes have the opportunity to continue to operate under the old Local Authority managed nursery admissions process for one year only.
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To take up Option 1, schools must advise Samantha Nicol [email protected] by Friday 10 November at the latest. It is important to note that schools ‘opting in’ to this transitional offer will not have the flexibility to alter their own arrangements and will still be required to classify children as non-registered pupils and record on the Early Years Census.
It will be assumed that schools not making direct contact with Samantha will have made the decision to manage their own flexible admissions arrangements, as per Option 2.
Queries
School are encouraged to get in touch with Samantha Nicol, who leads the School Admissions and Transport Service, so that the advice and FAQs can be developed further. Please contact:
[email protected] or 01785 278 676.
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Nursery Admissions FAQs
Q Do we have to follow a pre-determined closing and offer date now that SCC is no longer managing our Nursery Admissions?
A No, Governing Bodies are free to determine their own admissions process which includes setting closing and offer dates which suit the school.
Q Will parents be able to apply for more than one nursery setting now that the process is no longer coordinated?
A Yes but this has traditionally been the case for those parents who also apply for voluntary run, private settings, governor-run settings alongside a school based nursery. Whilst we know that there may be some parents who apply for more than one school setting we do not expect there to be a large number of these cases.
It is recommended that when schools offer places they include a requirement for parents to advise you whether or not they will be accepting the place offered, alongside the Parental Declaration Form, referenced on pages 5 and 6, above.
Q Is there a suggested model for schools to adopt when deciding on the nursery’s admission arrangements?
A Admission to the nursery must be based on objective criteria drawn up by the Governing Body, published on the school website giving details of closing and offer dates, age for admission, number of places available, and session times, type of provision, and activity etc.
At the very least, SCC would recommend that consideration is given to children who are looked after and those who have been previously looked after.
Additionally, the criteria could include the following, in some form of priority order:
children whose parents reside in the catchment area of the school; children who have siblings in the school; children whose parents can demonstrate that the child has particular medical or
social needs which make their request for admission exceptional; some form of tiebreaker (such as age, distance between home and school) and
how a waiting list will operate if there are too many requests.
Policy statements and correspondence to parents must make it clear that attendance at the nursery does not give a subsequent entitlement to a school place in Reception and that a separate application must be made through the home authority at the appropriate time.
If a parent complains about refusal of a place for their child in the nursery, the Governing Body must have a mechanism for responding to the complaint
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Q Will my school be included in the SCC Admissions booklet?
A SCC will no longer need to produce a booklet. However, SCC signposts families to the Family Information Service Directory https://staffs.fsd.org.uk to find local provision. This means parents can run searches for local provision at postcode level and then apply as determined by each setting.
Schools are advised to check their details are accurate and update this free service. This can be done by visiting: https://staffs.fsd.org.uk/kb5/staffordshire/fsd/register.page.
Q How do I make contact with potential parents of 3 and 4 year olds?
A As at present, each school would promote its offer locally and parents have access to the childcare directory (see above).
Q Will there be standard documents for schools to use?
A Advice and document templates will be provided regarding school admissions, where requested.
Q What should we do if we still require further support with managing our own Nursery Admissions process?
A Please contact [email protected] or 01785 278 676.
Samantha NicolPrincipal School Admissions Officer
October 2017
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Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) - Changes to monitoring and funding arrangements for school nurseries
As a result of the policy change regarding school based nursery provision, children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) will now be monitored through the Early Years Forum (EYF).
The EYFs are multi-agency groups responsible for monitoring children who may have SEND, ensuring that they have the right support at the right time. In addition, forums are able to provide some additional funding and access to support services.
Children can be referred into the EYF by a range of professionals including Health Visitors, Speech and Language Therapists, Early Years Area SENCOs and Paediatricians. Settings themselves are not able to refer into the forums.
Children are likely to be referred to the EYF (with parental consent) if one or more of the following criteria apply:
The child is not making age-appropriate progress in one or more developmental areas.
The child has a diagnosed condition or syndrome that is likely to affect developmental and / or educational progress.
The forums do not take over the individual monitoring and support that settings will provide to a child as part of the graduated response, but act as a higher level monitoring group.
Forums meet each month, with the exception of August and include representatives from Early Years Area SENCO, SEND Assessment and Planning Team, Educational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapist’s, Paediatricians or Child Development Centre Staff and Health Visitors. As it is a monitoring group parents and setting staff are not able to attend.
Key documents including funding application forms and guidance can be found here.https://www.staffordshireconnects.info/kb5/staffordshire/directory/advice.page?id=Pdc-RUwCVvs or through https://www.staffordshireconnects.info and searching for educational offer.
Emma DoddResponsible Officer for Early Years Forums
October 2017
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Further information can be requested, as shown below.
Stafford and South Staffordshire:
Business Support TeamThe Kingston CentreFairwayStafford ST16 [email protected]
Lichfield and Cannock Chase:
Business Support TeamThe Old Library Bird StreetLichfieldWS13 [email protected]
Newcastle and Staffordshire Moorlands:
Business support TeamSeabridge CentreAshway, off Seabridge Lane, Newcastle, ST5 [email protected]
East Staffs and Tamworth:
Business Support TeamBurton Education CentreGrange StreetBurton-on-Trent DE14 [email protected]
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Appendix
Scheme for Financing Schools
2.13 Spending for the purposes of the school The governing body is free to spend budget shares “for the purposes of the
school”, subject to regulations made by the Secretary of State and any provisions of this scheme…….:
Amounts spent by the governing body on community facilities or services under s.27 of the Education Act 2002 will be treated as if spent for any purposes of the school. This allows the school to spend its budget on pupils who are on the roll or another maintained school or where the service provided does not have an educational benefit.
Extract from s27 of the Education Act 2002:Power of governing body to provide community facilities etc.(1)The governing body of a maintained school shall have power to provide any facilities or services whose provision furthers any charitable purpose for the benefit of—
(a)pupils at the school or their families, or
(b)people who live or work in the locality in which the school is situated.
(2)The power under subsection (1) includes, in particular, power for a governing body to—
(a)incur expenditure,
(b)enter into arrangements or agreements with any person,
(c)co-operate with, or facilitate or co-ordinate the activities of, any person, and
(d)provide staff, goods, services and accommodation to any person.
NB: Restriction if it is a school company;
Financial Regulations for SchoolsJ7- A school company’s finances must remain distinct and separate from those of the school budget. School companies can contribute to the school budget, but school budgets cannot contribute to the activities of the company.
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