Provider Agreement
All childcare settings who want to deliver funding on behalf of the local authority must complete and return Annex B and C of the Provider Agreement along with the additional documents and policies requested. Only providers graded Good or Outstanding or awaiting their first inspection may apply and only one application per term is accepted. The sufficiency team will respond to your application within 10 working days.
Assuming your submission is complete and your policies correctly detail the current referral pathways, the next step will be a meeting with one of the sufficiency team to discuss your submission and how you would respond to certain childcare scenarios. This will also be an opportunity for you to clarify any questions you may have before completing a sample online headcount task on the Early Years portal as all funding claims must be submitted online.
Successful completion of all stages (submission, face to face meeting and online task) will then mean you can then offer funded places within your setting.
Each term a sample of early years providers are selected for an early years audit to ensure that that the requirements of funding are being met. A sample audit form can be seen in the useful documents together with the latest audit report on our findings.