FAQs (Two Year Old Pilot)

• A - The Offer and Eligibility
• B - Participation by Childcare Providers & Funding Queries
• C - Quality
• D - Family Support and Outreach
• E - Monitoring Arrangements
• F - Other
  

A) The Offer and Eligibility

1. How are eligible two year olds chosen?
The DCSF has given a strong steer that the eligibility criteria for the pilot must be tightly focused on economic deprivation. They must also be data driven and broadly applicable (so that other local authorities could apply the model in future).
KCC’s eligibility criteria are:
Two year old children living in the most disadvantaged Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in Kent and who would be eligible for free school meals.
Children are eligible for free school meals if their parents receive any of the following:

• Income support (IS)
• Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA)
• Employment Support Allowance (Income Related) (ESA(IR))
• Support (Home Office subsistence vouchers or accommodation for asylum seekers) under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Child Tax Credit, provided that they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual income, as assessed by the Inland Revenue, that (for 2008-9) does not exceed £15,575
• the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit

We are contacting eligible families based on data analysed by JobCentre Plus. There is no application or referral process.

2. When will the families of eligible children be contacted?
It is anticipated that families will be contacted from July 2009 onwards.

3.What happens if a child is accepted on to the pilot and the family’s income increases above the entitlement? Is the family no longer eligible to participate?
Children’s eligibility will only be tested to enter the pilot. Once a child/ family has been accepted onto the scheme, they will remain eligible even if their household circumstances change.

4. Is phased access to the full entitlement of childcare hours allowed?
Yes. Once families have been assessed as eligible, childcare may be phased, so families can build up from a small number of hours to their full entitlement of 15 hours per week, before they eventually progress to the free entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds. KCC will work with parents, through children’s centres, to identify a personalised package of support for the family and how many hours a week suits their needs as well as that of the child. The provider will need to monitor the take-up of hours as part of the monitoring requirements for the pilot.

5.  Is a child eligible to participate in the pilot if their parents do not engage in family support?
A child is entitled to access the pilot without their parents engaging in the family support element, as long as the parent has been offered the family support element. KCC will ensure that all parents accessing the pilot are encouraged to take up the family support element.

6. How much flexibility is there around the birth date of a child?
The child must be aged two when they start accessing the pilot and be able to progress seamlessly to the free entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds. The child will normally start accessing the offer in the term after their 2nd birthday unless there are special circumstances for them starting earlier. KCC plans to fund the child for more than 38 weeks where necessary before they progress to the free entitlement.

7. Can less than 3 terms provision be delivered to children?
The scheme recognises that it will not be possible to enrol all children at exactly the right point to allow for maximum provision; that some provision is better than none, and that providing access for less than a year may still be a way to increase take up of the free entitlement at three years old.
Authorities can therefore deliver 2 terms worth of provision to some children.

8. Can intakes be more frequent than termly so provision can commence once parents are engaged?
New starters to funding can start at any time during the term and will be funded proportionally.

9. How will KCC validate that participants are eligible? 
Participants may not always be keen to share or produce their details in order to participate. We intend to use a signed and witnessed declaration of facts form to validate that the families have a child of the appropriate age and that they are eligible under the criteria, and then to do periodic spot checks to ensure that these are accurate.
 
10. Will providers be expected to prove that  families are eligible for the pilot based on the eligibility criteria? Will KCC ask to see this?
The DCSF expects the local authority to ensure that the families accessing the pilot meet the national and local criteria. Outreach workers will support families in completing declaration forms with childcare providers checking evidence of the child’s date of birth. Providers already do this date of birth checking for the free entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds. We want families to confirm their eligibility without putting them off accessing programmes like this, and we will be asking providers about their experiences.

11. How will the child be matched with appropriate childcare provision that the family also chooses to use?
The child will not be “matched” , rather the family will be supported to choose provision via the outreach teams – the purpose being to give impartial support to the parents in making informed choices and, where necessary, to support them in engaging with and accessing the provision. Also see Q.25

12. Can parents choose a range of flexible options for accessing the 15 hours – e.g. 5 x 3 hours or 2 x 7.5 hours?
This is not a requirement for providers who are involved in delivering the pilot. The offer of more flexible provision has started for the free entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds, making it easier for parents to balance work and family life. However, for the two year olds involved in this pilot, it is most important that plans are made which keep to what’s best for the child. If providers are making the 15 hours available flexibly this information must be completed on the monitoring form for KCC so that it can be reported correctly to the DCSF.

13. Are parents able to split the offer between providers?
Yes. As with the free entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds, the offer can be accessed across two (but no more than two) providers, unless KCC deems that there are exceptional circumstances and then more than two providers may deliver..

B) Participation by Childcare Providers & Funding Queries

14. Which settings can participate in the pilot?
Any setting which meets minimum quality criteria set out in the quality section may participate in the pilot, including private, voluntary and independent providers, accredited childminders and maintained sector-run childcare provision. In order for families to be able to travel to and from the provision easily it is anticipated that the eligible providers closest to or most easily accessed from the family’s address would be those likely to be chosen by the families.  Where a child has speech or language delay, the DCSF requires that they must have access to adequately trained support to address these needs.

15. Can childminders be used?
Yes, as long as they are accredited and part of a network, but KCC will need to ensure that families can access the wider support element of the offer.
 
16. Is it essential that providers are able to offer the full 15 hours in order for them to participate?
No.

17. Will providers be required to participate?
No.

18. Can providers charge top-up fees?
No.

19. Can providers charge fees for wrap-around care?
Yes, if families wish to access additional hours. However, there must be no requirement made by providers for families to do so. Families must be able to access the hours funded for the two year old pilot alone, and must not be charged for any element of these.

20. How much will providers receive?
£4.85 per hour.

21. Is it essential that providers are able to provide the offer flexibly for them to participate?
No, this is not a requirement for providers who are involved in delivering the pilot. The offer of more flexible provision has started for the free entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds, making it easier for parents to balance work and family life. However, for the two year olds involved in this pilot, it is most important that plans are made which keep to what’s best for the child. If providers are making the 15 hours available flexibly this information must be completed on the monitoring form for KCC so that it can be reported correctly to the DCSF.

22. Can a parent decide not to take up the full 15 hours’ entitlement? If so, is the provider able to claim the full 15 hours’ funding?
Yes, a parent may decide to take up a proportion of the 15 hours if the provider agrees to this.
If a plan is in place to increase the number of hours which means that a place must be held open, providers may be funded for the full 15 hours subject to agreement. If there is no plan to increase the number of hours, providers would only be funded for the hours accessed up to the maximum 15 hours.

23. Funding & additional needs: although £4.85 may be adequate to provide a place for a two year old, because the pilot is aimed at vulnerable and disadvantaged children there may be a higher than average proportion of children with additional needs. Will this be taken into account in the funding, and if so how?
The amount of funding available for the pilot is fixed at £4.85 and the DCSF states that budgets have been designed to take account of such needs. Additional support for providers is already offered (as for any child with additional needs) via Early Years SENcos in order to ensure that providers can be fully inclusive.

24. Some providers charge more than £4.85 for a two year old childcare place. Will the difference in fees be paid?
The amount of funding available for the pilot is fixed at £4.85 and a difference in fees cannot be paid.

25. What is the minimum session length of a session?
The minimum session length is 2 hours.

26. What happens if a child who has been offered a place does not attend regularly, when a setting has employed the additional staff to meet required staff/ child ratios?
Funding provided for that term will not be reconciled at the end of the term as the setting employed additional staff in good faith. However, the setting should review the financial situation before the start of the next term.

27. How will families choose childcare provision?
A list of participating providers in the area will be provided to families and the outreach workers. Families will not be “matched” with providers – instead outreach workers will support the families to make their own choice. For example, this may include visiting the family at their home, supporting the family to start using ‘stay and play’ sessions to build confidence, discussing the benefits of different childcare options, accompanying the family on visits to childcare providers.

C) Quality

28. If a setting has an Ofsted rating of less than ‘good’, can they participate?
Yes, provided that this has been agreed by KCC and the setting is committed to improving.

29. If a setting has an unsatisfactory Ofsted rating, but is working to improve, can they participate?
No. Most providers participating in the 2 year-old pilot will have a good or outstanding rating. If they have a satisfactory rating, they must be able to demonstrate that they are actively trying to improve that rating. Anything below that would prevent a setting from offering the pilot.

30. If a setting currently has an Ofsted rating of ‘good’ but at a later inspection is downgraded to ‘satisfactory’ can they continue as part of the pilot?
If KCC is clear that the setting is working back towards ‘good’ and that this is a temporary slip, then the provider can continue.  However, if they are providing an ‘inadequate’ service they will not be offering the two year old pilot. We want to be assured that the settings being used are providing a quality service which is why we are looking to provide a minimum standard.
 
D) Family Support and Outreach

31. How will the family support be delivered and what will it consist of?
The family support will consist of two strands:

• Home Learning Environment Support (e.g. structured parent/toddler time) and other parenting support

Childcare providers and the family support provided via the children’s centres will be expected to promote home learning to parents. This will involve actively supporting parents to take part in appropriate activities that will support their child’s development. This part of the offer links to the provision of parent/toddler time. Parents should be encouraged to play with their children at home using letters and numbers, to read to their children, and/or to visit the library with them.

• Wider parental support

The responsibility is to put in place steps to ensure that all participating families know how to access the support they need to provide family stability and a positive environment for their child.
Families should be signposted to and supported to access e.g.

• health advice
• counselling
• drug / alcohol support groups
• housing advice
• benefits advice
• training (including targeted programmes such as basic literacy, language and numeracy)
• employment support
• confidence building / assertiveness training

The family support will be individually tailored to meet the needs identified.

32) Will the family support be delivered in the home or elsewhere?
The family support will be individually tailored to meet the needs identified. It is likely that some support will involve home visiting and some support will be provided at other venues.

33) What will the outreach involve?
Outreach is the process of making contact and supporting families to access services and may include a variety of activities such as translation & interpretation services, home visiting, accompanying parents to a setting, and travel costs for families who can’t otherwise access provision.
Outreach for this project will be delivered through children’s centres outreach services who will offer eligible families support that is tailored to their needs. Centre staff will use their knowledge and experience of working with families to decide how best to support them to access services including the childcare offer.
 
E) Monitoring Arrangements

34) How will the outcomes for the children and the families be monitored to ensure that the pilot has been successful?
The DCSF requires local authorities to monitor the pilot and a monitoring form will be completed twice each year by the KCC project manager.  A monitoring form has been devised for use by children’s centres and childcare providers to provide information about the outcomes and impact of the pilot to KCC twice a year. The information will then be compiled and returned to DCSF to inform any future rollout.

35) How will attendance of two year olds be monitored within a setting?
Weekly contact forms will be provided for the setting to monitor attendance (to support the monitoring required twice each year by the DCSF) but it is not compulsory to use these if the setting has other adequate systems in place. The project manager will be available to providers to support this.

36) How will quality of provision be monitored?
Providers should either be participating in a local Quality Improvement Scheme or a quality improvement process that the LA recognises and approves of. This means that providers will be regularly evaluating the quality of their provision in addition to Ofsted inspections and ASK audits.

37) How will the quality of the family support be monitored?
Children’s centres complete annual self-evaluation exercises, and activity with these target families will form part of this assessment. The monitoring requirements for the pilot will mean reflection on activities for the pilot and completion of forms for KCC twice a year. The project manager will be available to centres to support this.

F) Other
38) Will the pilot be available to all 2 year olds in the future?
We don’t know. The purpose of the pilot is to build evidence about the impact of the childcare and family support to inform proposals for any future rollout.