Guest Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 Hi all Can someone please advice me on funding between playschools. Sadly a playschool in the area has closed giving parents just 2 weeks notice. They would have received their 1st installment of the funding, but not their final payment. 3 of the children that attended there have now registered with us, but we're being told by the authorities that we will not be able to claim the funding for them until next term!!! Surely this can't be right. The money that was allocated to the playschool that closed , must still be sitting in the pot. Has anybody else been in this situation?
Panders Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 This was one of the problems with the NEG in different areas, in Kent originally the funding stayed at the setting if a child moved on elsewhere, nowadays the funding follows the child, at the moment anyway, Kent did think of reverting to the original way of funding during the summer but reversed their decision at the final hour. It is probably part of your Code of Practice with your local authority which all early years settings have signed and agreed to. Given the circumstances it might be worth the parents complaining strongly and see what happens!
Buttercup Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 in gloucestershire you can fill out a form for children changing setting. cant think off the top of my head exact wording but they have to be with you for at least a couple of weeks to qualify this use to be 6 or 7 weeks. looks like countys are still different
kristina Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 Hi In Essex we claim the money back from the other setting, however we too have had a setting close in the area and as far as I am aware they have had to pay the money back to Essex Early Years. Also if a child starts part of the way through a term, provided they haven't claimed money elswhere we can put a late claim form in. But if a child already with us wants to up their sessions after headcount day we have to charge the parents, we can't late claim for them!! Quite a few parents have complained about this!! Hope this helps Kristina
Inge Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 This is one of those where each area has different rules. In ours they we could claim for the child from the date they started with us... it used to be that we had to wiat until the following term, but this was changed a couple of years ago now. I can see that if they were unable to repay any money it could have an impact on if the child would be funded, and feel it could cause problems. Inge
laura Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 A nursery has just closed in our area and we have one funded child from them. I rang up our services as they usually say we can't get funding because if a child left us we would get to keep the money so that should make up for getting a child mid way through term with no funding - only we have never had a child leave us! So I rang the welfare but they have said no we can't any money. I argued that as the provision had closed the money was somewhere but she more or less said that the nursery was keeping the money as they were in debt and needed to pay bills!!!!
Guest Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Here in Suffolk, it is called a swings and roundabouts, the new setting would not be able to claim the money. How ever I'm sure there is a clause saying that if it goes wrong then the setting will have to pay back the claimed money to county council.
lynned55 Posted November 14, 2009 Posted November 14, 2009 Problem is it's not as simple as a child just changing groups is it? If a group has closed down I very much doubt they have done so with all their funding still sitting in the bank intact waiting to go back, do you? I think it's a shame, but would assume that parents will have to pay or wait until next term. As I understand it if the LA dont get the figures in time then they miss their deadline with Central goverment?
laura Posted November 14, 2009 Posted November 14, 2009 (edited) We cannot charge any fees for our child for the 12 1/2 hours funding as they are still entitled to their free place! Edited November 14, 2009 by laura
Guest Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 Thank you everyone for all your replies. I don't think I made it very clear....sorry......like lynned55 and Laura have said it's not straightforward ! I understand that if a child moves from playschool to playschool the funding doesn't follow. But these children have come to us from a school that has closed down and who haven't yet received they final funding payment. So that money is still sitting in the pot with either the government or the LA.. Meanwhile we, as a playschool, are having to fund those children ourselves! lynned55, would we be able to ask the parent to pay...or turn them away until next term....I didn't think we could, although I feel we should have every right to do just that.
Guest Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 As I understand it in our area..... You cannot turn them away. You can ask for voluntary contribution (we just put in a bill and hope they will pay - money is tight!) Hope this helps....it has happened a couple of times to us and parents are usually quite happy to pay.
anju Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 If I wasnt getting the funding I would invite the child to start at the beginning of the next term and thats fair enough as far as I'm concerned.
Panders Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 Thank you everyone for all your replies. I don't think I made it very clear....sorry......like lynned55 and Laura have said it's not straightforward ! I understand that if a child moves from playschool to playschool the funding doesn't follow. But these children have come to us from a school that has closed down and who haven't yet received they final funding payment. Yes Esme - this is why I suggested the parents should make a fuss to your LA. If you were a setting in Kent the funding would follow these children, if your LA wont set up their accounting procedures to do this for all children it's a shame. Parent power may well get them what they want if they complain to the right people, the LA might not get the money to you until the end of term - but it's better than no money at all! Get these parents involved.
lynned55 Posted November 16, 2009 Posted November 16, 2009 Oh dear, what a mess and as far as I can see it's the provider that loses in the long run, Esme I'm not 100% if you are allowed to charge, certainly I would be asking my LA if I coukd and if they said no, then I would explain to the parents the need for a voluntary contribution for the fees or they would have to wait until next term. I really dont see why settings should be held accountable for other people's mismanagement, be it LA's, Goverment rulings or other groups?
Lyanne Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 Thank you everyone for all your replies. I don't think I made it very clear....sorry......like lynned55 and Laura have said it's not straightforward ! I understand that if a child moves from playschool to playschool the funding doesn't follow. But these children have come to us from a school that has closed down and who haven't yet received they final funding payment. So that money is still sitting in the pot with either the government or the LA.. Meanwhile we, as a playschool, are having to fund those children ourselves! lynned55, would we be able to ask the parent to pay...or turn them away until next term....I didn't think we could, although I feel we should have every right to do just that. In Suffolk, we get one payment per term, so if you were here... the money would be lost in old preschool. But as it's not all been paid out, I think the LEA are just being ridiculous - the money has been allocated for those children, it surely can't be paid to a closed preschool, so it should be paid to the preschool(s?) where the children are now. We are told we cannot turn a child away if we have the spaces for them, or charge for their fundable hours. (I understand there may be some leeway if you are in a setting that is allowed to have more children than you currently have but doing so will require more staff.)
louby loo Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 If a child 'ups' sessions after headcount day we can charge parents- as long as this is clear in our policy, as the LA will not pay for these sessions. We have just had a child start with us that was pulled out of another setting (parent had issues - child was fine) we have been told by L the other setting HAS to give us the funding for the remaining weeks. In the past it was just 'goodwill' payments .......that never arrived! xx
Guest Posted November 29, 2009 Posted November 29, 2009 We are in Essex, we have 2 payments one based on anticipated numbers before the term and one based on actual numbers. We make it clear to parents that any change after the actual (headcount) date have to be paid for and any child that joins which we can't claim funding for has to pay fees. We have never had a problem with this. Rachel
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