Guidance

How to submit your data using the early years entitlements digital form

Updated 5 June 2024

Applies to England

Guidance for completing the digital form

Introduction 

An expansion to the early years entitlements for working parents was announced in the 2023 Spring Budget. From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds have access to up to 15 hours of childcare per week for 38 weeks a year, and from September 2024, this will be extended to eligible working parents of children from aged 9 months old. From September 2025, eligible working parents of 9-month-olds to 3-year-olds will be able to access up to 30 hours per week for 38 weeks a year. 

The early years pupil premium (EYPP) and the disability access fund (DAF) have also been extended to eligible children aged 2 and under accessing the entitlements from April 2024. 

We normally use the data from the January census, to record take-up of the government-funded entitlement hours to determine the funding allocation for local authorities. However, as the entitlement for eligible working parents of 2-year-olds started from April 2024, it missed the 2024 January census which we normally use to fund the 2024 summer term. As the entitlements for eligible working parents of 2-year-olds and under-2s are new, we do not have actual take-up data for the new entitlements. Therefore, we collecting the new data to ensure individual local authorities are funded accurately for delivering the new entitlements in the 2024 to 2025 financial year. The full guidance for the termly data collection is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-termly-data-collection-in-2024-to-2025 

Who is this guide for? 

This guide is for: 

• local authorities 

• early years providers 

• schools 

For more information, and instructions on completing your returns, read this guidance document. If you need more help with completing your returns, visit the early years funding page or contact us via the Customer Help Portal. 

When to complete your submission

The deadline for submitting the 2024 summer term early years entitlements data return is 5pm on Friday, 12 July 2024. You can change and resubmit your return up until this time. 

Accessing the form

Please read the below sections before accessing the early education entitlements data return digital form to complete your submission. 

Before you start

This service is for local authorities. 

To access the form you need to have an active DfE Sign-in account that is linked to your local authority. If you have not used DfE Sign-in before you will need to create an account.

To complete your return, you will need to know the total number of children and the total number of entitlement hours taken up by children for the government-funded hours in the count week for the following early years funding streams: 

• entitlement for 2-year-olds of working parents 

• 2-year-olds in receipt of EYPP accessing the 2-year-old working parents entitlement 

• 2-year-olds in receipt of EYPP accessing the 2-year-old disadvantaged entitlement 

The 2024 summer term data must be captured during count week, commencing Monday, 10 June 2024.

DfE Sign-in 

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account 

Follow the below steps to access the form via your DfE Sign-in account: 

1. Access the online form and when prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication. 

2. Choose the organisation that you are completing the form for – this is only required if you are linked to several organisations. 

3. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique identifier of the local authority, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into DfE Sign-in. 

4. If these details are correct, then all you need do is to select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page. 

5. If you believe these details are incorrect, please contact us via the Customer Help Portal and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission. 

6. Complete the form as instructed in the following sections. 

For the purpose of completing the form, your account must be connected to the local authority you are completing the form for. You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in; it is used only for authentication.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

You will need to create one by following steps 1 to 5 below:

1. Select ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’ the DfE Sign-in page. 

2. Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name). 

3. We will send you an email to verify your email address; copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page. 

4. Create a memorable password that must be at least 14 characters. 

5. Sign in using your new credentials, and request access to the organisation for which you would like to submit the form. Your request will be sent to the approver(s) at your organisation for them to action. 

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under already have a DfE account to complete the form. 

You might have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager. 

For security reasons, you will need the approval of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form. 

 If you need further assistance 

If you need help with DfE Sign-in, use our DfE Sign-in help service. You will be able to request further assistance if required. When raising a support request, select ‘other’.

If you have problems accessing the form, please contact us via the Customer Help Portal. 

Completing the form

When authenticated through DfE Sign-in, you will find a ‘save and continue’ button that will take you through each page of the form. If you have to sign out of the form, or your form is opened for an extended period before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in. 

 Your details 

This page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed into your DfE Sign-in account.

Early years entitlement for 2-year-olds of eligible working parents 

Once signed into the form, you will be asked to enter the total number of children taking up the 2-year-old working parent entitlement and the total hours they had taken up in the 2024 summer term count week. 

We will use the ‘total number of children’ and the ‘total number of hours’ to calculate the part-time equivalent (PTE) to determine the funding allocations for local authorities. 

You must count each child only once, and the total number of hours must not exceed 15 per child.

2-year-olds in receipt of EYPP 

These pages will ask you to provide the figures for the total number of children and the total number of hours for children in receipt of EYPP accessing both the 2-year-old working parents entitlement and the 2-year-old disadvantaged entitlement in your local authority during the 2024 summer term count week.

You must count each child only once, and the total number of hours must not exceed 15 per child.

We will use the ‘total number of children’ and the ‘total number of hours’ to calculate the part-time equivalent (PTE) hours to determine the funding allocations for local authorities. 

Based on the information you provide on the number of hours delivered, your PTE for each funding stream will be shown for your information only. 

Declarations page 

Once you have completed your data entry, you must agree to the mandatory declarations.

You will not be able to submit your form without completing the mandatory declarations fully.

Submission summary 

You will be presented with a summary page that will allow you to check all your answers before submitting your form.

If you would like to change any answers, use the ‘change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

Select ‘save summary as PDF’ button, should you wish to keep a breakdown of the information you have entered in the form. We will also email you a link to download your information as a PDF following your submission.

 Confirmation

The final page confirms your submission and will provide a unique reference number.

Make a note of your unique reference number.

 Amending your submission 

You can resubmit your form up until  5pm on Friday, 12 July 2024 when this form closes for submissions. To do this, you will need to log in and resubmit your form. 

Forms can be submitted or resubmitted until the deadline by selecting the link to the form. It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

If you make a second submission, we will take the details of the most recently submitted form and disregard previous versions. You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended submission.

Enquiries

If you have any technical issues related to this digital form please raise an ESFA enquiry form via the ESFA Customer Help Portal. 

Feedback 

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