Guidance

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

Updated 21 October 2024

Applies to England

Guidance for completing the digital form

Introduction 

From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds have been entitled to access to up to 15 hours of childcare per week for 38 weeks a year, and from September 2024, this has been 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 entitled to access up to 30 hours per week for 38 weeks a year. 

This data return will enable the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to record the take-up of the government-funded entitlement hours for the 2-year-old working parents entitlement, under-2s working parents entitlement and 2-year-olds and under-2s in receipt of early years pupil premium (EYPP), as stated in the ’dedicated schools grant (DSG) conditions of grant’. This data will be used to determine the early years DSG funding allocations for the new entitlements in the financial year 2024 to 2025. See the ‘Early years data collection for the 2024 to 2025 financial year’ for more information. 

This return will also collect additional data about the number of children using the early years entitlements for families receiving specific forms of additional support (formerly known as the two-year-old disadvantaged entitlement) and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) accessing entitlements for age 2 and under. This data will be used for policy monitoring purposes only. See the ‘Early years data collection 2024 to 2025: autumn term headcount guidance’ for more information. 

You should only include children from early years providers which are normally included in the early years census. For school nurseries (with registered pupils), maintained nursery schools and academies (with registered pupils) the relevant data will be collected via the 2024 autumn term school census, therefore local authorities should not include these children in their data return. 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. 

For more information, and instructions on completing your return, read this guidance document. If you need more help, 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 autumn term early years entitlements data return is 12 midnight on Friday, 6 December 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 follow the steps in the section ‘If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account’ .

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. 

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. 

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account 

To add a new organisation to your account, follow the steps below: 

1. Login to your DfE Sign-in account. 

2. Select ‘Organisations’. 

3. Select ‘Request access to an organisation’. 

4. Enter the URN or UKPRN of the organisation you would like to add. 

5. Select the organisation from search results. 

6. Select ‘Confirm’. 

Your request will be sent to the approver of that organisation.

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 an administrator or a senior manager.

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

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under the ‘Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account’ section to complete 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 sign out of the form, or leave your form opened for an extended period before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in.

Once you have submitted the form, you will be advised of next steps and will receive an email confirmation of your submission with a link to download a PDF copy of your submission.  This link will expire after 6 months so you should download a copy as soon as possible. 

You can edit and resubmit your form until the submission deadline.

To complete your return, you will need to know the total number of children and the total number of hours taken during count week (up to maximum of 15 hours per child) for the following early years funding streams:

Early years entitlement for working parents and EYPP extension 

You will need to know the total number of children and the total number of hours taken during count week (up to a maximum of 15 hours per child) for the following early years funding streams: 

• entitlement for 2-year-olds of eligible working parents 

• entitlement for children from 9 months old up to 2-year-olds of eligible 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 entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support for 2-year-olds (formerly known as the 2-year-old disadvantaged entitlement) 

• 9-month-olds up to 2-year-olds in receipt of EYPP accessing the working parents entitlement 

Early years entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support (formerly known as the two-year-old disadvantaged entitlement) and children with SEND 

You also need to know the total number of children taking up the government-funded hours for the following: 

• entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support 

• children with SEND accessing the entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support 

• children with SEND accessing the entitlement for 2-year-olds of eligible working parents 

• children with SEND accessing the entitlement for 9-month-olds up to 2-year-olds of eligible working parents 

You must only include children from early years providers which are normally included in the early years census. For school nurseries (with registered pupils), maintained nursery schools, and academies (with registered pupils), the relevant data will be collected via the 2024 autumn term school census. Therefore, local authorities should not include these children in their data return. 

The 2024 autumn term data must be captured during count week, commencing Monday, 4 November 2024. 

 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 autumn term count week. 

These figures should be calculated based on: 

• the number of 2-year-old children eligible for the working parents entitlements starting from 1 April 2024 

• who have valid eligibility codes 

• who have taken up the government-funded hours, up to 15 hours per child during the 2024 autumn term count week (commencing Monday, 4 November 2024) 

• eligible 2-year-olds who were born between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 (inclusive)

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. 

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

Early years entitlement for children from 9 months up to 2-year-old  

Enter the total number of children from 9 months to 2-year-old working parent entitlement and the total hours they had taken up in the 2024 autumn term count week. 

These figures should be calculated based on: 

• the number of 9-month-old to 2-year-old children eligible for the working parents entitlements starting from 1 September 2024 
• who have valid eligibility codes 
• who have taken up the government-funded hours, up to 15 hours per child during the 2024 autumn term count week (commencing Monday, 4 November 2024) 
• eligible under-2s who were born between 1 September 2022 and 30 November 2023 (inclusive) 

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. 

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

Part-time equivalent 

We will use the ‘total number of children’ and the ‘total number of hours’ to calculate the part-time equivalent (PTEs) 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. 

If your calculated PTEs seem inaccurate, you may wish to re-check the figures you provided for number of hours for your funding streams before continuing to submit your return. To do that select ‘Go back to review your input’ button.

2-year-old with EYPP accessing the working parents entitlement 

These pages relate to 2-year-old children with EYPP. Enter 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 children with EYPP accessing entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support (formerly known as the 2-year-old disadvantaged entitlement) in your local authority during the 2024 autumn term count week.  

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

9 months to 2-year-olds with EYPP accessing the working parents entitlement 

Enter total number of children and the total number of hours for children in receipt of EYPP accessing the 9 months to 2-year-olds working parents entitlement in your local authority during the 2024 autumn term count week.  

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

Entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support for 2-year-olds 

Provide the figures for the total number of children for the government-funded childcare delivered to children for families receiving specific forms of additional support for 2-year-olds in your local authority during the 2024 autumn term count week.  

You must count each child only once.

Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Provide the total number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) that are accessing early years entitlements from providers in your local authority area during the 2024 autumn term count week, using the definition set out in legislation and used throughout the ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (see page 15 onwards). This definition should also be the same as that which is used when reporting for early years census purposes.

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 

The summary page allows you to check your answers before submitting the form. You can change your answers using the ‘Change’ link that appears next to each data entry. 

You can also save this summary by selecting ‘Save summary as PDF’ before you submit. Alternatively, you can download it by following the steps below: 

1. On the summary page, select ‘File’ and then ‘Print’. A new window will open. 

2. From the dropdown menu, select ‘Save as PDF’. 

3. Select ‘Save’. 

We cannot accept a PDF summary of your answers as proof of submission. You must still submit the form. 

You must select ‘Submit’ at the bottom of this page and you will receive a unique reference number for your submission to be processed. 

 Confirmation

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

You will then be sent a confirmation email to the email address that you logged into DfE Sign-in with. This will contain a link to download a PDF of your submission, which is valid for 6 months from the date of your submission.

Make a note of your unique reference number as we will not include this information in your confirmation email.

 Amending your submission 

You can resubmit your form up until  12 midnight on Friday, 6 December 2024 when this form closes for submissions. To do this, you will need to log in and resubmit your form. 

We cannot 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 read this guidance and have questions, contact us via the Customer Help Portal.

Feedback 

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