CCM6470 - Particular aspects: child care - importance of up to date information

Because changes in child care costs have to be notified in-year in any of the circumstances at CCM6310, it will be important that the information you have is as up to date as possible. The CCRO will have tried to contact the child care provider by telephone before passing the case to you. Full details of any contact with the provider will be included in the SIP.

If the CCRO has been unable to contact the provider, or if the check was carried out more than 8 weeks before you take up the case for examination, you should attempt to contact the provider yourself. Even if the CCRO has confirmed the child care arrangements with the provider, the customer’s circumstances may have changed since, especially if a substantial amount of time has passed.

If you need to contact the provider at the outset, you should tell the customer(s) in your letter opening the examination that you will be doing this. Remember that if you are examining a CoC which may increase the maximum rate of entitlement before it has been processed, you will need to use the standard letter template. If the CoC has been processed, or if it does not increase the maximum rate, you should use TCC2 (Childcare) which has the option regarding contacting the child care provider.