What is changing with Funded Hours and when?
What’s happening
Starting in April 2024, 15 hours of funding for 2-year-olds will be available from the government for eligible parents.
What’s changing
During the 2024 Summer Term (April - August 2024), we will not be charging our tiney fees on any funded placements including new 2-year-old funded placements.
What’s happening
From September 2024, 15 hours of funding will also become available for eligible 9-month to 2-year-olds.
What’s changing
We will introduce our normal tiney fees on funded placements for working parent funding for children under the age of 3 from September. As part of this, we will increase our services and support to our community for funded hours.
Disadvantaged 2 year old funding will remain fee-free
3 & 4-year-old placements will remain fee-free for the Autumn 2024 term (Sept-Dec 2024). We will continue to evaluate this going forward and we will always give 6 months notice before making any changes.
Please note that if you don’t plan to offer funded placements, then you will not be affected.
Can tiney childminders offer Funded placements?
Yes absolutely! As tiney is an Ofsted Registered Childminder Agency, all tiney childminders are able to offer Funded Places through tiney’s registration.
But you will also need to be registered with your Local Authority, and the process varies between Local Authorities.
To get registered, you can message the tiney team in the app who will guide you through the process for your Local Authority.
How do I register with my Local Authority to provide funded placements?
Each local authority has its own process for registration for funded hours. Some local authorities work directly with tiney and in this case it is very simple and straightforward to get set up. Other local authorities require childminders to register with them independently - we can assist you with any paperwork if needed.
Do I need a new contract to offer a Funded placement?
Yes you will need a new contract for a funded placement. This is the case even if the child has an existing enrollment with you. You can do this by messaging the tiney team via the app or by creating a new funded contract via the contract builder tool in the app.
What parents need to do to
If parents are looking to use the new 15 or 30 hour working parent funding entitlement for a child aged between 9 months and 4 years old they will need to apply for an eligibility code. This code needs to be renewed every three months. The code can be applied for via gov.uk using this link: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-childcare-if-youre-working
How do I check a child’s eligibility for funding?
There are several ways to do this. If you already have access to your local authority portal many contain a tool to check eligibility. Tiney also have the ability to check this so you are always able to message us with the child’s eligibility code and date of birth and the parents national insurance number and date of birth we can confirm eligibility to you.
How will I be paid for Funded placements?
Usually the payments for Funded placements are either twice per term, once per term, or monthly, but the exact payment schedule varies depending on your Local Authority. Contact the tiney team for more information regarding your specific Local Authority.
I do all my own funding admin, will I still need to pay my tiney membership fee?
As we set out in our email we are currently working hard to increase the tools and support tiney gives to childminders accessing funded hours.
We’re building a Funded Hours Team, dedicated to liaising with your Local Authority on your behalf, significantly reducing the admin burden on you.
We’re improving the visibility of funded hours and invoices in the tiney app, with new features in the tiney wallet specifically designed for processing funded hours.
We’re introducing tools to streamline the collection of information and documentation needed from parents when they sign up for funded placements.
We’re simplifying eligibility checks for funded hours, making the process smoother and more efficient.
Even with all of these improvements tiney offers more than just payments services and it is vital that we remain sustainable as a business to enable us to continue to provide things like, training and coaching support, INSET days, reduced first aid training costs, discounts and benefits including online GP services and legal, tax and counselling helplines alongside your business insurance arranged by Morton Michel. As a member of the tiney community you also benefit from the community support and much much more.
Tiney childminders operate in hundreds of different local authorities and the funding team will be reaching out to each LA over the coming months to discuss our plans with them and ensure we can work together for the benefit of tiney registered childminders in the area. If you are in contact with your local authority and they would like to speak to us they are able to call or email our dedicated local authority line.
My local authority says that tiney is not able to charge the tiney fee on funded payments, what does this mean?
Tiney have spoken directly to the Department for Education who publish the relevant guidelines for local authorities. They have given us written confirmation that tiney is able to charge our fee in the normal way on all hours of care provided by our childminders including those paid via funded hours. We have communications confirming this that we are able to share directly with any local authorities who require it. We are also always happy and available to meet with any local authorities who would like to do so!
If i decide to stop childminding or move to another registering body within 2 years do I have to pay the leaving fee of £500?
Yes, the standard terms and conditions apply if you do decide to leave tiney at any time. You can read our terms here https://www.tiney.co/terms/ and refer to your registration commitments.