Alliance welcomes clarity on free entitlement funding rules
31st March 2015
The Pre-school Learning Alliance has welcomed the recent clarification from the Department for Education that children related to staff at nurseries and pre-schools are eligible for free entitlement funding.
Confusion over the issue emerged after Lancashire County Council issued an email to local providers stating that they could not claim free entitlement funding for any children related to setting staff. However, the DfE has since clarified that this rule is not intended to apply to children related to members of staff in group settings.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:
鈥淲e welcome the clarification from the Department for Education on this issue, which will no doubt come as a great relief to many providers in Lancashire.
鈥淕iven the level of confusion that arose on this issue, it would seem sensible for the guidance on free entitlement funding for related children to be amended for greater clarity. This would prevent future misinterpretations, and ensure that all local authorities are clear when this rule does and does not apply.鈥
For further information, please .
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes for editors
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
- Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
- For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website: