DfE confirms funding guidance for Queen's State Funeral bank holiday
The Department for Education has confirmed that early years providers who closed for the Queen's funeral on Monday 19 September should still receive funding from their local authority.
This follows the Queen's State Funeral which took place on Monday 19 September, which was a national Bank Holiday.
The government has confirmed that early years providers who close on this date should still receive early entitlement funding from their local authority.
The DfE says:
鈥淒fE statutory guidance (paragraph A4.37) is clear that local authorities should ensure providers are not penalised through withdrawal of funding for short term closures of a setting, for example, as a result of local or national elections or damage to the premises.
"Therefore, providers should not be penalised for closing as a result of the additional bank holiday, as is currently the case with other bank holidays. However, providers should be mindful of the impact on parents if they choose to close, and should be confident they can still provide the total number of hours parents agreed with the provider in their parental declaration.鈥
The DfE has previously stated that while schools and further education settings were not expected to remain open on the bank holiday, for early years providers, as with other bank holidays, it was "at the discretion of individual settings whether they close or stay open". The guidance added that "there was no expectation for early years and childcare settings to remain open on the bank holiday".
Further guidance from the DfE on the National Mourning Period is available .