Early Implementation

30 hours of free childcare

Expressions of Interest:
Guidance Notes

October 2015

CONTENTS

Section 1: Policy context and scope

Section 2: Aims & delivery objectives
Section 3: Early Implementer eligibility checklist
Section 4: About the application process
Section 5: Assessment criteria
Section 6: Scoring and assessing your application
Section 7: Grant arrangements
Section 8: Reporting arrangements
Section 9: Timetable
Section 10: Further information and FOI

SECTION 1: Policy context and scope

Context
The Government has made clear its intention to roll out the extended free
childcare entitlement in some areas from September 2016 in advance of full
implementation from 2017.
The extended free childcare entitlement for working parents of three- and
four-year-olds will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free
childcare per week, over 38 weeks or 1,140 hours across more weeks per
year.
The additional 15 hours of free childcare will help hardworking families
manage the cost of childcare and support parents into work or to work more
hours, should they wish to. This is in addition to the existing 15 hours of free
early education which is available to three- and four-year-olds and eligible
two-year-olds.
The recently published policy statement (2 October 2015) sets out more
information about our plans for the extended entitlement and can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childcare-bill-policy-statement.
Please read this to help you consider how you might shape your expression of
interest.
Local Authority Led Delivery Model
The current entitlement to free early education for three- and four-year-olds
and two-year-olds who meet the eligibility criteria, is delivered by a local
authority (LA) supply side delivery model in which providers are funded by
local authorities. This model is extremely successful with 99% of four-yearolds and 94% of three-year-olds taking up a place 1.
The Government will build on this success with the extended free entitlement
for working parents and deliver the early implementation via a local
authority(LA) supply side delivery model. The Secretary of State for
Education will discharge the duty in clause 1 of the Childcare Bill (the duty to
secure 30 hours of free childcare for working parents) through all local
authorities in England.
The new extended entitlement and early implementation provides an
opportunity to look at how improvements can be made to the local authorityled delivery model. We want to ensure that the system is simple and flexible
for parents to use; that it welcomes and incentivises a range of quality
providers to deliver the entitlement; and offers value for money.
1

Provision for children under 5 years of age: January 2015

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/provision-for-children-under-5-years-of-age-january2015

Eligibility Checking
Government is considering options for a single electronic eligibility and
application system. It is possible that this will, however, not be in place for
September 2016.
The Department will provide successful areas with further detail about how
eligibity checking will work both during early implementation and for full rollout in due course.
Funding
Funding for early implementation will be allocated on a participation basis.
The Government has committed to increase the average funding rate paid to
providers. It is currently undertaking a review of childcare costs in order to set
a rate that is fair for providers and delivers value for money for the taxpayer.
The report will be published in the autumn and its content will inform SR
decisions on funding levels.
Scope of the trials
We would like early implementation to test and examine the practical ways in
which local authorities and providers can work collaboratively to expand the
number of places available, to ensure they are of high quality, and to identify
the level of parental demand for places.
We expect that the lessons from early implementation, along with learning
from current free entitlement, will help all local authorities and providers to
better understand the opportunities to:

Improve and sustain good quality early education and childcare

Stimulate growth in the local market to increase capacity in early education
and childcare settings (including with childminders);
Maximise provider flexibility to fit parental working patterns (parents tell us
this is their top priority in response to the recent online consultation with
parents).
Stimulate parental demand for the new entitlement to act as work incentive
and overcome barriers to take-up; and,
Test the childcare eligibility checking system, and interactions with
Universal Credit.

SECTION 2: Aim & delivery objectives

Aim
To enable some local authorities, from September 2016, to test how best to
deliver the additional entitlement to all eligible children and increase the level
of parental demand for places, overcoming the range of challenges around
supply and quality.
Delivery objectives
To fund some LA areas to deliver the 30 hours offer from September 2016 for
eligible three- and four-year-olds. More specifically we want early
implementers to deliver the following objectives:

Test a reformed LA led delivery model to drive market innovation and

efficiency, trialling different ways of supporting providers to achieve
economies of scale and reduce costs.
2. Generate models of flexible provision which match parental working
patterns and meet different child needs including those with SEND, in
homeless families and from BME and rural communities.
3. Increase market capacity to secure sufficient places in a range of
different geographical areas and local markets, including bringing in new
providers.
4. Work with Government to maximise parental take-up and
employment, using behavioural insights techniques to trial nudge
messaging to parents to act as a work incentive.
5. Work with Government to test technical delivery systems,
including eligibility checking and interactions with Universal Credit, to
ensure a smooth journey for all customers; and,

6. Positively promote the 30 hours childcare offer, to help build

momentum and maximise parental take-up on national roll-out.

SECTION 3: Early Implementer eligibility checklist

This checklist has been designed to help you decide whether you are eligible
to become an early implementer and whether this trial is right for you before
you go to the time and expense of submitting a formal EOI application.
You must be able to answer yes to the following statements in order to be
eligible to become an early implementer.
The impact of the activity and any direct delivery of the services are in
England.
The lead body making the bid is a local authority with a strong track
record in delivering current free entitlements.
Where possible, we welcome innovative proposals from LA/provider
partnerships or consortia. To note: The lead body of a
consortia/partnership bids must be a local authority.
Is willing to participate in behavioural insight and national evaluation
activities to test whether the additional 15 hours can act as a work
incentive.
Is willing to trial eligibility checking processes.
Commitment to innovate to create flexible childcare for working
parents.

SECTION 4: About the application process

1)

Introduction

The application form asks you to tell us about your proposal in becoming an
early implementer from September 2016.
Section 5-6 of this guidance explains: the assessment process and criteria
(how your proposal will be scored). Section 9-10 sets out the timetable and
where you can find out further information. Details on how to return your
application form are set out at the beginning of the application form.
There is also additional guidance notes within the application form that
explain how your answer will be assessed and scored by the Department
and what we are looking for in your answer for each of the questions.
2) The assessment process
All of the information requested in the application form must be provided
to enable your application to be considered.
The Department will assess the information you have provided in this
application form and will notify you of the outcome early in the new year.
This is a competitive process, only the highest scoring proposals will be
awarded early implementer grants within the available funding. The
Department reserves the right to determine the number of applications
that are successful based on the quality of the bids received, ensuring an
appropriate spread of proposals across early implementation policy
priorities.
Your application is not an agreement or contract. Meeting the selection
criteria does not guarantee funding. Funding is limited and applications will
be assessed and prioritised according to the extent to which they meet the
delivery objectives described in section 2. Due to the high volume of
interest in becoming an early implementer, only high-quality applications
will be considered for funding.

SECTION 5: Assessment criteria

Bids will be prioritised from local authorities which set out creative and
innovative proposals to promote the efficient and effective delivery of early
implementation.
The final selection will seek to secure a mix of local authorities to provide a
spread that represents the different types of local authorities and localities.
These will include (and in no particular order):
a) regional spread of local authorities;
b) a mix of rural/ urban areas; and
c) deprivation - please note that we shall seek to support
bids across a range of levels of deprivation, to include localities of
both concentrated and dispersed deprivation within an otherwise
less deprived area.
d) disadvantage - including those with SEND, in homeless working
families, and from BME and rural communities.
Bids will be assessed against the following criteria:
1.

Summary of your proposal - reasoning and characteristics of

your LA Bids need to set out: the reasons for why you want to be
an early implementer and should evidence your track record to
drive innovation and ensure sufficiency; your track record for twoyear-old delivery and delivering for diverse needs and areas e.g.
deprivation, rurality, children with SEND, in working homeless
families. For partnership bids, you will also need to provide
evidence of the LA and provider partnership.

2.

Project delivery and outcomes - bids need to set out what you
are proposing to do; the market challenges and issues being
addressed; your project plans; and what you hope to learn or
achieve at key points throughout the trial. Bids should demonstrate:

An understanding of the likely supply and demand for 30

hours of free childcare;

A commitment to ensure that there is sufficient places to

meet demand;

specific actions to be taken to increase the availability of

places in the selected area;

specific measures seeking to improve the quality of settings;

how, subject to parents wishes, the new offer will provide

flexibility for working parents;

targeted measures to increase and drive take-up rates

among eligible families.

how you will meet the needs of particular communities

including those in deprived neighbourhoods, rural areas;
children with SEND; homeless working families; and low
income working families.

3.

Monitoring, evaluation and shared learning bids should include

a clear commitment, supported by high level plans, to engage
actively in peer learning throughout the trial. Local authorities
should set out any materials that they anticipate would be made
available, including any materials that could be published on the
Departments website, or that of our partners, for wider
dissemination.

4.

Robust plans for staffing, governance and management of

risks how the trial will be managed and governed, and the
management of delivery risks.

SECTION 6: Scoring and assessing your application

Bids will be scored against the criteria set in Section 6 and on the application
form. The application form also sets out weighting of the total score.
The scoring matrix below will be used to ensure a consistent approach is
taken when scoring applications. Each section of your proposal will be
scored out of a maximum of 5 using the rating scale in the table below. This
score will then be multiplied by the stated weighting. For example, 1x 4 (4);
2x4 (8); 3x4 (12) to produce the final score.

Score
0
1
2
3
4
5

Description
No evidence/response.
Poor response. Very little evidence of appropriate knowledge,
capability or experience.
Unsatisfactory. Some evidence of appropriate knowledge,
capability or experience. Meets requirements in some areas but
with important omissions.
Satisfactory. Reasonable evidence of appropriate knowledge,
capability or experience. Meets requirements in many areas but
not all.
Very Good. Sufficient evidence provided of appropriate
knowledge, capability or experience. Gives assessors confidence
in the LAs ability to deliver the required project.
Exceptional demonstration of the relevant ability, understanding,
experience, capability, resources and quality measures required
to provide the project. Meets all requirements outlined in the EOI
guidance.

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SECTION 7: Grant arrangements

Successful local authorities will be issued with a grant letter which will set out
the expectations of successful applicants and grant payment arrangements.
All grants will need to be fully spent and all funded work must be completed
by 31 August 2017 ahead of planned full implementation from Sept 2017.

SECTION 8: Reporting arrangements

All local authorities selected as an early implementer will be asked to produce,
as a minimum, a mid-year progress report to the Department at the end of
April 2017 and an end-year report to the Department by the end of September
2017.
This will comprise:
End of April 2017

A two four page overview of the trial achievements and successes

against outcomes and project plans, any challenges or issues with
delivery, any mitigations or changes to project plans, and spend.

By the end of September 2017

An overview (up to ten pages) of the trials achievements and

successes, and learning (main challenges or issues and how they were
overcome) that could be shared with other local authorities or
providers, and spend.

Delivery of any learning products, including any materials that could be

published on the Departments website or that of our partners.

National Evaluation To maximise learning opportunities on early

implementation, we are currently considering options around national
evaluation activities which we will want successful LAs to participate in

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SECTION 9: Timetable
The Department will aim to follow the timetable below. Whilst the Department
does not intend to depart from the dates provided, it reserves the right to do
so at any time.

Process

Timeline

Organisations register their interest

28 September 2015

EOI and supporting documents released

28 October 2015

Deadline for questions about the Early

Implementers and the application process

13 November 2015

Deadline for applications to be submitted to the

Department

20 November 2015

Notification of outcomes

Late 2015 - Early 2016

Event for all successful bidders*

15 February 2016

Negotiations with Early Implementers to agree

high level work plans

22 February 2016

Agreement signed between Early Implementers

and the Department

25 March 2016

Preparations for Early Implementation delivery

1 April 2016

Early Implementers commence

1 September 2016

*The Department will be holding a briefing event in the week commencing 15

February for successful bidders to update them on any decisions around the
additional 15 hours that were made during the assessment process. The
briefing event will be held at a central London venue.
Your application must be sent by email by noon on Friday 20th November.
Information about how to send us your application is provided on page 2 of
the application form. When you have sent in the Department your application
form, you will receive an automatic email response letting you know that your
application has arrived with us.

SECTION 10: Further information and FOI

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Questions
If you have any questions you would like to ask about the application
process, which are not already covered in this guidance, or in the Frequently
Asked Question (FAQ) document, you can email
Early.IMPLEMENTERS@education.gsi.gov.uk The enquiry email box will
close at noon Friday 13th November. During this period, updated FAQ will
be emailed to all bidders on a weekly basis.
For general questions on delivery, please insert policy delivery question
into the subject line of your email.
For questions about the application or assessment process, please insert
bidding process into the subject line of your email.
To note:
1) We are not able to respond to individual enquiries directly, as we need
to ensure, as far as possible, that all applicants are able to access
information at the same time. We will therefore circulate responses to
queries to all bidders at the same time.
2) We are not able to answer questions about the specifics of what you
would like to include in your proposal as again this may give an
applicant an unfair advantage over other applicants.
Freedom of Information
The Department is committed to open government and to meeting its
responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Accordingly, all information submitted to the Department may need to be
disclosed in response to a request under the Act.
If you consider that any of the information included in your proposal is
commercially sensitive, please identify it and explain (in broad terms) what
harm may result from disclosure if a request is received, and the time period
applicable to that sensitivity.
You should be aware that, even where you have indicated that information is
commercially sensitive, we may still be required to disclose it under the Act if
a request is received. Please also note that the receipt of any material marked
confidential or equivalent by the Department should not be taken to mean
that we accept any duty of confidence by virtue of that marking. If a request is
received, we may also be required to disclose details of unsuccessful
proposals.

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