Invoices and receipts must be clear, transparent, and itemised allowing parents/carers to see they have received their child's early years entitlement completely free of charge and understand the fees paid for additional hours or services.
Please be aware that there is no requirement for children accessing a purely funded place to be issued with an invoice.
The early years' entitlement should not be deducted as a monetary subsidy from the total fees charged.
Invoices must show the number of funded hours/sessions within the invoicing period, the number of paid for hours/sessions (if applicable) and the hourly/sessional rate agreed with parents/carers and as published.
Early years' providers can charge for meals and snacks as part of an early years' entitlement funded place and they can also charge for consumables such as nappies or sun cream and for services such as trips and musical tuition. Parents/carers should therefore expect to pay for these, although providers should be mindful of the impact of additional charges on parents/carers. Providers, who choose to offer the early years' entitlements, are responsible for setting their own policy on providing parents/carers with options for alternatives to additional charges, including allowing parents to supply their own meals or nappies, or waiving or reducing the cost of meals and snacks.
Invoices and receipts should include the early years' provider's full details so that they can be identified as being issued by a specific early years' provider.
Invoices must show the number of meals and snacks in the invoicing period and the rates charged.
Invoices must show itemised charges for additional services such as trips, extra-curricular activities such as language, music, or dance tuition.
Charges for additional hours and services not associated with the early years entitlement funded hours are a private matter between the provider and the parent. The local authority will not intervene where parents/carers choose to purchase additional hours or additional services. However, providers are continued to be reminded of their signed contract around charges to parents, ensuring that they are completely transparent with any additional charges prior to a parent taking up their child's funded place.
Parents/carers should not be charged for consumables that are required to deliver the requirements of the EYFS, for example craft materials, books, toys and equipment or an administration/service charge to cover online registers, qualified teaching staff, staff training, learning journals etc. Core costs of running a business that delivers early years' entitlement funded childcare, are not consumables used by the child or additional services provided to the child. These include, but are not limited to, insurance, Ofsted registration, maintenance, business rates, training costs, rent and energy bills. These are core costs of running a business and we expect these to be covered by early years' entitlement funding and that parents should not be charged.
Example invoices are attached to this page.