This form gives consent to providers to share a child's information with the local authority and the agreement of the number of funded hours a provider will claim on behalf of the family and the child's attendance patterns.
The completed form must be signed by the parent/ carer and childcare provider who must store it securely in line with GDPR requirements, until a time that the council may request to see it.
New parent declaration form - September 2026 to August 2027
A parent declaration must also be completed for any new starters eligible for funded hours and for any children from the point they become eligible for funded hours.
As the new parent declaration covers funded places from September 2026 until August 2027 the form will only need to be completed once per academic year if the child’s attendance and funding claims remain the same. However, a new parent declaration may need to be completed by providers and parents for the following circumstances:
- A child’s attendance pattern/ hours change from what was initially recorded into the new parent declaration for Sept 26 – Aug 27.
- The number of funded hours that the provider wants to claim on behalf of the family changes and / or any of the charges for extra hours or other services change.
Guidance
A video guide is available on YouTube.
Considerations when completing the parent declaration form:
- where possible, the form should be completed in advance of a child taking up their funded hours at the childcare provider but no earlier than the term before the child starts the funded hours.
- the hours a child will attend at the early years provider must be recorded, so a parent can see the funded hours their child will receive.
- childcare providers must claim the funded hours with the council in the same manner as they provide it to parents, i.e. if you claim funding as 38 weeks this is how parents must be supplied and invoiced for funding. Providers not supplying funding to parents in the same way they claim it could risk either overclaiming or being under funded if a child leaves during the term.
- Recording the Stretch Offer - Providers decide the number of funded hours and number of weeks they offer stretch funding to families. It is the number of weeks per year and number of funded hours a family receives each week that must be recorded to the parent declaration form. For example - a child accessing the full 30 hour entitlement across 51 weeks would likely be 22.35 funded hours per week, it is this that should be recorded in the parent declaration form.
- 38-week offer - Providers are reminded that the 38-week offer does not need to align to the (school) term time period and the funded hours can be offered to families outside this period (i.e. school holiday periods) in the same term. This could be of most use during summer term i.e. if a child starts their place in the month of May (and has not accessed funding anywhere else), a provider who is open during school holidays periods could still provide 13 weeks of summer term funding before the term ends in August.
- Parents must have sight of the populated form. Early years provider must not get parents to sign a blank form that the provider completes later without the parent/s seeing the completed form.