Once providers have been successfully commissioned to become a FEEE provider within Waltham Forest, a contract (FEEE Terms and Conditions) will be drawn up between the local authority and individual organisation, a generic copy of the contract 'Final FEEE Terms and Conditions' is available for information on this page.

The contract requires FEEE providers to meet Ofsted and other additional statutory requirements. These additional statutory requirements are outlined for schools by the Department for Education (DfE) and for those on the early year register by Ofsted in the 'Framework for the regulation and inspection of provision on the Early Years Register (Oct 2014)' 

The key schedules (appendices) of the contract:

• Schedule 1 - EYFS Guidance April 2017 (for a one sheet summary of the changes please see Foundations Years)
• Schedule 2 - FEEE Financial Guidance
• Schedule 3 - Ofsted Framework
• Schedule 4 - Early Education and Childcare statutory Guidance for Local Authorities 

Providers wishing to be a FEEE provider must complete the process to be commissioned by the local authority to deliver the Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) first. 

Contract Compliance

There are a range of different statutory requirements under the EYFS which early years providers MUST comply with. These requirements are detailed in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Guidance. These are quality assured by Ofsted and impact on the ability of the local authority to fund providers.

MUST Self Assessment

In order to assist early years providers to meet these requirements, Waltham Forest has developed two self-assessment documents that extract from the EYFS statutory guidance the requirements that MUST be met in regards to:

• Learning and Development 
• Safeguarding and Welfare 

Completing these self-assessment documents on a regular basis will enable you to:

• evaluate whether you are compliant with statutory requirements;
• identify where you are non-compliant;
• take the appropriate action to address areas of non-compliance
• ensure that there is clarity around functions and responsibilities that have been allocated to specific staff members,
• staff member have sufficient training and experience or knowledge that allow them to fulfill these roles properly and that they are allocated sufficient time to fulfill these roles.

Compliance Checks

During Autumn term 2016 and Spring term 2017, Prospects Ltd were commissioned to undertake Compliance Checks for all FEEE providers across Waltham Forest to ensure that the conditions of the FEEE contract were being adhered to in order to provide consistent and equal access to safe, free entitlement across the borough.This process highlighted the following as the most frequent areas of non-compliance:

• Conditions of access preventing a child from taking up their free entitlement, e.g. requiring parents to purchase additional sessions/hours/uniforms, pay a registration/membership fee, etc
• Invoices issued by the Provider for parents who pay for additional hours in addition to the FEEE not reflecting the free entitlement for the specific billing period and were unclear on the fees charged for additional hours/services accessed
• First Aid boxes were not regularly checked to ensure appropriate levels of stock and contents were in date, and medication was not clearly labelled with child's name
• Parental declarations were not fully completed, signed and retained by the setting

To support FEEE providers to take the appropriate steps to resolve these issues guidance has been provided on the following:

• Example of FEEE invoice to parents
• NDNA - Invoicing Guidance for the PVI Sector
• Conditions of access preventing a child from taking up their free entitlement
• Terms and Conditions - Fees and charges
• Conditions of access and invoicing parents - settings should have a financial terms and conditions or a contract in place in order to meet their statutory duty to make it clear to parents/carers what is free and what they are paying for. This prevents any ambiguity and provides clear information should questions or concerns arise.