London Borough of Waltham Forest commissions providers to deliver free early education and childcare places to eligible 2, 3 and 4 year olds as part of the Governments scheme . In Waltham Forest we refer to this as the Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE). 

In order to be commissioned by Waltham Forest Council to deliver these places providers must successfully complete the necessary compliance checks.

Legal and statutory requirements providers have to meet 

Ofsted sets out in its Childminders and childcare providers registration requirements that ‘All registered childcare providers must follow any relevant legislation, including laws about health and safety, disability discrimination, food hygiene, fire and planning requirements. Your local authority can provide advice to help you to identify and comply with your legal obligations.’

Ofsted provides further clarification in its Framework for the regulation of providers on the Childcare register that ‘Providers must also comply with other legal obligations. These may include employment laws, anti-discriminatory legislation, health and safety legislation, data collection regulation and duty of care’

It is essential to note that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements, as outlined by the Department for Education (DfE), operate in conjunction with these legal obligations. The EYFS requirements do not supersede or replace any other legislation that providers are obligated to meet. For instance, in settings where provision occurs in maintained schools, headteachers, teachers, and other practitioners must adhere to additional legislation specific to their context. These other duties on providers include:

• employment laws
• anti – discriminatory legislation
• health and safety legislation
• data collection regulations
• duty of care

The DfE also states that Local authorities should work with providers to ensure that all parents, have fair access to a free place, which must be delivered completely free of charge, and ensure that providers are completely transparent about any additional charges, for example, for those parents opting to purchase additional hours or additional services.

'Working together to safeguard children' outlines the local authority's overarching responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people in their area.

Local Authority Compliance Checks

Prior to the local authority issuing a contract to a DfE-registered school, Ofsted-registered childcare provider or a Childminder Agency, to deliver FEEE places to eligible 2, 3 and 4 year old's, the local authority requires providers to demonstrate their understanding of the key areas by completing the relevant compliance checks.

Childcare on Domestic Premises should complete the compliance check for childminders. Childminding Agency should complete the compliance check for Childminder Agency

The Compliance Checks are all to be completed online:

• FEEE Business Compliance Check 1 for All Schools & PVIs

• FEEE Premises, Health & Safety Compliance Check 2 for All Schools & PVIs

• FEEE Safeguarding Compliance Check 3 for All Schools & PVIs

• FEEE Compliance Check for Childminders

• FEEE Compliance Check for Childminder Agency 

What is the aim of the compliance checks?

These compliance checks aim to:

• Work in partnership with childcare providers to establish whether their assessments of their compliance with the requirements within it are in line with the local authority's.
• Empower childcare providers to understand and comply with their key/statutory requirements in order to inform their service/development/action plans and improve the quality and safety of their provision.
• Enable childcare providers to take appropriate action to reduce the risk of them failing to keep children safe.
• Identify where there are non-compliance issues and provide recommendations/information to enable childcare providers to meet their legal/statutory requirements.
• Allow the local authority to establish where there are common areas of development or where support, advice and training is required which will inform Early Years strategic planning.
• Make the requirements the local authority places on providers clear in relation to keeping children safe to avoid the need to refuse to fund providers who are unable to meet these requirements.
• Give an overview/snapshot of compliance with key statutory requirements at the time of the health check being undertaken

Providers who fail to demonstrate that they have an understanding of and comply with key elements set out by completing a compliance check, will not be commissioned by the local authority as providers to deliver Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) places to eligible 2, 3 and 4 year olds. 

Are there any costs involved?

Costs will be incurred if providers compliance check submissions require any more than two evaluations by the Early Years Childcare and Business Development Service and more than a single site visit  to successfully complete the compliance check process, all subsequent Compliance Check evaluations and site visits will be chargeable at £425 per day.

What compliance checks must I complete?

Childminders must complete 

• Childminder Compliance Check 

Childminding Agency must complete

• Childminder Agency Check

All new schools and PVIs must complete the following:

Kindly select each of the clickable boxes below to access information regarding the completion of each of the compliance checks.

FEEE Compliance Checks Flowcharts

• FEEE compliance checks 1, 2 and 3 flowchart for PVI and schools
• FEEE compliance check flowchart for childminders

Compliance with Ofsted & Waltham Forest FEEE Contract