London Borough of Waltham Forest's Early Years Strategy states that ‘we will measure our success in the following ways’:

• All Early Years and Childcare provision are high quality, inclusive, safe and prepare children for school;
• The Early Years workforce has access to support, advice and training as well as development opportunities that lead to strong leadership, governance and quality service delivery.

What requirements do childcare providers have to meet to deliver FEEE?

In addition to the requirements outlined by Ofsted, there are a number of legal and statutory requirements for which Ofsted are not the regulatory body, or do not have overarching responsibility, however childcare providers MUST comply with these requirements by law.

The key areas with regards to keeping children, staff and service users safe are:

• Health and Safety 
• Employment Law
• Safeguarding
• Finance

'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 or an Ofsted-registered childcare provider to deliver FEEE places to eligible 2, 3 and 4 year olds, the local authority requires providers to demonstrate their understanding of the key areas by completing the relevant compliance checks.

The Compliance Checks are:

• FEEE Business Compliance Check 1 for All Schools & PVIs
• FEEE Premises, Health & Safety Compliance Check 2 for All Schools & PVIs
• FEEE Compliance Check for Childminders

DfE statutory guidance for local authorities on the provision of early education and childcare states that the local authority can place requirements on providers which relate to keeping children safe and can refuse to fund providers who are unable to meet these requirements.

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?

All new schools and PVIs must complete the following:

• Business Compliance Check 1
• Premises Compliance Check 2

All new childminders must complete

• Childminder Compliance Check

Compliance with Ofsted & Waltham Forest FEEE Contract