Early Entitlement Funding Scheme, Flintshire
Application for the Spring term starting on 8 January 2024 term are open for children with the date of birth 1 September 2020 to 7 January 2021.
Applications for the Summer term starting on 8 April 2024 open on 12 February 2024 for children with the date of birth between 8 January 2021 to 7 April 2021.
Children with dates of birth between 8 April 2021 to 31 August 2021 are not eligible for Early Entitlement funding but will need to fill out an application for Nursery School starting in September 2024 - the application can be found here: https://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/Resident/Schools/School-Admissions.aspx
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Click here to open the application form
Personal data will be processed by Flintshire County Council for the specific purposes of administering, monitoring and managing the Early Entitlement Scheme. ‘Personal data’ may relate to the parent/s or child. Flintshire County Council will process the personal data as part it’s ‘public task’ under section 118 of the School Standards Framework Act 1998, to secure the provision of sufficient nursery education for its area and to assist it in providing consistent good quality education for three- and four-year-olds in Wales.
The Early Entitlement Scheme provides educational provision for 3 year olds whose birthdates fall between certain dates in September and March/April of each year. The Early Entitlement Scheme requires Flintshire County Council and your chosen setting to share personal data, which will be limited to only what is necessary for the delivery of the scheme. If you are not a Flintshire resident but are applying to attend a setting based in Flintshire, your personal data may be shared with the Local Authority where you live for fraud prevention and detection purposes.
Flintshire’s Early Entitlement Team supports the educational provision of 3 year old children and, in order to do this, it may share information about Early Entitlement registered/funded children’s attendance at Early Entitlement settings and/or their development, with internal Flintshire services such as Flying Start, Early Years and Family Support, Inclusion, Psychology and with Flintshire school staff. The Early Entitlement Team may also share information externally with the North East Wales Sensory Support and Speech and Language Services, Flintshire Pre-School Development Team and health visitors. Where necessary, for the purpose of supporting your child’s education and wellbeing, the Early Entitlement Team may also share information gained from the above internal and external services with your child’s chosen Early Entitlement setting.
Flintshire County Council will retain your information until your child’s 18th birthday.
For further information about how Flintshire County Council processes personal data and your rights please see our privacy notice on our website or request a copy from the Council.
Relevant legislation:
- The School Standards Framework Act 1998
- The Nursery Education and Early Years Development and Childcare Plans (Wales) Regulations 2003 (amended by the Education (Nursery Education and Early Years Development and Childcare Plans) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2005)
- The Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021
How we use your personal information for Contact Centre purposes
The Council provides services for local communities and the people who live in them. Undertaking this work means that we must collect and use information about the people we provide services to and keep a record of those services. Because we collect and use personal information about individuals we must make sure that they know what we intend to do with their information and who it may be shared with.
We have summarised in this privacy notice some of the key ways in which we use your personal information in the Early Years Team and why we record calls.
This information should be read in conjunction with the Council’s corporate Privacy Notice.
Who we are, what we do
The Early Years is a team responsible for answering incoming telephone calls for The Childcare Offer, Childcare Development Team, Early Entitlement and the Westwood Centre.
All calls to Early Years Team are recorded with the exception of:
- Calls where payments are made
- Calls that leave the Early Years Team, i.e. transferred internally to departments as recording ceases at the point of transfer
What and whose personal information we hold
Where customers choose to interact with the Early Years Team their personal data may be shared with the relevant service area/and wider organisations if necessary in order for them to process the customer’s request.
Excluding Payment card details, all dialogue and information provided by the customer to the Westwood Centre (and vice versa) during a telephone call with the Early Years Team, is captured and held in the call recording. The type of information that recordings will hold will vary by call but typically includes:
- Contact detail such as name, address, telephone number, property and email addresses
- Identifying details, including date of birth and national insurance number
- Financial information, including employment, income, bank account details
- Family information including ages, dependents, marital status
- Information about the subject matters health and medical details.
Where does the service get my information?
The source(s) of personal information provided during a call to/from the Early Years Team may include:
- Information provided directly by the subject matter
- Information provided by another member of the public (e.g. complaint or concern)
- Information provided by an elected Councillor on behalf of their constituent
- Information provided by other Council officers/services that liaise with the Early Years Team in the interests of its customers, or the Council itself
- Information provided by other organisations (e.g. Emergency Services, Landlords) regarding an individual.
What we will do with your personal information?
It has become common practice to record calls due to the growth of business conducted by telephone. Recording customer conversations allows the Council to assess customer satisfaction, train and develop staff, review call quality, and have access to a verbal record of what is said in the event of a subsequent complaint.
It also means employees feel more protected knowing that any threatening behaviour can be evidenced and acted upon where necessary.
Information held within a call recording can be used in the following ways:
- Quality and Training Purposes - Written records only provide partial information. A call recording provides a more rounded view and allows us to better understand customer experience and assess the processes applied. This can help us identify any improvement areas and ensure the quality of service provided by Customer Contact Officers, by using the information within the recording to inform training subjects and individual employee development plans
- Gaining a better understanding of our customers – Many calls are verbally resolved without the need to complete any records. Listening to sample calls will help us better understand our customer needs, and gain a more informed view of organisations we signpost to.
- Complaints and Disputes - Some calls are verbally resolved. Where information is entered onto an electronic system this becomes the established record. In the event of a complaint or dispute, a call recording (if available), may provide additional information to help us investigate any allegations, to protect the interests of the subject matter and/or the Council by using the information within the recording to respond to complaints regarding the Contact Centre and/or other Council services.
- Legal Claims - For use in the defence of legal claims against the Council.
- Employee Safety and Wellbeing - A recording may become a vital piece of evidence in the event of any threats being made to the Council or an individual.
What is the legal basis for the use of this information?
The recording of calls protects the interest of the subject matter and the Council in meeting:
- Legal Obligations – using the information to comply with a common law or statutory obligation
- Public Tasks – to exercise ‘official authority’ and powers that are set out in law; or to perform a specific task in the public interest that is set out in law.
Does the service share my personal information with any other organisation?
Whilst information gathered during a call may be shared with other Council services or external organisations to assist in the resolution of the subject matters enquiry, call recordings are confidential and will only be shared with the following, where reasons for sharing is justified:
- Other Council services who work with the Contact Centre, with the intention to assist in resolving a dispute or complaint
- Other organisations involved in the care of the subject matter (i.e. Social Services/Health care professionals etc)
How long will my information be kept?
Call recordings held by the Contact Centre are retained for 24 months. Once this period of retention has expired, recordings will be deleted and no longer retrievable.
Your information, your rights
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you important rights, including the right to access the personal information the services hold about you.
For further information on your information rights and how to exercise them. visit our Data Protection page.
Contact Us
If you have any concerns or would like to know more about how the Early Years Team is using your personal information please contact us in one of the following ways:
By email: EarlyEntitlementapplications@flintshire.gov.uk
By telephone : 01352 703930
In writing: Early Years Project Support Officer, Tabernacle Street, Buckley, Flintshire CH7 2JT
Your child can have a place in an Early Entitlement registered setting for either:
- 5 sessions a week, one per day, of 2 hours duration
- or 4 sessions per week, one per day, of two and a half hours duration
This will depend on what the setting of your choice is providing.
An Early Entitlement registered setting may be one of the following: ·
- a playgroup
- a private day nursery
- a nursery class or early years unit in a local school
Settings who receive funding must:
- be registered with, and inspected by, Care Inspectorate Wales
- have qualified staff
- be inspected by Estyn
- provide the stated sessions
- accept the support of a qualified teacher on a regular basis
For the avoidance of doubt, Flintshire County Council does not endorse or recommend any particular setting and the obligation is on the parent / carer to ensure that the setting they select is suitable for provision.
You may apply by completing a registration form at the link below.
You can apply for funding at only ONE setting.
Funding goes directly to the setting each month (January - July).
Although Flintshire County Council provides funded Early Entitlement sessions as directed by the Welsh Government, you may be asked by private nurseries for ‘top up’ fees to meet the cost of a full morning or afternoon session at the setting.
Funding Entitlement
Please see Flintshire County Council’s Guide to Education Services for detailed information about the admissions process: School Admissions.
It is Flintshire’s aim to provide the best early years experiences for our young children through quality play.
For more information:
- Early Entitlement/ Childcare Offer Team, Tel: 01352 703930 or email: eefundingapplications@flintshire.gov.uk
- Family Information Service Flintshire (FISF) Tel: 01352 703500
- Early Years Wales Tel: 01745 530111
- National Day Nurseries Association Tel: 01824 707823
- PACEY Cymru Tel: 0845 880 1299
- Mudiad Meithrin Tel: 01978 363422
Before completing the registration form:
- Please check with your chosen childcare provider that they are registered as an Early Entitlement provider
If you have a child eligible for Early Entitlement but been unable to find an education place for them in a particular area within Flintshire please contact the Early Years Support Team on 01352 703930.
- Please ask your Early Entitlement provider:
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- If there is a space available for your child to receive Early Entitlement funded education and if so, how many hours per week can your provider offer your child? Your child is entitled to a maximum of 10 Early Entitlement funded education hours per week.
- Which days and times are available for your child to attend?
- Please agree with your Early Entitlement provider which days and times your child will attend.
If your provider offers your child 10 hours of Early Entitlement funded education but you choose not to take up the full 10 hours, you may approach your provider at a later date to increase your child's funded education hours up to the maximum of 10.
This change can be requested unless, at any point, you agree with your provider in writing that you do not wish to increase your child’s Early Entitlement hours over the course of the Spring/ Summer term/terms.
PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR CHILD IS REGISTERED WITH YOUR CHOSEN EARLY ENTITLEMENT SETTING OR THAT THE SETTING HAS YOUR CONTACT DETAILS BEFORE COMPLETING THE REGISTRATION FORM.
Completing the registration form:
You will be required to supply a photocopy of your child’s birth certificate at the time of registration (If you are applying via post, please do not send in your original copies - please only supply photocopies).
You have 6 weeks to submit all required evidence to support your application, after this time incomplete applications will be closed and a new application will need to be submitted online should you wish to pursue the application further.
Please complete the registration form below, ensuring that you identify the correct Early Entitlement provider in the drop down box on the form.
It is important that you let us know immediately if the hour’s change, you switch to another provider, your move home or your email address changes. If you do not inform us your Early Entitlement funding could be lost.
What happens next?
We will contact you to let you know your application has been approved.
You may receive an e-mail from us, from time to time, to confirm that your circumstances remain the same.