Brent Council Free Early Education (FEE)
Code of Practice
Brent Council enters all the claims from nurseries into a single database. They check & cross references all claims made to ensure that no child claims more than 15 hours of free entitlement at one or more nursery. If duplicate claims are found, Brent Council will contact the nurseries involved.
Birth certificate and confirmation of home address: We must see your child's birth certificate to verify that your child is eligible to claim the free entitlement.
We must ask for confirmation of your eligible child's home address, e.g., a utility bill not older than three months.
Where there is any type of absence, for any length of period, we must now obtain proof of sickness and discuss the absence with parents/carers and notify The Council accordingly. The information obtained will be used by The Council to consider if the NEG funding should continue or the funding withdrawn.
- Holidays. If a parent is planning to take the child who is claiming the NEG for a planned holiday for more than two weeks during the claim period, we must inform The Council. They will advise us of the appropriate course of action. The decision may result in the non-payment of the NEG during the holiday period.
- Sickness and other absences. Where your child is absent due to sickness or circumstances beyond your control for more than two weeks or where there are frequent bouts of sickness resulting in absence (equalling two weeks or more), we must notify The Council. They will advise us of the appropriate course of action.
- Bank holidays. The FEE allows us to claim for the bank holidays during the entitlement claim year, where the bank holiday falls within the grant term.
Withdrawal: Please note that your child's funding is not transferrable to another nursery. The Local Authority code of practice states that , “...Brent Council will not require Providers to pay back monies to Brent Council when a child leaves the setting after the headcount date on the understanding that if a new child starts after the headcount date, the NEG funding already received would be used for the new child. We would however expect that we are informed of any changes that occur during the term”.