Early Years Funded Entitlement actuals
How to submit your termly census and claim Early Years Funded Entitlement, Early Years Pupil Premium and Disability Access Fund.
There are two Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE) claims per term:
- Estimate (optional) - completed before the start of term. Providers who are paid monthly must submit an estimate, or will need to wait until the final month of the term for their actuals payment
- Actuals (mandatory) - completed at headcount time
You can add or amend data any time up until the submission deadline date, at which point the portal closes and no further changes can be made.
Find out more about scheme administration and how to claim on our web page Providing Early Years Funded Entitlement (EYFE).
Check the actuals submission date.
Accessing the portal and completing your termly census
Before submitting your actuals each term, you must complete your termly census. This is mandatory each term for all EYFE providers that have at least one funded child.
The data collected is used by the Department for Education to calculate the amount of EYFE funding for each local authority.
We recommend that you gather information before you complete the form so that you can complete it efficiently. We recommend:
- total numbers of children attending your setting during headcount week (whether funded or not) by their age on the final day of the previous term - for spring 2026 this would be their age on 31 December 2025
- the highest level of full and relevant qualification for each member of staff
If you would like help with calculating what age group your children belong to, use the spreadsheet below.
Guidance on how to complete the termly census can be found in the Introductory guide and census document and in the video below.
The above introductory guidance also covers:
- accessing your actuals
- removing children from your claim who you no longer wish to claim for
- what you need to do if you are not claiming for any children for a term
Once you have completed the termly census, you can then proceed with submitting your actuals using the below video and help guides.
Additional information
You can update and create claims on your actuals before completing your termly census. However, you cannot submit these until the termly census is complete. It is recommended you complete the termly census first.
New Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) claims are entered at the same time as actuals claims.
Disability Access Fund (DAF) claims are entered at the same time as actuals, and this is payable as a lump sum once a year per child. If an eligible child is splitting funding across 2 or more providers, the parent will need to nominate the main setting where the county council will pay the DAF for the child. This is completed via the parent declaration form.
In addition to this, you will need to submit evidence that the child is currently eligible for Disability Living Allowance and the fully completed parent declaration form. Visit our Disability Access Fund page for further guidance and to submit evidence via our web form.
Once you've submitted your updates, it may take up to 10 days to appear on your summary screen, where you will be able to see details of how much EYFE funding has been paid and when.
Children awarded Local Authority (LA) Issued 2 year old EYFE who start after headcount can be funded. Additionally, children in the 9 month plus age group can be funded if starting after headcount. However, these children will need a valid EYFE for Working Families eligibility code.
To find out more and claim after the headcount, refer to the Requesting funding after headcount web page. Children starting after headcount must not be included in your actuals.
All children carried forward from the previous term will have zero hours. You must enter the number of hours you wish to claim. This is intentional so that providers do not accidentally over-claim.
EYFE providers must sign a provider declaration portal form when a new one is released, to continue to be registered to offer EYFE to funded children. Providers without funded children may continue registration if they wish, so that they are ready to take funded children without having to re-register for the scheme.