Early Years and Education System (EYES) - Funding

Surrey Early Years has now moved to a new Establishment Portal - Early Years and Education System (EYES) for providers to claim funded entitlements. This change is to align all early years and education teams in Surrey, giving a single view of a child and better supporting joint working.

The link to the Establishment portal will be shared with you once you have registered to provide the funded entitlements, or you can find it by following the re-direction message on our previous portal page.

Please see the information below for all you need to know about claiming funded entitlements through the Establishment Portal.

Page contents

• Key dates
• Estimates
• Live Register
• Headcount
• Early Years Census
• Custom dates form
• Training and guidance
• Access - registration and change of details
• Your questions answered
• Funding portal user guides
• Sign up to the Childcare and Early Education E-bulletin

Key dates

Please see the timeline of key dates for Spring 2025 below.

Estimates

Please note that from autumn 2024 Surrey County Council will no longer make automatic estimate payments for universal 3 to 4-year-old children to group settings.

All providers will be able to electronically submit a request for an estimate payment for all funded entitlements each period within the Establishment Portal.

This will make estimate payments more accurate as they will be based on the numbers of children you will be expecting to attend your setting in the next period.

Please check the calendar within your portal account for information on when estimate submissions are open each funded period. You will be unable to request an estimate outside of these dates.

Please see the training and guidance section, and the guidance at the bottom of this page regarding submitting an estimate.

Live Register

Please ensure that you keep your Live Register up to date in the Establishment Portal, this will make submitting estimates and headcount requests much easier once the submission window is open. You can add children to the Future Starters section who will be joining you later in the year and move them onto the Live Register once they have attended.

Please see the training and guidance section, and the guidance at the bottom of this page regarding adding children to the Live Register.

Headcount

As well as adding children to your Live Register you are required to submit a headcount each funded period. Please check the calendar within your portal account for information on when headcount submissions are open each funded period. You will be unable to request a headcount payment outside of these dates and will need to wait for a mid-term payment the following calendar month if you add children after the deadline.

Please see the training and guidance section, and the guidance at the bottom of this page regarding submitting a headcount.

Early Years Census

The Department for Education's Early Years Census takes place each year in January, please keep an eye on your emails and the e-bulletin for census dates and weekly updates.
You will need to complete two sets of information in the Establishment Portal.

Please note that we will not make any Spring headcount payments until we have received both the child level census information for each child and a Census Sufficiency e-form from you. Failure to return both parts of the census information may result in your removal from the Surrey Directory of Providers which will leave you unable to claim funded early education
In preparation for completing your Early Years Census you should ensure now that all your setting information is correct within the Establishment Portal and your Live Register is up to date. If any of your setting details are incorrect in the Establishment Portal you should complete a new registration form here Funded Early Education enquiry and inform Ofsted of any changes.

Some school based nurseries are required to complete an Early Years Census:

• Schools who operate a nursery where children are not pupils of the school (section 27/governor run provision).
• Nurseries operated as a separate business to the school by an academy trust.
• Private providers on school sites.
• Independent Schools claiming funded early education
• Schools and maintained nursery schools who have a separate Ofsted registration for children under the age of 2 years.

The following school based nurseries are not required to complete an Early Years Census:
Schools and academies who have lowered their school age and return nursery pupils on their termly school census, maintained nursery schools admitting children aged 2 years+.

For questions about census please contact censusfee@surreycc.gov.uk

Please see the training and guidance section, and the guidance at the bottom of this page regarding submitting a headcount with census and early years census sufficiency form.

Custom dates form

The Early Years and Education System (EYES) will be pre-populated with the funded term dates for you and it will therefore no longer be a requirement for you to add your own open dates.

If you operate for less than the maximum funded days per term, open for less than 38 weeks per year, or operate a 2 week October half term you should let us know by completing a Custom dates form Custom dates form 2024 to 2025 (PDF).

Inset days should be taken outside of funded term dates and are not funded.

Training and guidance

E-learning is now available via Olive to support you with using the Establishment Portal.

You can return to modules as and when you are ready to complete them.

Help and guidance on using Olive can be found on the Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership website: Olive guidance

We are also running further dedicated virtual support sessions covering the following topics:

• Early Years Census and Census Sufficiency Form submission

These are taking place during January 2025 and can now be booked on here Surrey Early Years Support Services.

Please find a full system demonstration video here for information.

Please also see specific video demonstrations below:

• How to submit an estimate
• Adding to the Live Register
• Submitting a headcount
• Submitting your Early Years Census and Census Sufficiency Form

Access - registration and change of details

All group providers, schools admitting 2 year olds, and childminders wishing to provide funded early education must please complete the Online e-form which is available here: Funded Early Education enquiry.

If you operate multiple sites, or under multiple Ofsted registrations please note you should complete an e-form for each registered site and claim only for the children attending that setting. For example, if you operate Under 2s and Over 2s provision from 2 separate sites with their own Ofsted registrations you should claim for the child through the account for the site where the child currently attends.

This form will confirm who will need access to the Establishment portal at your setting, so that an account can be set up for you.

You should also use this form to indicate which funded entitlements you intend to offer. Please note that if you intend to admit 2 or 3 year olds from the date of their birthday, rather than the term after, you will need to register for the age group below e.g. to take eligible working parent entitlement funded children from their second birthday you will need to register to provide funding for under 2s.

If you wish to add or remove users from your existing Establishment Portal account you can do so here Funded Early Education enquiry.

If you wish to make changes to your setting details you should complete a new registration here Funded Early Education enquiry and make Ofsted aware of any changes.

Your questions answered

Please see PDF attached below.

Funding portal user guides

Please see PDF guides attached below.

Sign up to the Childcare and Early Education E-bulletin

This is where all key information, dates, and training will be published. You can sign up here E-bulletin updates for early education and childcare professionals.

Files available to download

• Statutory Early Years Census Submission 2025 information (PDF)
  For childcare professionals, answers to questions regarding the Early Years and Education System (EYES)EYES portal and Early Years Census for January 2025.
• Early Years and Education System (EYES) information (PDF)
  For childcare professionals, answers to frequently asked questions regarding the Early Years and Education System (EYES)
• Early Years Establishment Portal registration guide (PDF)
  This guide shows providers how to register to get on to the Early Years Establishment Portal
• Edit Provider and Staff Details on the Early Years and Education System (EYES) (PDF)
  A guide for providers to edit their details, along with staff details, in the Early Years and Education System (EYES) to ensure records are kept up to date.
• Submit an estimate for funded hours on the Early Years Establishment Portal (PDF)
  This guide shows providers how to submit an estimate for funded hours on the Early Years Establishment Portal
• Add future starters to the Early Years Establishment Portal (PDF)
  This guide shows providers how to add children to the establishment portal that are due to claim funded hours soon.
• Add to the Live Register on the Early Years and Education System (EYES) (PDF)
  A guide for providers on how to add children to their live register, using the Early Years and Education System (EYES), to receive their funded entitlements.
• Glossary of flags and lozenges (PDF)
  A glossary on the flags showing when claiming child funded hours in the live register.
• Amend funded hours on child record (PDF)
  A guide for providers on how to amend funded hours when claiming for children on the live register.
• Remove a child from the live register (PDF)
  This guide is for providers to show details on how to remove a child funding claim from the live register.
• Submit a headcount (with or without census) (PDF)
  This guide shows providers how to submit their termly child claims headcount (with or without census) using the Early Years and Education System (EYES).
• Establishment Portal payments screen (PDF)
  A guide for providers on how to access the portal payments screen, which provides a breakdown of all child funded hours claimed
• Apply for Funded Early Education for 2-year-olds using Parent Portal (PDF)
  A guide for Providers and Parents to apply for 2-year-old disadvantaged funding via the Early Years and Education System (EYES).
• Early Years Census Sufficiency Form (PDF)
  A guide for providers on how to complete the Early Years Census Sufficiency Form including general setting data, staff details and detail on childcare places.