Streamlining Funding for Authorities, Providers and Parents
Local authorities face increasing complexity in administering entitlements, from the expanded 30‑hour offer starting September 2025 to strict compliance with rising pass‑through thresholds and the Disability Access Fund (DAF) and Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) demands.
Sentinel's Early Years Funding Portal streamlines the process by providing a secure, three‑way connection between providers, parents, and the Local Authority. It ensures accurate headcount submissions, automates eligibility checks, supports termly and monthly payment schedules, and generates compliant reporting outputs, helping you meet statutory deadlines and funding transparency requirements.
“The solution has made our process much smarter, enabling us to go completely paper-free. We’re now one of the few local authorities paying providers monthly based on actuals, and the flexibility of the system means we can manage borough operations in real time rather than waiting for the census."
London Borough of Bromley
Early Years Team
Powerful Features, Real Impact
Connected and collaborative
Secure online portal linking providers, parents, and local authority teams—making data collection fast, accurate, and transparent.
Flexible claims and payments
Supports monthly or termly claims, stretch funding, and real-time payments based on actual attendance—including the expanded 30-hour entitlements from 2025.
Automated eligibility checks
Instantly confirms eligibility for government-funded places, including Early Years Pupil Premium, Disability Access Fund, and support for working parents. Automatic re-checks help maintain accuracy over time.
Smarter data management
Handles headcounts, split funding arrangements, and generates census-ready files—fully aligned with Department for Education requirements, including Section 251 returns.
Clear funding oversight
Track payments, supplements, and compliance with funding rules, including rurality, deprivation, Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund (SENIF), and Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) levels.
Integrated, secure and scalable
Built for security, transparency and flexibility, with encrypted data transfer, full audit trails, and easy integration with finance systems and other Sentinel tools.
