Important thread for #TeamELC

Payments for funded ELC hours will continue for the duration of closures. We see these payments as a vital part of safeguarding our childcare sector for the pandemic recovery & achieving our 1,140 ambition together for Scotland’s children.

On 17 April the UK Government published further guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for early years providers in England. While this guidance is for England only, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a UK-wide scheme administered by HM Revenue & Customs.

We are continuing to seek further clarification from the UK Government on aspects of this guidance. Following this we will provide further updates to our own guidance as soon as we possibly can.

We know that providers in Scotland are concerned about what this means for the overall level of support that they can receive and we have provided as much initial clarification as we can here https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-childcare-closures-and-emergency-provision/pages/private-and-third-sector-providers-financial-support/

The guidance published on 17 April does NOT prevent childcare providers from receiving support through both:
continued payments for statutory (funded) ELC hours; and
the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

However support cannot be claimed through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for staff costs that already covered by other forms of public funding.

You can access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to cover up to the proportion of your paybill which could be considered to have been paid from private income.

The guidance advises that providers should initially use the month of February 2020 to represent their usual income in calculating the proportion of its paybill eligible to be covered by the scheme.

For example, if 40% of your average monthly income was from payments for the funded entitlements & 60% from other income, then you could claim Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme support for up to 60% of your total paybill.

This would be done by furloughing staff whose usual salary/combined salaries come to no greater than 60% of your total paybill.

The online system for reimbursement through the Job Retention Scheme was launched on 20 April and claims can be made https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wages-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Further information on the range of support available to providers can be found https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-childcare-closures-and-emergency-provision/pages/private-and-third-sector-providers-financial-support/