Dealing with Parental Disputes

The Early Years Team are occasionally contacted by parents with queries around their free early years entitlement place.  All parents are encouraged to initially contact their early years provider with their query and to exhaust the provider's own complaints process before contacting the Council.  If the parent does not receive an answer they consider satisfactory from the provider, they can contact the Council via the Have Your Say process and the Early Years Team will look into the query.  The process for this is outlined in this document for parents entitled ‘Information on financial disputes for parents/carers relating to free early years entitlement places’.  It outlines the Council's responsibilities, the responsibilities of the provider as detailed in the Provider Agreement, the process for raising concerns around the free early years entitlements & how these will be dealt with.