Question: What funding options are available for children's services providers?

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Maintaining education and skills training provision: further education providers
section_headers: Funding
19 funding arrangements (grant-funded providers)
section_content: As we will use data from the 2019/20 academic year to calculate 16 to 19
allocations for 2021/22, the ESFA may need to apply a different approach to a
number of elements within 16 to 19 funding. Where appropriate we will
therefore use alternative data sources to calculate allocations for 2021/22 to
ensure as far as possible that there is not a disproportionate impact on
funding.
*[ESFA]: Education Skills Funding Agency

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
The question isn't about how the funding is calculated. It didn't answer the question.
the answer addresses calculating funding, but it doesn't talk about what type of funding is available. The question asked about what type of funding is available.

Reviewer ratings:
Bad
Could be Improved

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Coronavirus (COVID-19): financial support for education, early years and children’s social care
section_headers: Which options should be used
section_content: Due to the variety of organisations in the education, early years and
children’s social care sectors and the different types of support on offer, it
may be appropriate for organisations to access a mixture of different support.
However, we expect that all relevant organisations should first consider any
potential options to reduce their operating cost and secure commercial loans
(including CBILS, CLBILS and CCFF outlined above) before seeking to access
grant paying schemes like the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or seeking
specific support from the Department for Education (DfE).
For organisations that are classified as public sector, and where there is
continued public funding, staff that are supported by that public funding
should not be furloughed. For public sector organisations where there is also
private income which ceases or has reduced, it may be appropriate to furlough
staff who would typically be paid from that private income, subject to the 5
conditions below.
We would encourage organisations to first consider how they would be able to
redeploy their existing workforce to help support the coronavirus (COVID-19)
response. Educational settings that are in receipt of some public funding
should only furlough employees, and therefore seek support through the
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, if they meet the following conditions:

the employee works in an area of business where services are temporarily not required and where their salary is not covered by public funding
the employee would otherwise be made redundant or laid off
the employee is not involved in delivering provision that has already been funded
(where appropriate) the employee is not required to deliver provision for a child of a critical worker and/or vulnerable child
the grant from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme would not lead to financial reserves being created

It is also essential that the grant from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
should not be duplicative of other public grants that your organisations may
receive. DfE is considering appropriate measures to monitor use of these
schemes in order to detect any duplication of funding, and will be considering
potential options to recover misused public funding as required.
We are also developing an online tool that will support the education, early
years, and children’s social care sectors, in working through this guidance,
and understanding the different funding and financial measures available to
support them, and their workforce, through this period of disruption caused by
coronavirus (COVID-19).
[CBILS]: Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
  [CLBILS]: Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme
  [CCFF]: COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility
  [DfE]: Department for Education

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
It's a thorough answer. It talks about many different aspects.
the question asks about funding options for childcare providers, and the answer goes into good detail explaining the different options.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Coronavirus (COVID-19): financial support for education, early years and children’s social care
section_headers: Sector-specific guidance
Children’s social care providers
section_content: Ensuring that vulnerable children remain protected is a top priority for
government. Our aim is to ensure that children’s social care providers are
able to continue to provide care to vulnerable children and to operate
effectively during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
We are asking providers to remain open and to continue to deliver care and
support to their vulnerable children and young people. We would anticipate
local authorities continuing to fund any contracted or commissioned providers,
but where appropriate, providers may wish to consider accessing support
measures for which they may be eligible to help them remain operational during
this period, such as the business interruption loan schemes. Please refer to
the respective guidance page as linked above for more information.
As placements will continue to be needed, local authorities will continue to
pay fees to children’s social care providers. As these payments for essential
services will continue, we would expect providers not to furlough staff, and
for provision to remain available to support vulnerable children. The
government has also announced £1.6 billion of extra funding for local
authorities to help address pressures arising from coronavirus (COVID-19),
including in children’s social care.
In the rare circumstances that providers feel they have no choice but to
furlough staff, they should only seek support through the Coronavirus Job
Retention Scheme if they meet the following conditions:

the employee works in an area of business where services are temporarily not required and whose salary is not covered by public funding
the employee would otherwise be made redundant or laid off
the employee is not involved in delivering provision that has already been funded
the employee is not required to deliver provision for a vulnerable child
the grant from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme would not duplicate other public grants received and would not lead to financial reserves being created.

Residential provision
State-funded residential children’s social care provision is offered in state-
maintained schools, non-maintained special schools and independent schools.
While the educational costs are funded from the DSG, the residential costs are
met from social care budgets. Local authorities will continue to receive
funding for social care provision and should continue to pay residential costs
so that the employment and payment of staff supporting children and young
people who require residential provision can continue.
Some independent schools have joint registration as a children’s home, and are
effectively funded by local authorities that place the children in those
settings. This funding should continue.
*[DSG]: dedicated schools grant

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
It's a thorough, relevant answer. It gives important information.
the answer doesn't really discuss the different types of funding available. it talks more about childcare places staying open, and there are only a few generic mentions of funding.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Could be Improved