Dear Service Provider

In 2024/25, Compliance conducted a number of pilot compliance visits on Core Funding on behalf of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. One of the key findings arising from the pilot was the different approaches used by Partner Services to record staff attendance.

It is important to clarify the key requirements in relation to staff attendance record keeping to ensure Partner Services are meeting their contractual obligations under the Core Funding programme (as outlined below). In order to meet the requirements, a service must maintain staff attendance records so that they can monitor patterns of staff attendance and update their Core Funding Application Module when required. These records are also used by Compliance to conduct compliance checks on the programme.

The staff attendance records must be maintained in a format to allow compliance to be checked i.e.

• It is essential that there are staff attendance records for each room/session.
• Staff must record their own arrival and departures times, in real time, in the appropriate room/session record.
• Rosters and staff plans/rotas which are prepared in advance will not be accepted as a staff attendance record as they do not record time of arrival and departure in real time.
• Absences must be recorded. The cover staff must record their arrival and departure times as above.
• Movement between rooms must be recorded.
• Lunch breaks and staff who cover in the room must be recorded (with relevant actual start and end times)
• No pre-signing of arrival or departure times
• Full names to be used
• Original (source) records must be retained (i.e. transcribed records are not acceptable for compliance checks)
• The same requirement applies if staff attendance records are maintained in electronic format/software package. The package should have the functionality to generate attendance reports for each room/session.

The requirement to maintain staff attendance records is outlined in the Core Funding agreement:

4.5.4 ‘In order to assist the Department and Scheme Administrator during the Term of this Agreement, the Partner Service shall maintain appropriate records to enable verification by the Department or agents acting on its behalf that the general terms of this Funding Agreement and the detail of the Rules document are complied with. This includes appropriate records to enable verification of all data provided by the Partner Service under this Funding Agreement” .

These records can then be used to assist in updating the Core Funding Application Module where there are material or significant changes which affects the Typical Week for a period of time greater than four weeks, as required by the funding agreement i.e.

‘Within the context of Core Funding, the Department defines a material or significant change as one which affects the Typical Week for a period of time greater than four weeks.

This is under the assumption that the Staffed Capacity of the typical week as declared on the Core Funding Application is maintained. If this is the case, there is no requirement to record these changes unless they are going to continue for a period greater than 4 weeks. It is an obligation of the Partner Service to record all material or significant changes on the Hive.’

We would request that each service considers their approach to maintaining staff attendance records to ensure they are meeting the requirements of the programme.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank providers in advance for your continued co-operation with compliance checks.

Regards,
Pobal & DCDE Compliance Teams