User Guide for our Assessed Carers (SGO, CAO, RO & Adoption)

On this page

• Introduction
• Logging On and Password/Code Reset.
• Home Screen
• Care Package Line Items
• Scheduled Payments
• Actions
• I am a Dual Carer
• Remittance Advice
• Annual Carer Statement
• Email Notifications

Introduction

Welcome to the Finance Provider Portal for Bradford Children and Families Trust.

We aim to keep this guide up to date, so please access it directly from our support page instead of saving a copy on your device.

The Finance Provider Portal allows you to communicate with us, receive documents from us and view your own payment information. This page contains key information, guidance and support that you will need.

Logging On and Password/Code Reset

To get started click the link below: financeproviderportal.bradford.gov.uk

You should now be greeted with a log-on screen:

1. Please enter the email address you provided us with.
2. Enter your password.

If you are logging on for the first time, or after a password reset, you will be prompted to change your password – please change it to something memorable.

Passwords must meet the following criteria:

• Minimum length: 9 characters
• Must have at least 1 alphabetic character
• Must have at least 2 non-alphabetic characters (numbers or special characters)

3. You will then be prompted to create a 6-digit code.

From thereon, every time you login – you will need to enter your email address, password and then you will be asked to enter two random digits from your 6-digit code.

Forgot your Password:

If you forget your password or it has expired, please click on the Request a new Password link, and fill out the form. Our System Support Team will email you with your password reset.

Users will have 3 attempts to correctly enter your password. After 3 incorrect attempts, you will be locked out and you will need to fill out the Request a new password form, using the link.

Within the Organisation Name field: enter what the request is. In this case it is ‘Password Reset’.

Forgot your Security Code:

If you forget your 6-digit code, please click on the Request a new Password link, and fill out the form. Our System Support Team will email you with your password reset.

Users will have 3 attempts to correctly enter your code. After 3 incorrect attempts, you will be locked out and you will need to fill out the Request a new password form, using the link.

Within the Organisation Name field: enter what the request is. In this case it is ‘Security Code Reset’.

Please note – if you do not log in to the Provider Portal for 3 months, your account will become inactive.

Home Screen

Once you have logged in – you should see a series of icons in the body of the screen. You will also have the option to change either your password or 6-digit code using the links on the right.

Care Package Line Items

Care Package Line Items (CPLI) – these are the service or cost provisions that our Finance Officers add in our finance system. The CPLI triggers the payment in our finance system. These provisions will be for allowances we pay, fees, expense claims and so forth.

The portal therefore allows you to view all the children you are caring for and the payments associated with each child. The information you see in the portal is a direct copy of what is in our finance system. This screen confirms that we have set up your payments.

On the screen you will see the following:

• SSRef – this is the Child’s or Young Person’s reference number, our identifier
• Client – the name of the Child or Young Person
• Service – this would be you, the carer
• Service Level – this will relate to what the payment is for, you can filter by service level as well
• Start Date – when the service or payment has been commissioned to start
• End Date – if applicable
• Cost – the weekly or one-off payment amount
• Care Package Ref – unique ID for that CPLI, automatically generated by our finance system
• Authorised – this shows if the CPLI has been authorised (in our finance system) and not still a draft provision

By default, the system will only show active or open CPLIs, so if you want to view historical CPLIs, ensure you tick the Include Historical box.

For the skill fee payment, you will see a service level description of:

• Skill Fee – 1^st Child – if it’s the first or only child placed with you
• Skill Fee – Additional Child – if it’s a second (third, fourth etc) child placed with you

All other service levels in this screen will likely cover the following payment types:

• Allowances (Standard, Non-Standard, Transitional, Birthday/Festival/Holiday)
• Other Ad-hoc Payments

Deductions: there may be a deduction to the allowance amount and therefore the final amount that is paid out. If you are in receipt of child benefit, this will be deducted from the weekly allowance. If you are subject to a financial assessment and assessed as needing to contribute – that contribution amount will be deducted from the allowance. You can view these deductions within the Scheduled Payments section of the portal.

Scheduled Payments

This screen will give you total payments per child or young person within a set payment period – both payments which have already been made and any awaiting payment on the next pay run.

You would need to select the payment period of interest from the left; it will select the current financial year by default:

Deductions: there may be a deduction to the allowance amount and therefore the final amount that is paid out. These are noted by the prefix ‘Income’. If you are in receipt of child benefit, this will be deducted from the weekly allowance. If you are subject to a financial assessment and assessed as needing to contribute – that contribution amount will be deducted from the allowance. You can view these deductions within the Scheduled Payments section of the portal.

The example above shows:

1. Child benefit amount deducted, (£52.10 / 2 weeks = £21.05, weekly child benefit rate for the 1^st child)
2. Means tested assessment deducted, (£10.00 / 2 weeks = £5 per week)

If you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a button to download a remittance advice report in PDF format:

Our finance officers may add remittance notes, if it helps to explain certain payment items or payment adjustments. You can see these notes at the top of the screen:

Actions

This section allows our finance team and you – to raise queries and exchange information.

Under the Action heading – you will have a New Action button. Click on this to raise a new query or to send us information:

This will produce the following form. Most of the fields will be dropdown lists that you need to select from:

• Type: select the type of query it is from the defined list. You MUST only use those prefixed with CAO/RO/SGO/Adoption Carer:

• Related To: should be set to client. If the query is not specific to a child or young person, select Contract instead.

• Entity: select the child or young person the query relates to.
• Due Date: this is optional but could be set to 7 days from today’s date.

We aim to respond within that timeframe, but if we have to defer your query to another team there may be a delay.

• Assign to: Allowances Finance Team
• Title: enter a title

• Text: enter as much detail as possible regarding your query.
• Attachment: you can upload any documents, receipts etc – so long as it is saved to your device. Click Choose File and select the file.

Once you have filled out the form, click on the Create Action button:

You will be able to view all actions raised within this screen. The Assigned To column indicates whether the action is with us to respond or if we have sent a response back to you. In the status column:

• Amber megaphone = action due
• Red megaphone = overdue
• Green megaphone = complete

When we have responded, the Assigned To column will update to ‘Provider’.

You can then click on this action to view the response(s):

• Reply: if you need to continue the query, click Reply
• Request Closure: if you are satisfied with the response and are happy for us to close down the action, click Request Closure

I am a Dual Carer

If you are or have been a different type of carer – and we have given access to the Provider Portal to that type of carer – you will be able to see payments and data for both.

Example: you are both a Mainstream Foster Carer as well as have a Child Arrangement Order.

You will need to make sure you select the right contract/service in the portal when viewing payments, downloading remittances, raising expense claims. You will see a dropdown on various icons.

You may see the following abbreviations in the naming conventions we use:

• CAO = Child Arrangement Order
• RO = Residence Order
• MFC = Mainstream Foster Carer
• KC = Kinship Carer
• MBC = Mockingbird Carer
• PTC = Part Time Carer
• REG24 = Regulation 24 Carer
• SGO = Special Guardianship Order
• STP = Staying Put

Some examples of where you will see these dropdowns, are below:

Remittance Advice

When you select ‘Reports’ from the portal home screen, you have the option of two reports. Select the Remittance Advice report.

This screen will give you detailed breakdowns of payments made within a defined payment period. You can select a payment period using the Finalisation dropdown.

If you receive more than one type of payment e.g., you are a Mainstream Carer as well as a SGO Carer, the Contract dropdown will allow you to view each type of payment separately.

• Excel: If you wish to download this data into a spreadsheet, click the ‘Download Data’ button.
• PDF: If you wish to download an electronic copy in a PDF format, click on the Floppy Disk Icon (save button) and this will allow you to save as a PDF file to your computer.

Our finance officers may add remittance notes, if it helps to explain certain payment items or payment adjustments. You can see these notes at the bottom of the remittance report.

At the bottom of the Remittance Advice, you will find details of the team to contact should you have any payment queries:

Annual Carer Statement

When you select ‘Reports’ from the portal home screen, you have the option of two reports. Select the Annual Statement of Carer report.

You can select the tax year from the dropdown, and then click View. The information will generate in a window below this section.

Once on this screen you can either Select Download Data to save as a or Click on the Floppy Disk icon (save).

• Excel: If you wish to download this data into a spreadsheet, click the ‘Download Data’ button.
• PDF: If you wish to download an electronic copy in a PDF format, click on the Floppy Disk Icon (save button) and this will allow you to save as a PDF file to your computer.

Email Notifications

This section allows you to decide what things you would like to be notified of by email. You can update this as and when you like. Your options are based on the icons you see on the home screen:

Tick the areas you would like to be notified of, when there is a change or something new to view – then click the Save button.