Who Signs Funding Forms

By default, every parent marked Has Parental Responsibility on a child’s record fills in their details and signs the funding form. Some councils only need one parent’s declaration. If yours is one of them, you can switch your setting to One parent, and families choose which parent signs.

​

Choosing who signs

1. Go to Settings > Funding.
2. In the Who Signs Funding Forms card, choose an option from the Who signs dropdown:

3. Click Save.

The panel beside the dropdown explains what the selected option means for families.

​

What changes with One parent

​

On the form

When a child has two or more parents with parental responsibility, the Parent Details section of the form starts with Who is signing this form? and a choice of parents.

• A parent completing the form online has themselves selected to start with. They can pick the other parent instead, for example if that parent is the one with the eligibility code.
• Staff completing the form pick the signing parent themselves. Nothing is selected for you, so saving a form never chooses a signer the family didn’t pick.
• Only the chosen parent’s Eligibility Code, NI Number, Date of Birth and signature are needed. The other parent’s section shows Not signing this form.
• If the family is claiming extended hours, the eligibility code has to be the signing parent’s. The council checks the code against that parent’s NI number and date of birth, so a code entered for the other parent is not used.

The choice can be changed at any time until the form is submitted. Once it’s Awaiting Approval or Approved, it is locked.

​

When the form is submitted

Pigeonhole checks that the chosen parent has signed before the form can be submitted. If no parent has been chosen, or the chosen parent hasn’t signed, the form can’t be submitted and a message says what’s missing.

​

On the PDF and council export

• The signing parent appears as parent 1 on the PDF, and is the only parent on the declaration.
• The other parent is left off the PDF entirely, and off the council portal export.
• When you approve the form, only the signing parent’s NI number, date of birth, eligibility code and signature are saved back to their contact record. The other parent’s details are left as they were.

​

When you view the form

When you view a form, the signing parent appears under Signed By with their full details. Any other parents with parental responsibility are listed by name under Other Parents.

​

Changing the setting

You can change the setting at any time. It applies straight away to every form that hasn’t been submitted yet, including forms that are already with families:

• Switching to One parent: on forms already sent, families now see the choice of who signs. Any signature already added for the chosen parent is kept.
• Switching back to All parents: every parent with parental responsibility has to sign again before the form can be submitted.

​

Frequently Asked Questions

​

Should I use One parent?

Only if your council accepts a declaration from one parent. Check your council’s funding guidance or the parental declaration on their form. If you’re not sure, leave it on All parents with parental responsibility.

​

A parent picked the wrong person to sign. Can I change it?

Yes, as long as the form hasn’t been submitted. Open the form, change the choice under Who is signing this form? and save. If it has already been submitted, reject the form with a note so the family can correct it and resubmit.

​

Does this apply to paper forms?

Yes. On a manual form you choose who signs. If you upload a completed paper form instead of capturing signatures on screen, no signer needs to be chosen. See Ways to Complete a Form.

​

The wrong parents are listed on the form.

The parents offered are the ones marked Has Parental Responsibility on the child’s contacts. Check that flag on each contact.