Around a third of local authorities were able to start using the EYSFF a year early.
Brent council implemented the EYSFF in April and will now share its experience with other local authorities in advance of the April 2011 deadline.
Denise Burke, the council's interim head of integrated and extended services, said that communication with providers had been key to the council's success in designing a workable model.
She said the Schools Forum included an EYSFF sub-group that included representatives from the PVI and maintained sectors.
'Brent worked very closely with the PVI and maintained sectors and carried everyone along on the journey. We didn't just drop this on providers, but worked with them. Now we've got the model we can tweak things a little, but for the most part it's been accepted.'
The formula includes a base rate of £3.25 plus supplements for deprivation, quality and flexibility, as well as a lump sum for maintained nursery schools to pay for staffing costs.
The quality supplement is based on two elements, staff qualifications and Ofsted reports. Staff with higher qualifications that are above a standard baseline defined by the council attract a higher enhanced hourly rate.
Brent is also working to develop a local quality assurance scheme involving early years advisory teachers, which could be used to determine the quality supplement.
The EYSFF sub-group agreed that around 10 per cent of the funding base rate should cover the deprivation supplement.
Providers have to meet various criteria to qualify for the flexibility supplement as either 'partially flexible' or 'fully flexible'.
A DfE spokesperson said, 'Officials from the Department visited Brent LA to understand their approach to the EYSFF. Over the coming months, we intend to ask all pathfinder LAs to share their learning with us.'