Early Years Pupil Premium: Pre-school support funding
Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is additional funding for early years pre-school settings to improve the education they provide for disadvantaged 3- and 4 year-olds including, but not restricted to, those adopted from care.
The funding goes directly to registered early years providers (including pre-schools, nurseries and childminders) that offer children the free early education entitlement.
What it pays for?
Funding equates to £302 per child per year (pro-rata for children who access less than the full free early years entitlement) and early years providers can choose how they use the money to improve the quality of provision they offer. For instance, they could:
- Pool the Early Years Pupil Premium to purchase shared services such as an Early Years Graduate or Speech and Language Therapist
- Provide additional training for staff
- Enhance speech and language development initiatives
Who is eligible?
Early Years Pupil Premium can be claimed by the early education provider if a child at their setting is accessing free early education and the child is:
- aged 3 or 4 (but not 4 year-olds in reception class at school)
- living in England
- has left care under an adoption order or a special guardianship order or a residence order/child arrangements order
or
- the child’s parent or carer is in receipt of a qualifying benefit
The nursery or pre-school settings will ask parents to self-declare that their child meets the eligibility for the Early Years Pupil Premium. It is not compulsory, but it helps the provider if parents are willing to provide this information. The provider will need to see supporting evidence of the child’s eligibility – usually a copy of the adoption court order (any sensitive information can be obscured).
Further information
The government have published the EYPP guide for local authorities with full details on funding and how it is distributed.