The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2021

Early years pupil premium

17.—(1) When determining—

(a) budget shares for nursery schools maintained by it;

(b) amounts to be allocated in respect of nursery classes in schools maintained by it;

(c) amounts to be allocated to relevant early years providers in its area;

(d) amounts to be allocated in respect of community early years provision in schools maintained by it,

a local authority must include in the amount to be allocated an amount equivalent to 53 pence for each child eligible who is eligible for the early years pupil premium, for each hour of early years provision that the child receives, up to a maximum of 570 hours.

(2) A child is eligible for early years pupil premium if the child—

(a) is eligible for funded early years provision under regulation 3(3) of the Early Years Provision Regulations 2014;

(b) receives at least one hour of such provision; and

(c) either—

(i) the child’s parents are receiving one or more of the benefits in paragraph (3), or

(ii) the child has previously been looked after by a local authority and is no longer so looked after as a result of the making of an order in paragraph (4).

(3) The benefits are—

(a) universal credit where the child’s parent has, in the relevant period, earned income not exceeding the applicable amount;

(b) income support;

(c) income-based jobseekers’ allowance;

(d) income-related employment and support allowance;

(e) support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;

(f) the guaranteed element of state pension credit;

(g) child tax credit (where the recipient is not also entitled to working tax credit and has an annual gross income of no more than £16,190), and

(h) working tax credit run-on.

(4) The orders are—

(a) an adoption order within the meaning given by section 46(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002(1);

(b) a special guardianship order within the meaning given by section 14A(1) of the 1989 Act(2); and

(c) a child arrangements order within the meaning given by section 8(1) of the 1989 Act(3) which consists of, or includes, arrangements relating to either or both of the following—

(i) with whom the child is to live;

(ii) when the child is to live with any person.

(5) A local authority must include in the amount to be allocated for relevant early years provision or community early years provision in its area an amount of £302.10 (equivalent to 53 pence multiplied by 570) for each looked after child aged three or four years old in the local authority’s area.

(6) The allocation referred to in paragraph (5) must be managed by the local authority’s designated virtual school head for the benefit of the educational needs of the relevant looked after children as described in their personal education plans (that is, plans relating to the children’s education and training, including as far as is relevant and reasonably practicable the information in paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010(4)).

(7) In paragraph (6), “virtual school head” means a person appointed by a local authority under section 22(3B) of the 1989 Act(5) for the purpose of discharging the local authority’s duty set out in section 22(3A) of that Act (duty to promote the educational achievement of children looked after by the authority).

(8) No early years provider may receive an amount of more than £302.10 per child under this regulation.

(9) A child who on 1st April 2018 was eligible, or after that date became or becomes eligible, for early years pupil premium continues to be so eligible notwithstanding any change in circumstances which would otherwise result in paragraph (2)(c)(i) ceasing to be satisfied or, in the case of paragraph (3)(a), the earned income of the child’s parent subsequently exceeding the applicable amount.

(10) In this regulation—

(a) “earned income” means income for the purposes of Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013(6);

(b) the relevant assessment period and the applicable amount are those referred to in the following sub-paragraphs as applicable—

(i) except where paragraphs (ii) or (iii) apply, where the parent had earned income which did not exceed £616.67 in the universal credit assessment period(7) immediately preceding the date of the request for early years pupil premium (period 1)—

(aa) the relevant assessment period is period 1; and

(bb) the applicable amount is £616.67;

(ii) this paragraph applies where paragraph (i) does not because the applicable amount referred to in that paragraph is exceeded and there is a universal credit assessment period (period 2) immediately preceding period 1 referred to in that paragraph—

(aa) the relevant assessment period is the sum of period 1 and period 2 (SAP); and

(bb) the applicable amount is £1,233.34;

(iii) this paragraph applies where paragraph (ii) does not because the applicable amount referred to in that paragraph is exceeded and there is a universal credit assessment period (period 3) immediately preceding period 2 referred to in that paragraph—

(aa) the relevant assessment period is the period made up of SAP and period 3; and

(bb) the applicable amount is £1,850;

(c) where the parent referred to in paragraph (3)(a) is—

(i) a member of a couple who have jointly made a claim for, and are in receipt of, universal credit; or

(ii) a member of a couple but has claimed, and is in receipt of, universal credit as a single person,

references to applicable amounts in paragraphs (i) to (iii) of paragraph (b) as applicable are to be read as references to the combined income of the couple;

(d) “parent” has the meaning given by section 2(2) of the Childcare Act 2006.

(1)

2002 c.38.

(2)

Section 14A was inserted by section 115(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

(3)

Section 8(1) was amended by section 12 of the 2014 Act.

(4)

S.I. 2010/959.

(5)

Section 22(3A) was inserted by section 52 of the Children Act 2004 (c. 31); section 22(3B) was inserted by section 99 of the 2014 Act.

(6)

S.I. 2013/376. Chapter 2 of Part 6 is concerned with earned income for the purposes of calculating an award of universal credit.

(7)

An assessment period is prescribed by regulation 21(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 as a period of one month beginning with the first day of entitlement and each subsequent period of one month during which entitlement subsists.