The School and Early Years Finance and Childcare (Provision of Information About Young Children) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024

Additional criteria and disadvantaged two year olds requirement: early years

38.—(1) Subject to regulation 37, in 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 may, in its formula, provide additional funding to the provider, taking into account any or all of the criteria specified in paragraph (2).

(2) The criteria which a local authority may take into account for the purposes of paragraph (1) are—

(a) the rurality or sparsity of the population of the area;

(b) pupils and children whose first language is not English;

(c) the qualifications of staff;

(d) the estimated cost of sharing expertise with other early years providers;

(e) the degree to which providers offer flexible provision to parents.

(3) Paragraph (4) applies where a local authority’s per child amount for a provider in respect of disadvantaged two year olds is less than the authority’s per child amount for the same provider in respect of working parent two year olds.

(4) In 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,

in respect of disadvantaged two year olds, a local authority must, in its formula, take into account a factor that has the effect of ensuring the per child amount a provider receives in respect of disadvantaged two year olds is equal to, or more than, the per child amount the same provider receives in respect of working parent two year olds.

(5) In this regulation, the “per child amount” is X/Y, where—

(a) X is a local authority’s notional budget share for a provider or notional amount to be allocated to a provider in respect of disadvantaged two year olds or working parent two year olds, as the case may be, which would be determined under regulation 11(9), but for the operation of paragraph (4);

(b) Y is the predicted total number of hours of attendance of pupils or children who are disadvantaged two year olds or working parent two year olds, as the case may be, used by the authority to determine the provider’s notional budget share or notional amount to be allocated under regulation 11(9) in accordance with regulations 10(5) and 31(1).

(6) In calculating X, the authority must deduct any amount of funding attributable to—

(a) regulation 33(1) (early years pupil premium);

(b) regulation 34(1) (disability access fund); and

(c) regulation 35(1) (differential funding),

in respect of disadvantaged two year olds or working parent two year olds, as the case may be.

(7) A local authority may disregard the requirement under paragraph (4) if authorised to do so by the Secretary of State under regulation 41(1)(r).