EYPP Guidance and Resources
The EYPP is additional funding for early years providers to improve the quality of education they provide for disadvantaged 3 and 4 year olds receiving the Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE).
It is the latest step in the government's drive to provide high quality early years education for all children, no matter what their background, and builds on the FEEE for 2-year olds.
The Sutton Trust claims that children from disadvantaged backgrounds can start school 19 months behind their peers, but that good quality childcare can help to reduce this gap and have a significant benefit in terms of a child’s development.
This additional investment is to help early years providers raise the quality of their provision and aims to narrow the attainment gap between 3 and 4 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers.
Eligible providers
All registered early years providers that take children for the FEEE – including private, voluntary and independent providers and childminders – will be able to claim the EYPP for eligible 3 and 4 year olds.
If a provider receives an inadequate rating from Ofsted then no new children will be funded, and a second inadequate Ofsted rating will mean that all funding is removed as soon as practical.
Identifying eligible children
Children will be eligible if they are 3 or 4 years old, receiving Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) with any OFSTED registered childcare provider and their parents are in receipt of one or more of the benefits below:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit, provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400
Children will also be eligible if they have been:
- Looked after by the local authority for at least one day
- Have been adopted from care
- Have left care through special guardianship; and subject to a child arrangement order setting out with whom the child is to live (formerly known as residence orders)
Parents, adoptive parents, or guardians of these children should show authorities evidence of the court order that proves that the child was in local authority care in either England or Wales.
Asylum seeker children who attend early year settings attract EYPP funding in the same way as all other children.
Please follow the information on the Provider Portal when completing the headcount (see below) or call 0116 305 6208 to discuss how to process these applications.
If a child in local authority care is attending a setting in a different local authority, it is the responsibility of the local authority in which the setting is based to fund the EYPP.
Checking Eligibility
Early years providers are ultimately responsible for identifying eligible children and need to put appropriate systems in place in order to do this. Eligibility is checked by the local authority when the provider completes the termly headcount via the Provider Portal.
Once parents have completed the Parent Statement of Undertaking form below and completed the EYPP data segment, providers can find out if the child is eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium when completing the termly headcount.
Local authorities follow a different process for checking the eligibility of children who:
- have been adopted from local authority care
- have left care through a special guardianship order
- have left care through a child arrangements order
Local authorities cannot check such eligibility through the DfE’s eligibility checking system. Instead, the parents, adoptive parents or guardians of these children should show authorities evidence of the court order that proves that the child was in local authority care in either England or Wales.
Parents of children who are eligible under the adoption, special guardianship and child arrangement orders criteria, should be able to produce written evidence of their eligibility. Providers should retain copies for audit purposes.
Example of yearly PSOU form Opens new window
If the child is in the correct age range for EYPP, providers will be prompted to supply the supplementary information enabling the local authority to check eligibility.
The headcount report received by the provider will indicate which children are eligible. Providers must ensure that they check the headcount report so that they know which children they are receiving EYPP for. Providers must also inform parents if their child is eligible.
Once a child is eligible for EYPP they will then continue to receive this until they transfer to school. However, remember that if a child moves to another provision the funding follows the child. Ensure that relevant information is passed to the school to ensure that those children eligible for Pupil Premium receive it.
Providing the information to check for eligibility is voluntary. Providers should, however, discuss with parents the benefits the funding can have if eligible.
Providers need to be aware of the sensitivity of this data and hold this in line with their GDPR compliant Data Protection Policy.
Effective promotion of the EYPP and working together with parents/carers is crucial to ensure that those children eligible for the funding take it up. In particular providers should speak to the parents of children who took up the 2 year old FEEE as some of these children may attract EYPP when they turn 3 years old.
Parent resources for providers
The following resources will support providers in promoting the EYPP to parents:
Promoting the EYPP to parents Top Tips Opens new window
Looked After Children
If the child is looked after, the EYPP payment will be automatically paid by the Local Authority.
Administration of funding
The hourly rate for the EYPP is £0.66 per child (£376.20 for a full-time place of 570 hours per annum). The amount of EYPP paid is pro-rata dependent on the amount of early education entitlement the child accesses and the date that the child becomes eligible for EYPP.
Early years providers will receive payment alongside their FEEE actual or adjustment payments.
Please be aware that any funding accessed through the EYPP is additional and will not replace the deprivation supplement.
Transition to school and Pupil Premium
It is likely that EYPP children go on to be eligible for the Pupil Premium once they are in school, but it is not 100% definite. To ensure no child misses out on Pupil Premium early years providers should work with both feeder schools and parents to support take up.
Be aware that the funding works differently for the Early Years Pupil Premium (paid to early years providers) and the Pupil Premium (paid to schools) in how it is paid out, in relation to the eligibility criteria and in how eligibility is checked.
We have developed a leaflet for parents to raise awareness of the link between Free School Meals and the Pupil Premium in schools. It explains why it is important parents register their child for Free School Meals and give details on how they can check for eligibility.
Guidance on how the leaflet should be used
- Use the leaflet to instigate conversations with relevant families about the Pupil Premium in schools – decide between yourself and your feeder schools who will do this (ideally before the child starts school).
- We recommend that individual parents make the call themselves to the Free School Meals (FSM) team wherever possible (calls can be made before the child starts school – ie from May/June).
- Early years providers/schools may support individuals to make the call to the FSM team should that be necessary. They can also call on behalf of a parent (with permission) but this should be in exceptional circumstances. If parents express a request for support be sure to have systems in place.
- Leicestershire County Council expect pre-schools/schools to refer to and follow their own data protection policies in relation to sharing information for the purposes of the PP and FSM.
- Pre-schools/schools should not send in completed leaflets to Leicestershire County Council – the leaflet contains a “notes section” and this should only be used as such, as a prompt for parents so they know what questions they are likely to be asked when they call the FSM team.