A further explanation of what the Early Years Pupil Premium Funding is?
In 2011 the Department of Education introduced the Pupil Premium into schools in England, this extra pot of funding was to raise attainment levels of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between these children and their peers.
In April 2015 The Department for Education introduced the Early Years Pupil Premium funding, this extra pot of funding is paid to childcare providers for 3 and four years olds who are eligible for it. Funding is only given to providers for children who are eligible, parents must receive certain benefits such as income support or Jobseekers Allowance, or there are other types of criteria such as
- the child is currently looked after by a Local Authority
- the child has left care through an adoption
- a special guardianship order or a child arrangement order
The child, its self, must be accessing their free early year’s entitlement. It is childcare providers responsibility to approach parents to find out if eligible and complete necessary paperwork. The setting will receive £300 per year for each child.
A recent survey was conducted to find out exactly what people knew about the Early Years Pupil Premium Funding. Findings showed that providers didn’t apply for the funding as they didn’t know enough about it.
The survey covered many aspect ones being “Providers’ perceived impact of EYPP and future intention to apply and another being Methods of assessing the impact of EYPP.
Methods of assessing the impact of EYPP is essential especially as registered Ofsted providers will need to demonstrate how the money has been spent and how this has impacted on the child’s development., therefore using a proforma to document all this on Highlighted in the survey, there are various ways to track the impact of the funding on a child’s development;
- Carrying out observations
- Documenting evidence within in child’s learning to show child’s level of progress
- Conversations with parents/carers
- Conversations with other professionals that may be involved with the child
- Using recorded evidence
When asked during the survey what providers would spend the Early Years Pupil funding on it was suggested
- staff training and development
- supporting home learning environment and parental engagement
- buy literacy, numeracy and outdoor resources.
Requirements of the Early Years Pupil Funding stipulates that that money should be spent on something that benefits the child, and the reasoning behind this should be documented clearly ready for Ofsted to see. Having a full understanding of the child and their needs can help identify what the funding is best spent on.
Here are few further suggestions
- Fund sessions such as school trips, sport activities
- Recruit additional staff
- Recruit or Hire the services of numeracy experts/advisers
- Recruit or Hire the services of speech therapists
- Recruit or Hire the services of language experts
- Fund extra sessions for eligible children
- Buy outdoor resources (such as playground equipment, learning equipment)
- Buy literacy and numeracy resources (such as books)
- Use existing staff to provide more targeted support to children receiving EYPP
- Supporting home learning environment and parental engagement
To read more about the survey and fully understand what the EYPP funding is, click here
How do you measure the impact of the EYPP funding in your setting