There is no requirement in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS for childminders, 2024) to have a funding policy or to write a policy about how you will manage either Local Authority funding or additional funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the early years setting. However, some Local Authorities require providers to have a policy prior to them being able to claim funding and / or additional funding.
The EYFS for childminders 2024 -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2
As more providers are signing up for the 2-, 3- and 4-year-old funding, I thought it might be useful to talk about an additional funding policy and what it might include.
Many years ago, in November 2016, I wrote a blog about early years pupil premium (EYPP) and how it might be used in early years settings to support a child’s progress. Some years have passed since then and I note that some of the information in the blog is out of date. For example, additional funding streams have been added to benefit early years children with SEND including DAF (disability access funding) and SENIF (SEN inclusion fund). The aim of the additional funding remains the same – to support early years providers to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to their settings so they can comply with the Equality Act 2010.
In 2016 I noted that official figures show that 1 in 4 children grow up in poverty – and children who grow up in poverty are less likely to be ready to start school at the age of 4. This figure is higher in 2023 and likely to go up further as a result of factors such as the global pandemic and long waiting lists leading to delays in children being assessed and receiving support from outside agencies and professionals.
You might find this blog from Julian Grenier useful –
https://juliangrenier.blogspot.com/2015/11/early-years-pupil-premium-keynote.html
Claiming extra funding
It is important that strong key person relationships are in place throughout a child’s time in the early years provision. In many Local Authorities (LAs), providers will ask parents to apply to find out if their child is eligible for additional funding and complete a form to apply for the funding for a specific provider. In other areas, the provider can claim on behalf of the parent / child – you should check the rules locally.
When funding money is received for the child, a meeting should be called with parents to discuss how it is going to be spent. The child’s assessment tracking across the 7 areas of learning might give some indication about how best to spend the money, but parent and the child’s views should also be considered. This consultation with parents should be documented and can be used as part of the evidence shown to Ofsted relating to the strength of parent partnerships and the ways in which the additional funding has been effectively targeted to support the individual child.
The Early Years Inspection handbook states that Ofsted inspectors will track children who receive additional funding as part of the inspection and inspectors will comment on how effectively the funding has been spent and whether it can be clearly shown to have been effective in raising outcomes for the child/ren.
The Ofsted early years inspection handbook -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-inspection-handbook-eif
Recording income and expenses
Any additional income must be included in the income section of your accounts for HMRC. You will then note expenses i your bookkeeping and add invoices to your records to show how you have spent the funding. You must be able to show that all additional funding received for a child with SEND has been spent on the benefitting the child.
Spending the money
Additional funding for children with SEND can be spent in many ways – but it must be spent to raise outcomes for the child. Funding can be used creatively by early years providers to help narrow the gap for the child.
Here are some examples of ways early years providers have spent additional SEND funding to ‘narrow the gap’ for early years children over recent years:
- The nursery recognised, after consultation with parents, that the child for whom funding was received did not have an outside area at home. Their funding record keeping includes a copy of the child’s daily routine which shows daily outside play with a dedicated staff member and they purchased enhanced resources using the funding money.
- A nursery bought some new ‘getting ready for school’ role play resources for the eligible child to support their school transition.
- A childminder attended training to support their own skills and knowledge in maths, after noting that a child did not have any experience of subitising or counting and then purchased specific resources to support the child’s learning.
- A pre-school paid for a taxi to help ensure a child was able to attend the setting regularly, because parents were unable to bring him.
- A nursery spent some of the funding to contribute towards a uniform to give the child a sense of belonging in the setting.
- Parents of one child suggested that the funding might be used to provide their child with a healthy breakfast because they do not have time to eat at home in the morning.
Consultation with early years providers tells me that some of the ways extra funding has been used by settings in the past include:
- Paying for extra staff hours to cover for staff accompanying children on visits to school.
- Book bags which children take home with their parents to get them into the habit of reading at home with their family early in life.
- Teddies dressed in the new school uniform so children can practice taking it off and putting it on again and become more relaxed about wearing a uniform when they start school.
- Makaton training and a set of symbols to support a child who needs support with their communication and language.
- Song and dance sessions for the children.
- Paying for a staff member to attend a school meeting with a parent who needs extra support – for example, a translator or reassurance that a mainstream school is the right next step for their child.
- Paying for extra sessions including lunch club to allow a child to get used to a full day at pre-school / nursery before they start school.
- Purchasing contents for story sacks which can be loaned to parents who can use them with their child at home. This type of resource will encourage families to further support their child’s home learning.
- Buying duplicate copies of children’s favourite reading books which they can take with them into reception class to give them a sense of security.
- Putting together and printing a photo album showing the reception classroom to reassure the child about the changes they will face when moving to the next setting.
- An internet enabled device and age-appropriate software was purchased for the use of a child who did not have access to ICT equipment at home. Note the Mobile Phone and Camera Policy might need to be updated if new equipment is purchased.
- Transition packs for children including information about reception, a book about starting school, a voucher towards uniform purchase for parents etc.
You might find this blog from Early Education useful - https://early-education.org.uk/eypp-the-basics/
Note: a recent Ofsted inspection report commented that a setting had gained extra funding for a child but had not yet spent the money. This was part of the reason the setting received a 'requires improvement' grade. Any money received by your setting for a child with additional needs must be spent promptly, to support the child.
Recording impact
You must record what money you have received and how it has been spent. It is important to be as accurate as possible when recording the progress children are making from their starting points. Your Local Authority might have record keeping documentation they expect you to use, or you might use the Childcare.co.uk gold member assessment resources – www.childcare.co.uk/eyfs.
Staff must also be clear when explaining to Ofsted about how they are supporting children to make progress – sometimes they might need to plan more adult-led interventions, work more closely with parents, make more suggestions of things children can do with parents at home or attend training to enhance their own knowledge on, for example, supporting children’s behaviour or schemas in children’s play etc.
It is important that providers and parents work closely together to measure the impact of how the EYPP has been spent, closely tracking the eligible child’s learning and / or development to make sure they are making rapid progress and narrowing the gap between the most and least advantaged children and from where the individual child was tracked when they first started in the provision (parents starting points and practitioner baseline assessment).
Of course, all the children in the setting / room might benefit from many of the interventions purchased by the funding – while funding is provided for an individual child, a childminder (for example) would not take that child away from the group or say resources were only for the child – they will be shared and all children’s learning will be enhanced as a result. However, the initial decision when providing the resources must be to ensure what is bought is for the child who has received the funding and the impact must be shown for that child’s learning, development and progress.
For example, recent ‘good’ rated inspection reports note:
- The childminder uses early years pupil premium funding to support children's individual needs.
- The childminder has used early years pupil premium funding to purchase new mathematical resources.
- Children in receipt of early years pupil premium are well supported.
- The childminder makes good use of the early years pupil premium funding.
- The childminder uses early years pupil premium funding effectively to support children's development
parents and the provider make joint decisions about how to spend additional funding, such as the early years pupil premium. - Children who receive early years pupil premium funding make good progress in their learning.
What might a policy say?
As I noted at the start of this blog, it is not a requirement of the EYFS for childminders 2024 to have a funding or additional funding policy, but it might be requested by your Local Authority as a condition of signing up for the funding offer. Policies will vary depending on your LA expectations so the information shared here is very broad and will need to be adapted.
You might start by saying that if you are asked to care for a child who might be eligible for additional funding, you would initially speak to parents and the Local Authority and consider what reasonable adjustments might be made to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and best support the child’s progress.
Some of the documents you might need from parents when claiming additional funding include, for example, evidence that they have a special educational need or disability. This might include tracking documentation, support from other agencies or professionals who work with the child or, for example, a letter from disability living allowance (DLA).
As part of the claim, parents would need to complete, sign and date a new Local Authority parent declaration form (funding contract) including personal details such as their names, dates of birth and national insurance (NI) numbers.
If you go on to receive early years pupil premium (EYPP), disability access funding (DAF) or other additional funding for a child you would use it towards purchasing additional staff training, resources, equipment etc to support the individual child, having first consulted with parents and the child and assessed the child’s progress, to note how they would most benefit from the extra funding.
You would then record how the funding has been spent and how it has benefited the child and share this information with parents as part of your ongoing formative and summative assessments, the Local Authority (if audited) and Ofsted during inspection.
The setting data audit would be updated to include reference to any additional documentation you have completed. Retention periods for income and expenses records for HMRC purposes would usually be 6 years, to store with accounting information (unless otherwise advised by the Local Authority). Information relating to the child’s learning, development and progress would be passed to parents when the child leaves the setting or to the child’s next setting (taking advice from the Local Authority).
In conclusion
The aims of additional funding are mostly to support the individual child and to close the attainment gap. If, for example, resources or equipment have been purchased, the provider must be able to show the consultation process they went through, with parents, to determine how the money was to spent to ‘close the gap’ and raise outcomes for the child. They must then show, using the child’s starting points and / or progress check at 2 statutory assessment and current tracking, that the child has made good progress.
I hope you find this information useful. Please ask your Local Authority if you have any questions - they all have their own ways of doing things and sometimes the best answer is to ask locally.
Thank you, Sarah.