Alliance comments on government response to early years pupil premium consultation
23rd October 2014
Commenting on the government’s response to the recent consultation on the new early years pupil premium (EYPP), Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, said:
“We remain supportive of the EYPP and welcome plans to implement the premium in April 2015. That said, while this extra funding is a step in the right direction, it is still only a small step. The early years sector remains severely underfunded and so, while any additional financial support will be welcomed by providers, an additional 53p per hour for eligible children is likely to have limited practical or tangible impact on provision. Given the severity of the current funding problem, some providers may understandably use the premium to keep their heads above water and ensure that they are able to continue to provide their existing quality service to local families.
“We welcome the government’s decision to use the existing local authority Eligibility Checking Service to check children’s eligibility for the EYPP, rather than requiring practitioners to obtain this information from parents as was originally proposed. Many of our members were concerned that parents would feel uncomfortable providing the information directly to providers, and that, if some refused to do so, settings could end up receiving a lower level of EYPP funding than they required to meet the needs of all the eligible children in their care. As such, we are pleased that the Department for Education has listened to the feedback provided on this issue.
“However, we remain unclear on how plans to assess the ‘effective use and impact of the EYPP’ through °ϲʹ inspections are to work in practice. Although the DfE has stated that providers are free to decide how best to use the EYPP, there is a danger that °ϲʹ inspectors may let their own views, or those of °ϲʹ or the DfE, on how the funding should be spent influence their inspection judgements. As such, any °ϲʹ guidance produced on this issue must make it clear that this should not happen.
“It’s also important to recognise that some impacts are more easily demonstrated than others and we should not apply a very black and white approach to a nuanced issue. Given that the impact of the EYPP on ‘child outcomes’ will now be an element of inspection judgements, we feel it’s vital that inspectors are required to look at the impact of the funding on broader developmental areas such as social skills and confidence, and not just narrower, more easily measurable skills such as literacy and numeracy.”
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Notes for editors
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
- Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
- For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website: