Agenda item

The report of Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) seeks to update the forum on issues related to the Early Years Block or 2021-22 and the decisions that will need to be made as part of the budget setting process for 2021-22.

Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) referred to the report which sought to update Schools Forum on issues related to the Early Years block for 2021-22 and the decisions that would need to be made as part of the budget setting process.  Marie highlighted the following:

·       In his 2020 Spending Review, the Chancellor announced that there would be £44 million nationally for early years education in 2021-22 to increase the hourly rate paid to childcare providers for the government’s free hours offers.  The provisional early years block settlement for Wiltshire for 2021-22 was £28.217 million and of this sum, £0.265 million related to the increased hourly rates;

·       At the moment, the indicative allocations would mean an increase of 8p per hour for 2-year-old funding (to £5.48 per hour) and 6p for 3 to 4-year-old funding (£4.25 per hour);

·       The operational guidance for early years entitlements: local authority funding of providers 2021-22 was published in December 2020 and this contained a number of key points for the local authority to include when they were funding their providers;

·       Consultation had been carried out with Schools Forum early years representatives (John Proctor and Mark Cawley) prior to the meeting of the Early Years Reference Group meeting as well as at the meeting itself where they had considered modelling of what the allocation would mean for early years and the hourly rates.  Appendix 1 to the report showed options of the hourly rates and the % of the contingency unallocated (to be used for any increased take up of hours);

·       Option 1 shown maxims the 2-year-old funding and passports the increase in full. The guidance previously protected 2-year-old funding however, this has been relaxed.  To do this, the 3&4-year-old rate needs to be £4.25 in order to leave a contingency for any increased take up of hours.  Option 6 shows that in order to increase the 3&4-year-old rate by 1p per hour, the hourly rate for 2-year olds would need to be £5.42.  The steer from the Early Years Reference Group was that the 2-year-old vulnerable children rates needed to be protected and so option 1 was the preferred option;

·       Appendices 2 and 3 to the report showed the calculations of compliance with a worked example showing 98.2% of pass through;

·       The Disability Access Fund is payable as a lump sum once a year per eligible child. If a child is splitting their entitlement between two or more providers, then parents should be asked to nominate the main setting. If a child receiving DAF moves from one setting to another within a financial year the new setting is not eligible to receive DAF for this child within the same financial year. There was no change in the allocated funding rate for 2021-22.

The Chair asked if the early years block would be funded under the same census for Pupil Premium as schools?  Marie Taylor reported that the Early Years Pupil Premium is indicative based upon the January 2020 Early years census and the indicative allocations are due to be reviewed in the Spring of 2021.  A DfE update was awaited.

Schools Forum were consulted and confirmed their support for the proposals detailed below.

Resolved:

1)    That Schools Forum note the update on the early years block.

2)    That Schools Forum agree to increase the current rate of 2-year-old funding to £5.48 per hour and 3 and 4-year-old funding to £4.25 per hour.

3)    That all other funding factors remain at current 2020-21 levels or, funded levels.

4)    That Schools Forum agree the early years block to fully fund the Early Years Inclusion Fund at the current level.  The demand on this fund exceeds this level of funding in the 2020-21 financial year and for that reason, should any significant increase in DfE funding be notified, this fund should be increased accordingly during the financial year, to a maximum of 95% pass through to providers.