Annex D – Background Information & Hampshire Context
Background to government funding for disadvantaged two year olds
Hampshire has been delivering a targeted offer of up to 15 hours free early education to some of the County’s most disadvantaged 2 year oldssince 2009. This initial pilot scheme targeted the 15% most disadvantaged 2 year olds.
As part of the Government’s ‘Fairness Premium’ to drive up social mobility and improve life chances, they have now committed to extending this provision of 15 hours of free early education and childcare for disadvantaged 2 year olds on a statutory basis in two phases.
The first phase of the entitlement, from September 2013, offered free early education to around 150,000 (20%) of 2 year olds nationally and the second phase, from September 2014, this increased to a total of 260,000 nationally (around 40% of 2 year olds.) – this second phase equated to approximately 4,200 additional places in Hampshire.
Two year olds are be eligible if:
- Their families meet the benefits criteria also used to establish school-aged children's eligibility for free school meals (FSM); or
- They are ‘children looked after’ by a local authority.
For the 2 year old entitlement, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure 570 hours of free early education for eligible children per year. To prevent disruption to children's learning, 2 year olds who take this up will not lose their free place if their family's circumstances change such that they no longer meet the eligibility criteria. All children are eligible for free early education from the term after their third birthday, until they reach statutory school age.
From 2013-14 the new entitlement was funded through the Dedicated Schools Grant. Funding for the entitlement will increase throughout the Spending Review period - to £760m nationally in 2014-15 which was to enable local authorities and providers to build capacity and prepare for the new entitlement at that time.
Hampshire Context
The Government has used a formula, based on the number of four to six year olds meeting the benefits criteria for free school meals, to estimate the number of eligible 2 year olds in each local authority. The formula first estimates the proportion of 2 year olds eligible under the new criteria for free entitlement and then multiplies this by the projected population of 2 year olds in each local authority. The result is then weighted by an Area Cost Adjustment (ACA), which takes into account the different costs in different parts of the country.
For phase 1 in Hampshire, the estimated eligible numbers of 2 year olds in January 2013 was 2,153 and the following funding was been agreed for 2013-14:
- £6,223,088 – Statutory Place Funding
- £2,443,016 – TrajectoryBuilding Allocation
- £1,651,964 – Capital Allocation
For phase 2, the estimated eligible numbers of 2 year old places required in September 2014 was 4,210.
Hampshire Schools Forum agreed, in January 2013, that £800,000 of the trajectory building funding should be set aside for revenue funding and the £1.65 million capital funding received from the DfE should be ring-fenced for grants and strategic investment in order to support delivery of the additional 2 year old places required.
Previous grant rounds offered capital and revenue grant funding through both open grant programmes with revenue funding of up to £400,000 and capital funding up to £800,000 and the remaining funding was ring-fenced for Hampshire County Council defined strategic need and projects delivering the same objectives rather than open grant. These grants have delivered over 1000 additional 2 year old places in Hampshire.
There is £55,000 funding remaining from the trajectory building allocation detailed above and a further revenue grant round in this application pack is now being made available to providers.
Hampshire has developed a strong market with over 10,000 places for 2 year olds and these places are also for non-funded 2 year olds and younger children requiring childcare. There is in the region of, 10% of group settings and 6% of childminders who are currently not yet delivering the free 2 year old Early Years Education offer.
There continues to be approximately just under 4,000, 2 year olds likely to be eligible for funding with the latest information from DfE in November providing a list of 3600 for spring 2016. The numbers of children accessing places continues to improve and in the summer 2015 there were 70% of eligible children confirmed to be accessing provision, however not all children accessed their full 15 hours with the average being in the region of 13.5 hours per week.
The supply of 2 year old places in Hampshire
The following table shows the current number of registered early years education providers per district in Hampshire, as at January 2016, together with those, offering2 year oldfunded places:
District / Number of early years education providers / Number of early years education providers approved (or in process) for 2 year old placesSettings / C’minders / Settings / C’minders
Basingstoke and Deane District / 95 / 100 / 84 / 97
East Hampshire District / 65 / 54 / 57 / 49
Eastleigh District / 66 / 89 / 63 / 84
Fareham District / 54 / 57 / 49 / 51
Gosport District / 32 / 42 / 32 / 38
Hart District / 51 / 72 / 34 / 66
Havant District / 52 / 52 / 48 / 50
New Forest District / 86 / 74 / 74 / 72
Rushmoor District / 42 / 52 / 37 / 47
Test Valley District / 66 / 91 / 58 / 86
Winchester District / 70 / 48 / 58 / 43
TOTAL / 679 / 731 / 594 / 683
Increasing the 2 year old provision
To be able to offer 2 year old places settings must be rated at least good by Ofsted and/or they must be identified as having the ability to become ‘good’ by the local authority. Therefore to expand 2 year old places, as many PVI and educational settings as possible in Hampshire need to be good and/or outstanding. Hampshire County Council uses targeted funding to provide a range of services to increase quality, including the following:
- Identifying settings which have sufficient quality to provide 2 year old places. There can be a four year gap between Ofsted visits and settings may improve in this time;
- Identifying settings which with some extra support would be able achieve sufficient quality to provide 2 year old places in the short term. The team can then target support appropriately;
- Identifying settings which were previously rated as good or outstanding and need further support to maintain their quality and therefore capacity to offer 2 year old places;
- Targeted support for settings which could provide 2 year old places through addressing weaknesses and/ or offering support to maintain their quality. Support comes from:
- Childcare and business support officers who help settings meet safeguarding, welfare and registration requirements and provide all-round business support;
- Early years advisory teachers who ensure settings provide high quality learning and development as required by the EYFS;
- Providing settings with specific training and resources which help them develop or maintain the required quality to deliver the 2 year old offer;
- Leadership and management training targeted at settings with a clearly identified need;
- Raising awareness of how settings can become eligible for the 2 year old offer at regular PVI meetings, via the SfYC website and when team members visit settings;
- Supporting targeted settings to apply funding to enable them to offer 2 year old places in areas of need.
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