The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2025

34 Early years pupil premium

(1) When determining— (a) budget shares for nursery schools maintained by it; (b) amounts to be allocated in respect of nursery classes in schools maintained by it; (c) amounts to be allocated to relevant early years providers in its area; (d) amounts to be allocated in respect of community early years provision in schools maintained by it, a local authority must include in those budget shares or amounts an amount equivalent to a rate of at least £1 multiplied by each hour of funded early years provision, up to a maximum of 570 hours, that a child eligible for early years pupil premium is to receive. (2) A child is eligible for early years pupil premium if the child receives at least one hour of funded early years provision and either— (a) the child’s parents are receiving one or more of the benefits in paragraph (3); or (b) the child was a looked after child but is no longer so as a result of the making of an order mentioned in paragraph (4). (3) The benefits are— (a) universal credit, where the child’s parent has, in the relevant assessment period, earned income not exceeding the applicable amount; (b) income support; (c) income-based jobseeker’s allowance; (d) income-related employment and support allowance; (e) support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; (f) the guaranteed element of state pension credit; (g) child tax credit (where the recipient is not also entitled to working tax credit and has an annual gross income of no more than £16,190); and (h) working tax credit run-on. (4) The orders are— (a) an adoption order within the meaning given by section 46(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002; (b) a special guardianship order within the meaning given by section 14A(1) of the 1989 Act; and (c) a child arrangements order within the meaning given by section 8(1) of the 1989 Act which consists of, or includes, arrangements relating to either or both of the following— (i) with whom the child is to live; (ii) when the child is to live with any person. (5) A child eligible for early years pupil premium continues to be so eligible notwithstanding any change in circumstances which would otherwise result in paragraph (2)(a) ceasing to be satisfied, or, in the case of paragraph (3)(a), the earned income of the child’s parent subsequently exceeding the applicable amount. (6) When determining the budget shares and amounts referred to in paragraph (1), a local authority must include an amount equivalent to a rate of at least £1 multiplied by 570 hours (irrespective of how many hours of early years provision the child actually receives) for each looked after child who receives at least one hour of funded early years provision. (7) Where, after the local authority has determined the budget shares or amounts referred to in paragraph (1), either— (a) a child becomes eligible for early years pupil premium in accordance with paragraph (2); or (b) a child who receives at least one hour of funded early years provision becomes a looked after child, the local authority must redetermine the budget share or amount allocated to the early years provider concerned in accordance with paragraph (8). (8) The amount to be included by a local authority under paragraph (7) is— (a) in the case of child falling under paragraph (7)(a), an amount equivalent to a rate of at least £1 multiplied by each hour of funded early years provision that the child is to receive, up to a maximum of 570 hours; and (b) in the case of a child falling under paragraph (7)(b), an amount equivalent to a rate of at least £1 multiplied by 570 hours. (9) A local authority must use the same rate, which must be at least £1, for all determinations and redeterminations under this regulation. (10) A local authority must not include an amount under this regulation in respect of a particular child that is more than an amount equivalent to the rate used by it for the purposes of this regulation multiplied by 570 hours. (11) A local authority must ensure that any amount included in a budget share, or any amount allocated to a provider, under this regulation in respect of a looked after child, is used for the benefit of the child in accordance with— (a) any directions or advice given by the local authority’s virtual schools head; and (b) the child’s personal education plan. (12) In this regulation— (a) “child tax credit” means child tax credit under section 1(1)(a) of the Tax Credits Act 2002; (b) “earned income” means income for the purposes of Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013; (c) “income-based jobseeker’s allowance” has the meaning given by section 1(4) of the Jobseekers Act 1995; (d) “income-related employment and support allowance” means an income-related allowance under Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2007; (e) “income support” means income support under section 124 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992; (f) “looked after child”, or in relation to a child, “looked after”, has the meaning given by— (i) section 22(1) of the 1989 Act; or (ii) section 74(1) of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014; (g) the relevant assessment period and the applicable amount are those referred to in the following sub-paragraphs as applicable— (i) except where paragraphs (ii) or (iii) apply, where the parent had earned income which did not exceed £616.67 in the universal credit assessment period immediately preceding the date of the request for early years pupil premium (period 1)— (aa) the relevant assessment period is period 1; and (bb) the applicable amount is £616.67; (ii) this paragraph applies where paragraph (i) does not because the applicable amount referred to in that paragraph is exceeded and there is a universal credit assessment period (period 2) immediately preceding period 1 referred to in that paragraph— (aa) the relevant assessment period is the sum of period 1 and period 2 (SAP); and (bb) the applicable amount is £1,233.34; (iii) this paragraph applies where paragraph (ii) does not because the applicable amount referred to in that paragraph is exceeded and there is a universal credit assessment period (period 3) immediately preceding period 2 referred to in that paragraph— (aa) the relevant assessment period is the period made up of SAP and period 3; and (bb) the applicable amount is £1,850; (h) where the parent referred to in paragraph (3)(a) is— (i) a member of a couple who have jointly made a claim for, and are in receipt of, universal credit; or (ii) a member of a couple but has claimed, and is in receipt of, universal credit as a single person, references to applicable amounts in paragraphs (i) to (iii) of sub-paragraph (g) as applicable are to be read as references to the combined income of the couple; (i) “parent” has the meaning given by section 2(2) of the Childcare Act 2006 (meaning of early childhood services); (j) “personal education plan” has the same meaning as in regulation 5(1)(b)(ii) of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010; (k) “state pension credit” means state pension credit under section 1 of the State Pension Credit Act 2002, and the “guaranteed element” of state pension credit means the guarantee credit under section 2 of that Act; (l) “universal credit” means universal credit under section 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012; (m) “virtual schools head” means a person appointed by a local authority under section 22(3B) of the 1989 Act for the purpose of discharging the local authority’s duty set out in section 22(3A) of that Act (duty to promote the educational achievement of children looked after by the local authority); (n) “working tax credit” means working tax credit under section 1(1)(b) of the Tax Credits Act 2002.