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About the Early Years Single Funding
Formula
In June 2007, the Government announced that local authorities in England
will be required to design and implement an Early Years Single Funding
Formula for funding the Free Entitlement to early years provision for three
and four year olds across all sectors. The aim is to improve the fairness
and transparency in the way that funding is allocated to providers who
deliver the Free Entitlement and thereby support its extension to 15 hours,
to be delivered more flexibly from September 2010.
To read the latest Department for Children, Schools and Families information
about the Early Years Single Funding Formula,
click here.
The implementation of the Early Years Single Funding Formula to date
As local authorities in England have sought to establish their Early Years
Single Funding Formula, there have been significant concerns raised about
the impact of the implementation of the Single Funding Formula. The
experiences of the implementation of the Early Years Single Funding Formula
to date are mixed.
Many of those working in the maintained sector are reporting that they are
increasingly being threatened with closure or significant budget cuts with
immediate effect. Others working in the private, voluntary and independent
sectors report that many of the rates currently being proposed by local
authorities under the Early Years Single Funding Formula amount to little
more than pennies and are not enough to support you to deliver the aims of
the Early Years Single Funding Formula.
As the implementation of the Early Years Single Funding Formula enters its
final phase of consultation, there is increasing evidence that many of the
formulas being proposed by local authorities will have significant and
adverse consequences on the services that schools and settings whose high
quality early education and care currently support the most disadvantaged
children and families.
Early Education Single Funding Formula campaign
The Early Education Single Funding Formula campaign was launched in
September 2009 to ensure that the viability of existing high quality
provision is not lost as a consequence of the implementation of the Early
Years Single Funding Formula that is set to come into effect in England from
April 2010.
A number of reports and campaign tools and resources are accessible below:
Early Education’s Implementing the Single Funding Formula report
Over the course of the summer 2009, more and more maintained nursery schools
and children’s centres and nursery class settings were reporting that the
single funding formula that is being proposed by their local authority was
going to adversely affect those children who have been identified as being
vulnerable and at risk, with special education needs and the parents who
benefit from the support that this existing high quality provision provides.
Early Education’s
Implementing the Single Funding Formula report was published in
September 2009 and is based on the survey responses of 138 heads and
teachers in maintained nursery school provision between the 26th June and
the 24th July 2009.
Key survey findings include:
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Only 1 in 5 of maintained nursery schools and children’s
centres who responded had been advised of their single funding formula base
rate.
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Almost all (96.9%) of those maintained nursery schools
who responded to the survey did not believe that the single funding formula
would create a level playing field in the early education and care market
through raising qualifications and training of staff.
-
Less than a third (29.8%) believed that they would also
be in receipt of a ‘quality’ supplement and many say that they will not be
able to maintain the level of quality and effective practice that their
schools and centres deliver now.
-
Few respondents (17.6%) know how or if the local
authority will manage any adjustment of the single funding formula once it
had been implemented. The majority of local authorities (74.1%) are yet to
say whether there will be any transitional arrangements put in place to
manage the significant cuts in funding that the implementation of the Early
Years Single Funding Formula will bring.
The press release that relates to this report can be
accessed
here.
Number 10 e-petition
Early Education has launched a petition on the Number 10 Downing Street
e-petitions website urging the government to rethink the implementation of
the Early Years Single Funding Formula and calling for local authorities to
be both supported and rigorously monitored to ensure that the aims of the
Early Years Single Funding Formula is genuinely achieved across all sectors.
The petition can be signed by UK citizens and residents and reads as follows
We the undersigned urge the government to rethink the implementation of
the Early Years Single Funding Formula across the maintained, private,
voluntary, independent and home based early education and childcare settings
in England so that the viability of existing high quality provision is not
lost.
Local authorities must be supported and rigorously monitored to ensure
that the aims of the EYSFF, to improve and maintain quality of all provision
and fairness and transparency of funding, is genuinely achieved across all
sectors.
To sign the petition,
click here.
Single Funding Formula Support Kit
Early Education launched the Single Funding Formula Support Kit to assist
schools and settings who, following the second phase of local authority
consultation, are adversely affected by the proposed changes that the
implementation of the Early Years Single Funding Formula will bring.
The support kit includes:
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Questions to make sure that you have answers to when meeting with your
local authority to discuss the impact of the Early Years Single Funding
Formula on your school or setting.
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An
impact grid to help support you measure the impact of the changes that
the Early Years Single Funding Formula will have on the children, families
and staff in your school or setting as well as the impact on your budget and
the quality of learning and teaching.
-
A list of
ideas and resources to help you raise awareness of the impact of the
Early Years Single Funding Formula in your local area.
-
A
model press release to help you engage your local press and raise
awareness of the changes that the implementation of the Early Years Single
Funding Formula will have on your school or setting.
Single Funding Formula Briefing Paper
Early Education has published a briefing paper summarising the issues and
the impact that implementation of the single funding formula risks having on
schools and settings supporting the most disadvantaged and at risk children
and families. A copy of the briefing paper is available
here.
Impact of the Single Funding Formula Campaign
Letter
from the Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister for Children, to every Director
of Children’s Services with a maintained nursery school
Early Education is pleased to note that on the 29th October 2009, the Rt
Hon. Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister for Children wrote to every director of
children’s services with a maintained nursery school to reaffirm the
government’s expectations on the single funding formula. In the course of
the letter,
she has made it very clear that an equitable funding system should not mean
that the future of high quality provision, such as that found in many
maintained nursery schools and private and voluntary providers, is put at
risk.
Oral Evidence to the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee in the
House of Commons
Early Education were invited as part of a panel, to present evidence on the
Early Years Single Funding Formula to the Children, Schools and Families
Select Committee in the House of Commons on Wednesday 28th October 2009.
This panel session was followed by evidence from local authority witnesses.
Tim Davis, Policy Co-ordinator, Southampton City Council, Thanos
Morphitis, Assistant Director, Strategy and Commissioning, Children's
Services, Islington Borough Council and Jenny Spratt, Head of Early
Years and Childcare Services, Peterborough City Council, gave evidence.
To read a transcript of the evidence that was presented,
click here.
Following the Committee's oral evidence session on the Early Years Single
Funding Formula, the Children, Schools and Families Committee is now
inviting written submissions and are particularly interested in the expected
impact of new local funding formulae on providers of early years education
and childcare services. To help us represent your experience and the impact
that the implementation of the Single Funding Formula is having, please
complete the Early Education
Impact Grid and return by email by the end of November to
megan@early-education.org.uk.
Debate in the House of Lords
During the course of the debate in the House of Lords in relation to the
Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill that is currently making
its way through the House of Lords, Baroness Walmsely of West Derby moved an
amendment seeking “to protect centres of excellence in early years education
when the new budgetary framework comes into force” in England. For full
details of the debate are available
here.
Press Coverage
The issue of the Early Years Single Funding Formula is now attracting
national press coverage. Following the Children, Schools and Families oral
evidence session the BBC ran an
online news item.
Significant coverage of the issues surrounding the implementation of the
Early Years Single Funding Formula was also covered in
The Guardian and a smaller piece was also run in
The Telegraph.
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