up to providers how they channel the funding. Charlotte Goddard looks at
what settings should be thinking about
The Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is extra funding that aims to improve outcomes for disadvantaged threeand four-year-olds who are receiving the free entitlement to early education. Children who meet the criteria, which includes those whose families are on benefits, looked-after children and children whose parents are in the armed forces, will be eligible for an extra 53p per hour, up to £302.10 per year.
The funding kicks off in April, although seven trial areas have been able to access it since the beginning of the year. The funding is not ringfenced, but providers must be able to show Ofsted how they are tracking whether the funding is improving a child's outcomes, as well as providing evidence on any impact already achieved.
DEVISING A STRATEGY
How should nurseries go about devising a strategy for spending the money?
'Your strategy will depend on where you think your areas of need are to improve the outcomes of the threeand four-year-olds who are attracting the premium,' says Deborah Robinson, early years advisor at the National Day Nurseries Association.
Pupil Premium funding launched in schools in 2011, so school settings have experience in showing the effect that the funding has on outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Ms Robinson suggests nurseries could benefit from forging links with local schools with similar demographics or use existing relationships to share knowledge.
'The money is there to narrow the gap between the most and least advantaged children, which we know can be as much as 19 months in age by the time they reach school,' says Ms Robinson. 'As providers will have the freedom to decide how to make the best use of the premium, there is an opportunity to be creative. What could your nursery do to narrow this gap? This is your chance to think outside the box, to interpret what is needed in really innovative ways.'
Some settings are using questionnaires to find out what parents want the money spent on (see case studies) and also involving the children in the decision.
Should nurseries concentrate the funding on the eligible children or can they use it for wider activities or interventions?
'Ofsted will be assessing the effectiveness of the use of EYPP as part of its leadership and management judgement, so demonstrating that activities and interventions have had an impact on the development of the eligible children is vital,' says Michael Freeston, director of quality improvement at the Pre-school Learning Alliance.
'However, that's not to say that the £300 following each child has to be spent solely on that child directly. For example, purchasing professional development training for the whole staff team on relevant areas - such as speech and language; observation, assessment and planning; supporting the home learning environment; or promoting positive behaviour - would also support the child's development. In such cases, it will be important that the manager and the relevant key person are able to demonstrate how this training has impacted the child in question.'
Ms Robinson gives an example of using one child's funding to pay for 20 resource packs to encourage families to take part in home learning: 'You might be able to evidence great leaps for the child who is central to the funding - and improved outcomes for the others, too.'
Will a nursery's strategy vary according to the number of eligible children?
Obviously, the amount of funding available will vary considerably, from just £300 for one child to potentially thousands of pounds if most children in a setting are eligible. Nurseries need to look at their demographics and consider whether funding is likely to be relatively consistent or dip up and down on a termly basis as children arrive and leave.
Early years consultant Linda Thornton says, 'Those settings that cater for large numbers of disadvantaged children may be able to use their additional funding for improving staff training and qualifications, but they may also want to ensure that the physical learning environment they provide is of a high standard. Settings with fewer numbers of disadvantaged children attending may need to target the specific needs of individual children through the provision of specific resources.'
SPENDING THE MONEY
Would the money be well spent on staffing costs?
Consultation documents on the EYPP highlighted the beneficial effect of Early Years Teachers (EYTs) in settings in disadvantaged areas, and suggested that small settings could club together to employ an EYT who would spend a few hours with each provider a week. 'Providers will need to have extremely robust procedures in place to demonstrate the impact of the funding on the individual children for whom it is intended,' says Ms Thornton.
'With the premium that means that they should be able to demonstrate that the target children "make rapid progress", not simply that the quality of provision in general has improved.'
The potential inconsistency of the funding, as children arrive and leave, is not ideal for paying salaries. 'It is difficult if you employ someone and then don't get so much next year,' says Olivia Foley, director and founder of Hungry Caterpillar Day Nurseries chain. 'In a small nursery, such as ours, where perhaps you only have 15 children eligible for the EYPP, the additional income will only equate to £4,500 per annum.
'This could be used to employ a more experienced practitioner, some additional training for staff or some resources to support specific needs of the target children.'
Ms Robinson suggests that using funding to employ an extra staff member can free up the existing early years teacher's time, so they can spend more time working directly with children.
Elaine Ramsden, owner and manager of Marshmallows Private Day Nursery in Blackpool, says, 'Staff time funded by the EYPP will depend on the needs of the children, but could include home visits, attending appointments to support a family, attending training, visits to a children's centre to access facilities, or visits to other amenities.'
What kind of resources and equipment could the money be spent on?
Nurseries are first looking at the needs of their eligible children and then working out what equipment would best meet those requirements, whether that be ICT kit, outdoor play equipment, literacy and numeracy equipment, home learning aids or resources aimed at children with special educational needs. As Hungry Caterpillar's Ms Foley points out, this is what nurseries already do. 'If we have a child who is drawn to light and noises, we would go and buy something for them,' she says.
Some companies have started putting together catalogues or lists of products that could help narrow the attainment gap. Reflections on Learning, for example, suggests sets of tactile, sparkly letters and numbers, hand puppets illustrating different emotions and talking tubes, which all help develop children's communication and language skills.
Can nurseries spend the extra money on offsetting the funding shortfall for the free entitlement places?
Not unless they can link the spend very clearly to an improvement in outcomes for their most disadvantaged children, which would be tricky. Hungry Caterpillar's Ms Foley is clear that nurseries must justify their spend in order to ensure the funding is not lost.
'The issue for providers is that the funding we currently receive for threeand four-year-olds does not cover the cost of delivery and even with the addition of the EYPP there will still be a shortfall for many providers,' she says. 'That said, I feel it is important that providers embrace the scheme and work hard to demonstrate the impact it is having to improve outcomes. Without the full support of all there is little hope of getting an increase in the EYPP.'
CASE STUDIES
Roof Top Nursery, Hackney, London
Children at Roof Top Nursery, in the heart of the London borough of Hackney, are among the first in the country to benefit from the extra funding brought in with the EYPP. The outstanding-rated setting currently has six or seven children out of the 65 on roll who qualify for the funding, bringing in about £700 in the first term.
Nursery manager Hafiza Bhaiyat says the setting was first given information about the new funding in December. 'Once we had got our heads around what the funding was, we started mapping out how best to use it,' she explains. 'Myself, the deputies and the room heads got together and looked at the background of the eligible children, what their lifestyle was at home, and what they don't have access to that others do.' She also spoke to the local education authority to get some ideas.
The nursery, which has been praised by Ofsted for its engagement with parents, also sent out a letter telling parents what the EYPP was and asking them how they thought it should be spent. 'We sent the letter to all parents, but we really encouraged those we knew were eligible to send back the questionnaire,' says Ms Bhaiyat.
Parents' suggestions included dance and music sessions, ICT equipment, and more fruit and vegetables available for snacks. The children were also asked for their ideas, which included having a professional footballer come and show them how to play, getting some pets and having a day at the zoo.
The nursery has decided to keep all the ideas on file and revisit them every term. The first tranche of money has already been spent on two iPads and two widescreen PCs to refresh the tired ICT corner. 'We have loaded phonics and numeracy software onto the iPads and screens, and have installed parental controls so the children can't change settings,' says Ms Bhaiyat. 'We will invest future funding on additional speakers to enhance the ICT area and experience.'
Ms Bhaiyat will present Ofsted with the feedback from parents about the success of the ICT equipment as well as pictures of what the corner looked like before and what it looks like now. 'The most disadvantaged children may never have ICT equipment in their homes,' she says. 'That is a real drawback when they come to school where everything is digital, if they have not tapped into that method of learning.'
Thames Children's Centre, Blackpool
Located right behind Blackpool's Pleasure Beach, a stone's throw from the promenade, Thames Children's Centre is one of 11 children's centres in Blackpool reaping the benefits of being in a pilot EYPP area. The outstanding-rated centre serves a catchment area with some of the highest deprivation levels in the country.
Jo Smith, manager at Thames Children's Centre, says any strategy on how to spend the new EYPP funding will form part of the setting's overall development plan for the academic year, which looks at the learning and development needs of the current cohort of children, and sets out the resources required to meet those needs. 'We would start with the children eligible for the EYPP but incorporate something into the whole setting if it is an initiative that would benefit all,' she explains.
Some of the EYPP funding is being used to fund staff training, as part of a local project to raise early achievement in maths, and Ms Smith says the money could be used for other relevant training in the future. 'At Thames we would use the funding for staff to train in our chosen projects, and also to pay for non-contact time, to plan and develop interventions for children to raise the outcomes necessary and to demonstrate the impact,' she explains. 'A high percentage of our children at the setting live in deprivation and environments with poor stimulation - we need to make sure we make the difference while they are in our care.' The funding will also be used for resources linked to the chosen projects.
Ms Smith intends to collect data on children's progress - for example, with numeracy - and also on the development of staff. 'I would hope the investment is threaded throughout the setting and is very visible,' she says. 'Our self-evaluation form would reflect the progress children have made'.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Ofsted has said it will update its inspection handbook before nurseries and other early years settings begin to receive the EYPP this April. Visit www.ofsted.gov.uk
The Pre-school Learning Alliance plans to run EYPP webinars and will publish brief notes on the topic in the spring. See www.pre-school.org.uk
The Early Years Toolkit - newly launched at http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/early-years - could prove an invaluable resource in helping you decide how to spend the EYPP and provide evidence for your choices. Funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and produced with academics from the School of Education at Durham University, led by Professor Steve Higgins, the toolkit assesses the effectiveness and cost of different learning strategies, by weighing up the findings of educational research. See also www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1150197/toolkit-evaluates-strategies
The Department for Education has information about the EYPP on its website, and has just published a model letter for settings to send to parents explaining what the funding is about. See www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-quality-and-range-of-education-and-childcare-from-birth-to-5-years/activity
The NDNA is working on a publication on EYPP and has a dedicated module for its e-Quality Counts scheme. The association intends to cover the topic at its programme of spring events and share best practice among its members. Visit www.ndna.org.uk.
Photos at Thames Primary Academy Children's Centre and Nursery, Blackpool by Guzelian