The government upped the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) by 45% from April 2025, meaning eligible early education settings in England can now claim up to £570 per child per year.
This provides a “significant opportunity to invest in strategies and sharpen focus on improving learning outcomes for disadvantaged children”, claims the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), a charity campaigning to break the link between family income and educational achievement.
With the aim of narrowing the attainment gap (see box), the EEF has for the first time published a guide – including evidence-backed resources – to help nurseries, childminders and schools make the most of the funding.
Provider organisations have given their views on the three key areas the EEF recommends directing the funding towards, how impact might be measured and to what extent they think this will help close the attainment gap.
Develop quality practice
High-quality early education and care are important for all children, but the benefits for disadvantaged children are greater. The EEF says using the EYPP to invest in professional development will help settings respond effectively to each child's individual needs.
Early years bodies agree that investment in continuing professional development (CPD) is likely to pay dividends for disadvantaged children.
Chief executive of Early Education Beatrice Merrick says the benefits include “leadership and engagement that will embed the practice long-term”.
To benefit from economies of scale, Merrick suggests localised groups of settings “clubbing together” to buy in training.
Identifying suitable high-quality sources of CPD, coaching and mentoring and other support, are among the challenges highlighted by Merrick. She also believes that finding the time and capacity to release staff for CPD may be difficult – an observation that Melanie Pilcher, quality and standards manager at the Early Years Alliance, also makes.
“At a time when providers are challenged in so many areas it can be difficult to allocate funds to CPD,” Pilcher says.
However, the focus on evidence-based approaches may “focus providers’ thoughts”, she adds.
Stella Ziolkowski, NDNA's director of quality and training, believes that CPD will only be successful if practitioners are able to get to know the “specific needs of individual children”, as well as ensuring that children's basic needs – such as nutrition and sleep – are being met so that they can learn.
Tailor personalised support
Some disadvantaged children will need additional support and teaching to make sure they make strong progress. This could include spending on targeted interventions, or robust assessment tools, the EEF says.
“Planning the support that children need should be flexible,” says Ziolkowski, who suggests that settings review this each term when new children start alongside regular reflection on effectiveness of strategies.
Merrick believes that for some children, individual support can be “transformative” and it follows that this should be in a setting's toolbox, although a challenge here may be lack of staff confidence that they can identify the right support for each child.
She suggests thinking creatively about the child's wider context, adding that settings might consider whether the family needs support such as by covering the bus fare to the setting.
She adds: “What experiences might eligible children have missed out on at home that the nursery can give them, and that will help improve their learning and development?”
Working with parents to boost the home learning environment could be key.
On both targeted interventions and assessment tools, Pilcher says there are some “very good examples”, with the extra funding improving access to these.
On the other hand, simpler measures may be most appropriate, such as buying books or storytelling materials that encourage parents and carers to read with their child at home, or healthy eating workshops for families, adds Pilcher.
Lead, plan and sustain
Meaningful engagement between leaders and their teams throughout the process is crucial for making changes to practice that will stick, says the EEF, adding that spending some of the EYPP to facilitate this is worthwhile. This could include collaborating with other settings or accessing support offered by local authorities and Stronger Practice Hubs.
Pilcher agrees that “planning together as a whole team benefits every aspect of the early years provision and contributes greatly to quality improvement” by bringing in a “full range of perspectives and gives educators ownership and a sense of responsibility for making sure the EYPP allocated has the biggest impact”, says Pilcher, who also backs partnering with other local settings.
Measuring impact
Experts are cautiously optimistic that the gap could be narrowed, with the EYPP playing a role in that. However, they point out that amid rising poverty, the impact may be limited.
Merrick says making good use of the EYPP can make a difference, adding that “this has to be part of a more joined-up approach to tackling the underlying causes of the gap”.
Within a setting, impact could be tracked by comparing the rate of progress of EYPP children compared with the rest of the cohort, she suggests, adding that this may be visible nationally over the next few years via the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results, but as we only measure at the end of Reception, it may not capture what happens earlier.
Pilcher is most focused on tracking a child's individual progress against agreed developmental areas.
“For example, if the desired outcome is to support a child who is having difficulty in self-regulating, the desired outcome would be for the child to be able to self-calm before a situation escalates,” she says. “The staff team can then reflect on the impact and share knowledge with the settings they have partnered with who may have new ideas to contribute.
“It will help if educators are clear about what the gap is, what contributes to it and what needs to be done to ensure that those children who are at risk of falling behind are able to learn and develop within the expected age ranges – where the EYPP can be used for targeted support for these children, it not only helps to ‘close the gap’, but also increases awareness of strategies that are proven to work.”
