Early years premium needs London weighting, councils warn

London Councils, a cross-party organisation representing the city’s 32 boroughs, has said the flat-rate payment will leave the capital’s 36,478 most disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds with limited access to early years support.

At present, the funding, which will be introduced in April 2015 to pay for additional help for three- and four-year-olds taking up 15 hours of free childcare a week, values each child’s care at 53p an hour, based on the 570 hours of free care each child receives annually.

However, in its response to the DfE’s Early Years Pupil Premium and Funding for Two-year-olds consultation, London Councils warns that the funding will not be enough to provide extra support for children living in the capital and warns that they could fall even further behind their peers in other parts of the country as a result.

The organisation, in a joint response with the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services, said: “Unlike most other government grants, the EYPP will not include an area cost adjustment to reflect variations in labour market costs and other costs across England.

“This means that deprived pupils in London are not able to access the same level of support from the early years pupil premium as deprived pupils in other areas of England due to higher costs.

“London Councils’ analysis shows that London’s disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds will lose out on £1.139m of funding that would enable them to access the same level of support as children in other regions.”

The DfE estimates that the £50m fund, announced by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in March, could provide extra support for 170,000 children from low-income families.

A consultation on the plans closed last Friday (August 22) and the DfE is expected to publish its response shortly.

Earlier this week, schools minister David Laws said proposals to increase the early years pupil premium to £1,000 per child will be included in the Liberal Democrats' manifesto for the 2015 general election.

Janet Grauberg, a policy consultant with think-tank CentreForum and a former adviser to Michael Gove when he was education secretary, last week warned that the £300 premium would fail to incentivise the best settings to reach out to disadvantaged children. Instead, she called for the funding to be increased to match the school-age pupil premium.

The 2014/15 pupil premium rate is £1,300 for primary-aged children and £935 for secondary school pupils.