Regulation 34 Early years pupil premiumI1

England and Wales

(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^f1;

(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^f2.

(4)

The orders are—

(a)

an adoption order within the meaning given by section 46(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002^f3;

(b)

a special guardianship order within the meaning given by section 14A(1) of the 1989 Act^f4; and

(c)

a child arrangements order within the meaning given by section 8(1) of the 1989 Act^f5 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^f6;

(b)

“earned income” means income for the purposes of Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013^f7;

(c)

“income-based jobseeker’s allowance” has the meaning given by section 1(4) of the Jobseekers Act 1995^f8;

(d)

“income-related employment and support allowance” means an income-related allowance under Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2007^f9;

(e)

“income support” means income support under section 124 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992^f10;

(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^f11; or

(ii)

section 74(1) of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014^f12;

(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^f13 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^f14;

(k)

“state pension credit” means state pension credit under section 1 of the State Pension Credit Act 2002^f15, 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^f16;

(m)

“virtual schools head” means a person appointed by a local authority under section 22(3B) of the 1989 Act^f17 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)^f18;

(n)

“working tax credit” means working tax credit under section 1(1)(b) of the Tax Credits Act 2002.

Annotations

Commencement

I1: Reg. 34 in force at 17.2.2025, see reg. 1(2)

Footnotes

f1: 1999 c. 33.
f2: Working tax credits are in certain circumstances, paid for four weeks (“run-on”) following a cessation of employment.
f3: 2002 c. 38.
f4: Section 14A(1) was inserted by section 115(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (c. 38).
f5: Section 8(1) was amended by section 12 of the 2014 Act.
f6: 2002 c. 21. Section 1 is repealed by Part 1 of Schedule 14 to the 2012 Act with savings specified in S.I. 2019/167.
f7: S.I. 2013/376. Chapter 2 of Part 6 is concerned with earned income for the purposes of calculating an award of universal credit. Chapter 2 was amended by S.I. 2013/1508, 2014/2888 and 3255, 2015/67, 345 and 1754, 2018/65, 2019/1152 and 1249, 2020/354 and 1138, 2021/1283.
f8: 1995 c. 18. Section 1(4) is repealed by section 147 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 14 to, the 2012 Act on different days and for different areas and purposes and remains partially in force. (See S.I. 2013/983, 1511, 2657, 2846, 2014/209, 1452, 1583, 2321, 3094, 2015/33, 101, 634, 1537, 1930, 2016/33 and 407). Section 1(4) is amended by sections 59 and 88 of, and paragraph 2(4) of Schedule 7 and Part V of Schedule 13 to, the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 (c. 30), by section 4 of the Welfare Reform Act 2009 (c. 24) (on a date to be appointed) and by section 254(1) of, and paragraph 118 of Schedule 24 to, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c. 33).
f9: 2007 c. 5.
f10: 1992 c. 4. Section 124 is repealed by section 147 of, and Part I of Schedule 14 to, the 2012 Act on different days and for different areas and purposes and remains partially in force. (See S.I. 2013/983, 1511, 2657, 2846, 2014/209, 1452, 1583, 2321, 3094, 2015/33, 101, 634, 1537 and 2016/33). Section 124 is amended by section 41(4) and (5) of, paragraph 30 of Schedule 2, and Schedule 3 to, the Jobseekers Act 1995, section 70 of, and paragraph 28 of Schedule 8 to, the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999, sections 14 and 21 of, and paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 to, the State Pension Credit Act 2002 (c. 16), and section 254(1) of, and paragraph 42 of Schedule 24 to, the Civil Partnership Act 2004, section 28(1) and 67 of, and paragraph 9(1), (9) and (10) of Schedule 3, and Schedule 8 to, the 2007 Act, section 3(1) of the Welfare Reform Act 2009 and section 147 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 14 to, the Welfare Reform Act 2012. Further amendments will be made by section 5 (1) of the Welfare Reform Act 2009 and section 59(1) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 on a date to be appointed.
f11: Section 22(1) was amended by section 107 of, and paragraph 19 of Schedule 5 to, the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22), section 2(1) and (2) of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (c. 35), section 116(2) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (c. 38) and S.I. 2016/413.
f12: 2014 anaw. 4.
f13: An assessment period is prescribed by regulation 21(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/376) as a period of one month beginning with the first day of entitlement and each subsequent period of one month during which entitlement subsists. Regulation 21(1) was amended by S.I. 2018/65.
f14: S.I. 2010/959. Paragraph (1) of regulation 5 was renumbered as such by S.I. 2014/1917.
f15: 2002 c. 16.
f16: 2012 c. 5.
f17: Section 22(3B) was inserted by section 99 of the 2014 Act and amended by S.I. 2016/413.
f18: Section 22(3A) was inserted by section 52 of the 2004 Act.