Funding for early years providers
This page has information on available funding for early years settings.
The Early Years and Childcare Service are available to help you with many aspects of your childcare business. If you need any further information, you can contact the Southampton Family Information Service.
Any Ofsted registered early years provider can claim early years funding. Funding is paid to the provider that the child attends and is not based on where the child lives. In Southampton we normally pay our providers their early years funding on the first Friday of each month.
Early years pupil premium (EYPP)
The early years pupil premium is extra funding for early years providers to support 3- and 4-year-olds whose families are in receipt of certain benefits.
Early years providers are eligible to receive this if a child's family get at least one of the following:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190
- Working Tax Credit run-on, which is paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit – your household income must be less than £7,400 a year after tax not including any benefits you get
You may also get early years pupil premium if a child is currently being looked after by a local authority in England or Wales or if your child has left care in England or Wales through:
- Adoption
- Special guardianship order
- A child arrangements order
Funding to support child with additional needs
Early Years Inclusion Support Fund
This fund is specifically to support the inclusion of 3- and 4-year-olds for settings that are Ofsted registered and who take Nursery Education Funding.
Find out more about the Early Years Inclusion Support Fund and how to apply on our SEND funding page.
Disability Access Funding (DAF)
If you provide places for any 3- or 4-year-olds who receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA), your setting is eligible to receive Disability Access Funding.
Find out more about Disability Access Funding and how to apply on our SEND funding page.
Funding audits
We choose providers for audits randomly using random number generator. With priority given to those who have not already been audited. The audits are conducted by at least two members of the Early Years team. This is usually a Development Worker and the Early Years Funding manager.
We also target providers on a points-based system. Providers who accumulate 10 or more points will automatically trigger an audit. Once a provider reaches 10 points we will contact them to explain why they are being audited. After an audit the points will return to 0. However, if you accumulate another 10 points this will trigger another automatic audit even if we recently audited you.
Reason for an audit being triggered
Providers will accumulate points for the following reasons which will put them to the top of the audit list.
| Reason | Points |
|---|---|
| A new complaint from a Parent/carer about money they are charged/invoicing being unclear | 10 points |
| Failure to produce all relevant documentation at a Funding Audit | 10 points |
| Any other clear breach of the local conditions of funding | 10 points |
| Failure to submit child's legal details on a headcount e.g. Name / Date of birth etc. | 3 points per child |
| Providers not informing us straight away when they receive estimated payments when they have no children claiming funding | 5 points |
| Consistent mistakes on headcounts | 5 points per headcount |
| Any return not being completed on time e.g. Local conditions, census, headcounts, sufficiency | 5 points per missed return |
