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Number of 3 & 4 year old children benefiting from some free early education (916) Metric type
- Description
- All four year olds have been entitled to a free early education place since 1998 and from April 2004 this entitlement was extended to all three year olds. All children are eligible for a free part-time funded place from 1 September, 1 January or 1 April following their third birthday for up to two years before they reach compulsory school age. Free places can be accessed in a variety of settings in the maintained and private, voluntary and independent sectors. Local Authorities (LAs) make funding available to providers to enable them to provide free places.A funded place currently consists of a minimum of 15 hours of free early education per week for thirty-eight weeks of the year. The free entitlement has been extended to 15 hours a week from 12.5 hours a week from September 2010 delivered more flexibly. The extended entitlement has been available to the 25% most disadvantaged children in every LA since September 2009 and to all children in Pathfinder LAs since April 2007.
- Help text
- This is metric is the total number of 3 and 4 year children with a statement or EHC (Education, Health and Care) Plan benefiting from funded early education in an area. Count of children aged 3 or 4 at 31 December in the previous calendar year.
All 4 year olds have been entitled to a funded early education place since 1998 and in 2004 this was extended to all 3 year olds. Since September 2010, all 3 and 4 year olds have been entitled to 570 hours a year of funded early education over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year (which equates to 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year). This is known as the universal entitlement and is referred to as the funded early education entitlement. In September 2017 the government doubled the entitlement to funded early education for 3-and 4-year-olds in working families who meet the eligibility criteria to 30 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year. This is referred to as the extended funded early education entitlement.
Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans were introduced from September 2014 as part of a range of SEND reforms. A pupil has a statement of SEN or an EHC plan when a local authority issues one following a formal assessment. This document sets out the child's needs and the extra help they should receive.
The estimated number of eligible children is derived from data supplied to the Department for Education by the Department for Work and Pensions in November each year on the number of children believed to meet the benefit and tax credit eligibility criteria. It represents the best data available on the number of eligible children in each local authority area, but excludes universal credit claimants. From 2019 onwards, full service universal credit claimants are included in the eligible population for the first time. Caution should be exercised when comparing take-up rates at local authority level between 2019 and earlier years due to the roll-out of universal credit.
Any child attending more than one Private, Voluntary or Independent (PVI) provider will have only been counted once. PVI are private and voluntary settings, childminders and Independent schools.
- Modified
- 30 Jun 2022
- Data last updated
- 01 Jul 2022
- Short label
- No. of 3 & 4 year olds benefiting from some free early education
- Status
- Live
- Output precision
- 0
- Polarity
- a high value is good
- Measure
- Children benefitting from funded early education
- Dataset
- 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children benefitting from funded early education by Special Needs provision
- Source
- Department for Education
- is found in the following lists
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