Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average early years funding rate given to local authorities in England was for (a) two year olds and (b) three and four year olds in (i) 2017-18, (ii) 2018-19, (iii) 2019-20, (iv) 2020-21 and (v) 2021-22.

The table below shows the average early years hourly funding rate for 2 and 3 to 4 year olds.

*The vast majority of local authorities have seen an increase in their 3 to 4 year old average hourly funding rate of 6p an hour in 2021-22. Due to rounding, this is represented by an increase from £4.83 to £4.88 in the overall national average.

Calculations for the 3 to 4 year old hourly funding rate exclude supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools, the disability access fund and the early years pupil premium. The 3 to 4 year old hourly funding rate is an average across both universal hours and additional hours entitlements. The average for the 3 to 4 year old hourly funding rate in 2017-18 has been adjusted to reflect the fact that the additional hours entitlement was introduced in September 2017.

For 2020-21 and 2021-22 the average hourly funding rates are provisional and will depend on future attendance.

Average rates can be calculated from dedicated schools grant tables which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2019-to-2020;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2020-to-2021;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2021-to-2022.