Please send me all available details relating to the following questions:
1. How does your local authority (LA) fund its childcare and early years services?
Please supply this information broken down by funding stream ie. government funding, LA budget, parent fees etc and what percentage of funding each element makes up.
Dedicated School Grant (DSG) – £43,541,000 (98.8%).
General Fund – £515,000 (1.2%).
Total – £44,056,000.
2. How much Department for Education funding has your LA received each year, over the last five years, for early years entitlement for three-and four-year olds?
Please provide this information in pounds for:
2018-2019.
£32,955,000.
2019-2020.
£33,456,000.
2020-2021.
£34,270,000.
2021-2022.
£34,609,000.
2022-2023.
£36,106,000.
3. Local authorities are allowed to retain a maximum of 5% of government funding for the universal and extended three-and four-year old entitlements to account for administration costs related to LA functions.
How much of this available 5% does your local authority currently retain?
2.88%.
4.What is this retained funding spent on by your local authority? Please include as much detail as possible.
Staffing to manage and administer the funding, data analysts for sufficiency, finance staff.
Staffing to support settings with EYFS and inclusion.
Information service.
Safeguarding training.
5. How has the proportion of the allowed 5% of funding retained by your local authority changed over the last five years?
Please provide the following information:
Year, total funding, retained funding and percentage of total budget
2018-2019.
2019-2020.
2020-2021.
2021-2022.
2022-2023.
| Year | Total Funding | Retained Funding | Percentage of Total Budget |
| 2018-2019 | £32,955,000 | £1,226,232.56 | 3.72% |
| 2019-2020 | £33,456,000 | £1,244,874.42 | 3.72% |
| 2020-2021 | £34,270,000 | £1,095,388.13 | 3.20% |
| 2021-2022 | £34,609,000 | £1,091,274.77 | 3.15% |
| 2022-2023 | £36,106,000 | £1,096,494.58 | 3.04% |
6. Given the future extended entitlement implementation, will the retained percentage of funding reduce, remain the same, or increase? If there is an expected change, what will that be (i.e. the total percentage retained)?
We will continue to review our central costs to ensure as much funding is passported to providers as possible, whilst ensuring we meet our statutory duty regarding there being sufficient places available for children and families, and having resources to support development and expansion where needed.