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Guidance

Early years funding: 2024 to 2025

Information for local authorities and settings about early years funding for the 2024 to 2025 financial year

Updates to this page

From:
Education and Skills Funding Agency and Department for Education
Published:
29 November 2023
Last updated:
9 May 2024
Show all updates

  1. We have updated the 'Early years entitlements: local authority funding operational guide 2024 to 2025' in the following sections: - section 3.4: Funding allocations - text has been amended as the eary years block of the dedicated schools grant revised allocations table have now been published - section 3.5: methodology for funding allocations for children of working parents aged 9 months up to and including 2-year-olds. In this section we have provided a link to the newly published 'Early years funding: termly data collection in 2024 to 2025' guide. We have also made very small amendments to the 'Easy explainer: early years funding rates' document in the first and final paragraphs of the document, to reflect the publication of the termly data collection guide for 2024 to 2025.

  2. We have updated the early years entitlements: local authority funding operational guide 2024 to 2025 to reflect the new funding entitlements for under 2s for the period between September 2024 to March 2025. Updates to the guidance can be found in the following sections: - 3.2: Funding allocations - 5.1: Setting a local funding rate for 2-year-old entitlements and children aged 9 months up to 2 years - 5.3: Funding supplements subsection, and - 5.3: Supplements cap subsection

  3. First published.

This publication was withdrawn on

Find the latest information about early years funding in the local authorities: pre-16 schools funding collection.

Applies to England

Documents

Early years entitlements: local authority funding operational guide 2024 to 2025

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2024 to 2025 early years national funding formulae: technical note

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Early years funding rates and step-by-step calculations 2024 to 2025

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 729 KB

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Easy explainer: early years funding rates

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Details

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.

Operational guide

Local authorities should follow this guidance when funding providers to deliver the early years entitlements in the financial year 2024 to 2025.

Technical note

Read the technical note and step-by-step guide (in the funding rates table) to understand how the funding rates for early years have been calculated.

Funding rates

View the funding rates for your local authority area

Easy explainer: early years funding rates

This document is aimed at early years providers and explains, in an accessible format, how the funding rates are calculated and distributed

Further information

You can view the rates and calculations for previous financial years on the early years national funding formula: funding rates and guidance page and the early years funding: 2023 to 2024.

You can read more about the government’s response to the consultation on our approach to distributing funding for the early years entitlements for 2-year-olds and under 2s to local authorities from April 2024.

You can find out further information, including details about the 2024 to 2025 final funding allocation methodology for the new entitlements in the early years funding: termly data collection in 2024 to 2025 guidance.

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