Early Years Pupil Premium
Early Years Inclusion Funding and Pupil Premium
Supporting inclusion from the very beginning
At Woodlands, inclusion begins with our youngest children. Our approach is based on early identification, early intervention and removing barriers to learning, development and participation. We recognise that children's needs are different and that the funding available to support them is also different. There are a number of national and local funding streams available within the Early Years. These have different purposes and eligibility criteria and should not be confused with one another.
At Woodlands, the four principal funding streams are:
- Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) – supporting eligible children who may experience disadvantage;
- Disability Access Fund (DAF) – supporting access and reasonable adjustments for eligible disabled children;
- Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding (SENIF/SENDIF) – additional local authority funding to support children with emerging or lower-level special educational needs; and
- Inclusive Early Years Fund (IEYF) – new funding from 2026/27 designed to strengthen inclusive practice across the whole setting and enable earlier intervention.
Together, these funding streams complement the funding already available within our Early Years provision and help us ensure that children receive the right support as early as possible.
Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)
At Woodlands, we are committed to identifying children's needs early and ensuring that every child has the strongest possible start to their education.
The Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is additional government funding paid to early years providers for eligible children. It is intended to help settings improve children's learning, development and outcomes and to help reduce the impact of disadvantage. EYPP sits alongside our wider approach to inclusion across Woodlands Early Years. Where children have additional needs, other funding and support may also be available; eligibility for these different forms of support is not necessarily the same as eligibility for EYPP.
Who can receive EYPP?
From 2026/27, EYPP can support eligible children from the age of 9 months up to and including age 4 who are accessing an eligible government-funded early years entitlement.
This includes children accessing:
- the funded entitlement for eligible working parents from 9 months;
- the funded entitlement for eligible 2-year-olds;
- the entitlement for 2-year-olds from families receiving additional support; or
- the universal 15-hour entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds.
EYPP is paid in respect of the first 15 funded hours per week, up to a maximum of 570 hours each year.
Eligibility
A child accessing an eligible funded early years place may qualify for EYPP where their family meets the government's income or benefits-related criteria.
For 2026/27, these include qualifying families receiving:
- Income Support;
- income-based Jobseeker's Allowance;
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance;
- support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
- the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit; or
- Universal Credit, subject to the government's income threshold.
Children may also qualify if they:
- are currently looked after by a local authority in England or Wales; or
- have left local authority care in England or Wales through an adoption order, Special Guardianship Order or Child Arrangements Order.
- Eligibility rules can change. We therefore encourage families who think they may qualify to complete the Cheshire West and Chester Council EYPP eligibility check, rather than assuming that they are or are not eligible.
How much funding does Woodlands receive?
For the 2026/27 financial year, the national EYPP rate is at least £1.15 for each eligible funded hour, payable on up to 15 hours per week/570 hours per year.
This means that an eligible child attending for the full entitlement can attract at least £655 of additional funding each year.
The funding is paid to the early years provider rather than directly to the family.
How do we use EYPP at Woodlands?
At Woodlands, EYPP forms part of our wider commitment to early identification, inclusion and improving outcomes for all children. We use our knowledge of individual children and our assessment of their learning and development to determine how additional funding can have the greatest impact. Depending upon the needs of our children and cohorts, this may include:
- targeted support for communication, language and vocabulary;
- early literacy, stories, books and language-rich experiences;
- support for personal, social and emotional development;
- resources or approaches that strengthen children's readiness for learning;
- targeted interventions and additional adult support;
- supporting attendance, engagement and successful transitions;
- enrichment and experiences which children may not otherwise access;
- staff training and professional development; and
- resources which strengthen high-quality inclusive practice across our Early Years provision.
Funding does not always have to be spent separately on an individual child. Where appropriate, EYPP funding can be combined to provide interventions, resources, experiences or staff development that benefit a group of eligible children while responding to their identified needs. We monitor children's progress and development so that we can evaluate the impact of the support we provide.
EYPP and children with SEND
Having special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) does not, by itself, make a child eligible for EYPP. However, EYPP is only one element of the funding and support available within the early years. Children with SEND and/or disabilities may be eligible for other support or funding, including the Disability Access Fund (DAF) and local authority Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding (SENIF). In 2026/27, the Government has also introduced the Inclusive Early Years Fund (IEYF) to strengthen inclusive practice and early intervention across early years settings.
Woodlands considers these funding streams as part of our wider approach to inclusion: identifying need early, removing barriers to participation and learning, developing inclusive practice and ensuring children receive appropriate support as early as possible.
Disability Access Fund (DAF)
Children receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) who are also accessing an eligible funded early years entitlement may qualify for the Disability Access Fund. For 2026/27, DAF provides at least £975 per eligible child per year to the nominated early years setting. This funding can support reasonable adjustments, specialist resources, staff training and other measures which improve access and inclusion. DAF is different from EYPP. A child may qualify for one, both or neither of these funding streams depending upon their circumstances.
How DAF can be used
DAF can support providers in making reasonable adjustments and developing their capacity to meet children's needs.
At Woodlands this might include:
- specialist or adapted equipment;
- sensory resources;
- adaptations to the physical environment;
- communication resources;
- resources supporting regulation or participation;
- specialist staff training; or
- other reasonable adjustments which improve a child's access to our provision.
DAF does not have to be spent solely on an item used only by the individual child. Funding can be used to build the setting's capacity where doing so enables the eligible child to access and participate fully in provision. Our aim is always to consider the child within the environment and ask what we can change, adapt or provide to reduce barriers to participation.
Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding (SENIF/SENDIF)
Local authorities are required to maintain a Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund (SENIF) for children below compulsory school age who have special educational needs. In Cheshire West and Chester this may also be referred to locally as SEND Inclusion Funding (SENDIF). Unlike EYPP, this funding is specifically concerned with special educational needs. For 2026/27, national guidance makes clear that SENIF should particularly support children with lower-level or emerging SEN, helping providers to identify and respond to needs early and to offer inclusive early years places. This is an important principle at Woodlands: children should not have to wait for needs to escalate before appropriate support begins.
At Woodlands, where appropriate, additional inclusion funding can help us provide or strengthen support such as:
- targeted early intervention;
- communication and language support;
- support for sensory processing and regulation;
- adaptations to provision or routines;
- specialist resources;
- additional adult support;
- advice and strategies from other professionals; and
- carefully planned support for transition.
Children do not need an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in order for emerging needs to be recognised and supported. Where a child's needs are more complex, different or additional funding arrangements may apply, including funding through the High Needs system.
Inclusive Early Years Fund (IEYF)
The Inclusive Early Years Fund (IEYF) is a new national funding stream introduced by the Department for Education for 2026/27. The Government has provided £47 million nationally through the fund to help the early years sector become more inclusive of children with SEND. The fund represents an important shift towards earlier intervention and setting-wide inclusive practice, rather than relying solely upon applications for funding attached to individual children.
The Department for Education identifies three central purposes for the fund:
- helping providers adopt setting-wide inclusive practices;
- reducing reliance on individual child-based funding applications; and
- enabling early intervention for children with SEND.
Unlike some other funding streams, IEYF is deliberately not tied to an individual child. Local authorities must provide the funding upfront, without requiring an individual application or panel process.
What this means at Woodlands
This approach strongly reflects our existing philosophy of inclusion. We want to create environments, develop staff expertise and establish approaches which enable children to succeed before difficulties become entrenched or needs escalate. Our IEYF allocation therefore supports the development of inclusive practice across our Early Years provision.
This may include:
- developing staff expertise in identifying and supporting SEND;
- professional development and SEND training;
- strengthening communication and language assessment and intervention;
- resources supporting children with English as an additional language where these help us distinguish language acquisition from possible additional need;
- social stories and resources supporting regulation, routines and transition;
- communication and language resources which can also be used between home and school;
- environmental adaptations;
- targeted interventions for groups of children with commonly occurring needs; and
- strengthening systems for early identification and intervention.
The IEYF complements rather than replaces EYPP, DAF, SENIF/SENDIF or High Needs funding.
How the funding works together
No single funding stream defines a child's needs. A child experiencing disadvantage may receive EYPP. A disabled child receiving DLA may attract DAF. A child with emerging special educational needs may be supported through SENIF/SENDIF. The IEYF enables us to strengthen inclusive practice across the setting so that staff, environments, resources and interventions are increasingly able to respond to children's needs at the earliest opportunity. Some children may therefore benefit from more than one funding stream. Whatever the source of funding, our starting point remains the same:
What does this child need in order to belong, participate, learn and thrive - and what can we do as a setting to remove the barriers in their way?
Our statutory responsibilities
Our approach to Early Years inclusion and additional funding sits within a wider statutory framework.
Children and Families Act 2014: Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 provides the principal statutory framework for identifying and supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. It places duties upon local authorities and education providers and underpins the SEND system, including the SEND Code of Practice.
SEND Code of Practice: 0–25 years. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0–25 years is statutory guidance. Relevant early years providers, schools and local authorities must have regard to the Code when carrying out their functions relating to children with SEND. The Code places particular emphasis upon identifying needs early, working in partnership with parents and carers and providing appropriate support.
Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled children from discrimination. Early years providers must not discriminate against disabled children and must make reasonable adjustments so that disabled children are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. Our approach is therefore not simply about providing additional help to an individual child: it also requires us to consider whether our environments, systems and practice create barriers which can reasonably be removed.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework. All of our Early Years provision operates within the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework. The current framework, effective from 1 September 2026, establishes the statutory standards that early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.
Our inclusive practice, assessment, early identification and support for children's individual needs sit within these statutory expectations.
Childcare Act 2006 and early years entitlement legislation: Government-funded early years entitlements have their statutory basis principally in the Childcare Act 2006, together with subsequent legislation and regulations governing free early education and childcare. Funding arrangements for 2026/27 are also governed by the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2026 and associated
Department for Education funding guidance: Inclusive Early Years Fund The IEYF is additional funding provided to local authorities by the Secretary of State for Education under section 14 of the Education Act 2002, subject to the Department for Education's 2026/27 conditions of grant. The fund is intended to complement, rather than replace, existing early years SEND funding.
What happens when my child starts Reception?
EYPP is an early years funding stream and ends when a child enters Reception. Children in Reception and statutory school age may instead qualify for the school's Pupil Premium, but receiving EYPP does not automatically mean that a child will qualify for Pupil Premium. The eligibility arrangements are different. Parents and carers know their children best and are an essential part of successful early identification and support. If you think your child may be eligible for additional funding, or you have concerns about your child's development or additional needs, please speak to your child's key person or a member of our Early Years team. We can help families understand the different forms of support available and, where appropriate, work with Cheshire West and Chester Council and other professionals to ensure that children's needs are identified and supported as early as possible.
How do I apply?
Cheshire West and Chester Council checks eligibility for EYPP and makes payments directly to eligible early years providers.
Parents and carers can check eligibility and apply through the Council's Early Years Pupil Premium service here:
If you are unsure whether your child may qualify, please speak to a member of our Early Years team. We would strongly encourage eligible families to apply: the funding enables us to provide additional support and opportunities for children at an important stage of their development.
Information reviewed: October 2026. Eligibility and funding rates are subject to government and local authority changes.
