Nursery World - Business - Occupancy and funding

What do settings need to know about funding rates, and how can they boost occupancy? By Gary Croxon, service manager, East Anglia Service Hub, Early Years Alliance

Headcount: summer and autumn funding will now be based on termly counts

One year on from the first lockdown, and multiple sets of guidelines, funding- and infection-related challenges later, and the early years sector is under colossal pressure. There has been a large decrease in the number of children attending settings as many families remain on furlough or reduced working hours. The number of children taking up a funded place in January 2021 was just 37 per cent of normal term-time rates and just 52 per cent of what the Government would normally expect at that time of year.

This also means a huge drop in government funding, as while autumn-term funding was based on January 2020 attendance, as of the spring term, government funding is based on the number of children on roll at a setting.

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