Two Year Old Funding

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The criteria for allocating up to 15 hours of funding per week for vulnerable two year olds is in line with those used by health visitors for identifying families who would benefit from Universal Partnership Plus services.

Who is eligible to be considered for funding?

The government requires that a family must be in receipt of one of the following:

• Income Support
• Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
• Child Tax Credit at a higher rate than the family element
• Extra Working Tax Credit relating to Disability
• Pension Credit
• Income based employment and support

In addition to this, a family will also need to meet at least one of the following additional criteria:

• Child is on or leaving a Child in Need or Child Protection Plan
• Family open to MARAC or DV1 where concerns persist
• Looked after child
• Teenage parents (mother under 18 years of age at point of conception)
• Post-natal depression/clinical depression requiring brief intervention visits
• Has had an initial assessment or an identified need for a planned programme of intensive intervention e.g. a life-threatening or life limiting illness to a child and/or parents, drug and alcohol misuse, parental learning disability, significant developmental delay (child) etc
• Family that continues to struggle with parenting issues following a programme of intervention, e.g. lack of guidance and control, rejection and unrealistic expectations, or who are unable to provide and maintain an adequate environment for their children due to their social/material/health needs
• Families with three or more home addresses in the previous year
• Vulnerability according to multi agency threshold document or professional judgment

Or a family with three or more of the following disadvantage criteria can be considered for funding:

• Family lives in poor quality or overcrowded housing
• Neither parent has any educational qualifications
• Either parent has mental health problems
• At least one parent has longstanding limiting illness, disability or infirmity
• The family cannot afford a number of food and clothing items (DOH 2009)

Making an application

Applications are welcome from children’s centre outreach workers, health visitors and social workers.

Two Year Old Funding Referral Form 134kb

All applications are currently assessed by a funding panel for eligibility.

Closing date for Referrals	Panel Date	Funding Start Date
29 June	06 July	03 September
07 September	14 September	24 September
12 October	19 October	05 November
30 November	07 December	07 January 2013

Children approved at panel will be awarded up to 15 hours of funding per week.

When does funding start?

The following age parameters are used to decide when funding starts:

• Child who becomes 2 years old on or before 31 March – funding from 1 April
• Child who becomes 2 years old on or before 31 August – funding from 1 September
• Child who becomes 2 years old on or before 31 December – funding from 1 January

These children will then move automatically on to three year old funding, which is available for a maximum of 15 hours a week.

It is a requirement that all families, receiving this funding, engage with their local children’s centre.

Which settings deliver the funded two year old places?

Two year old funded sessions will only be offered at settings, including childminders, that have received either a good or outstanding Ofsted report and, for group settings that have an early year’s professional or qualified early year’s teacher in place. All types of settings should be participating in a quality improvement scheme.

Number of funded places

Currently there is funding for 180 places, increasing to 350 by September 2012. This project is being extended by the current government to offer 700 funded places in Wiltshire in September 2013. To achieve this and to plan places we need to identify our most vulnerable children as soon after birth as possible. This will enable us to plan sufficient appropriately located spaces.

Related information

• Childcare sufficiency assessment

Related documents

• Further information on two year old funding monitoring 57kb Further information on two year old funding monitoring
• Social monitoring assessment for settings use 261kb
• Social monitoring spreadsheet template 75kb

Last updated: 27 April 2012