FOI release

Funding for free entitlement for 2, 3 and 4 year old's for financial year 2022/23

Case reference FOI2023/02007

Published 9 January 2024

Request

FOI request - Local Authority funding for free entitlement for two, three and four-year-olds

Financial year 2022/23

Did you have an underspend in the early years block for funded places at the end of 2022/23? Yes/no.

If yes, please give amount of underspend.

OR:

Did you have an overspend in the early years block for funded places at the end of 2022/23? Yes/no.

If yes please give amount of overspend.

What actions, if any, were agreed relating to this underspend or overspend?

For example, we used our underspend to offset a deficit in the high needs block, or the overspend will be recovered from funding rates in future years etc.

Has your early years block been subject to an in-year adjustment by the Department for Education? If so, was this a positive or negative adjustment and how much was it?

For example, the DfE adjusted our early years block by +/- £200,000 before 01 April 2023

Does your answer to Q1 or 2 above factor in this adjustment?

For example, a £40,000 overspend was recorded after a -£200,000 adjustment.

Has your 2022/23 early years block been subject to an adjustment by the Department for Education since 1 April 2023 and now? If so, was this a positive or negative adjustment and how much was it?

For example, the DfE adjusted our early years block by +/- £200,000 after 01 April 2023.

Does your answer to Q1 or 2 above include any adjustment?

Under the pass-through regulations, what percentage of your budget for funded three and four-year-olds did you pass through to providers in 2022/23?

Response

FOI request - Local Authority funding for free entitlement for two, three and four-year-olds

Financial year 2022/23

Did you have an underspend in the early years block for funded places at the end of 2022/23? Yes/no.

No.

If yes, please give amount of underspend.

OR:

Did you have an overspend in the early years block for funded places at the end of 2022/23? Yes/no.

Yes.

If yes please give amount of overspend.

£77,045

What actions, if any, were agreed relating to this underspend or overspend?

For example, we used our underspend to offset a deficit in the high needs block, or the overspend will be recovered from funding rates in future years etc.

No action taken, the overspend was netted off against all other Dedicated Schools Grant expenditure.

Has your early years block been subject to an in-year adjustment by the Department for Education? If so, was this a positive or negative adjustment and how much was it?

DfE in-year adjustments are forecast in advance and adjusted for in-year by an appropriate Receipt-in-Advance or Payment-in-Advance accounting transaction. As such the overall effect will generally be zero depending how accurate the in-year adjustment reflects the council's accounting adjustment.

For example, the DfE adjusted our early years block by +/- £200,000 before 01 April 2023

For example a £180,000 additional payment for 2021-22 was paid in July 2022 however this was anticipated by an additional £164,826 credit in 2021-22 and debit in 2022-23. Hence only the difference of £15,000 income falls in 22-23.

Does your answer to Q1 or 2 above factor in this adjustment?

For example, a £40,000 overspend was recorded after a -£200,000 adjustment.

Q2 answer includes both any DfE grant adjustment and the compensating receipt in advance as set out above.

Has your 2022/23 early years block been subject to an adjustment by the Department for Education since 1 April 2023 and now? If so, was this a positive or negative adjustment and how much was it?

None identified as yet.

For example, the DfE adjusted our early years block by +/- £200,000 after 01 April 2023.

A Receipt in advance of £235,400 was transferred from 2022-23 as additional income to the 2023-24 early years financial years in expectation of an additional deduction.

Does your answer to Q1 or 2 above include any adjustment?

Q2 answer includes both any DfE grant adjustment and the compensating receipt in advance as set out above.

Under the pass-through regulations, what percentage of your budget for funded three and four-year-olds did you pass through to providers in 2022/23?

Pass through percentage is 97.3%

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

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