Guidance

Early years data collection 2024 to 2025: autumn term headcount

Updated 21 October 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

This guide is for local authorities. It sets out how they should collect and submit data for the 2024 autumn term on the take-up of the government-funded hours for the 15-hours early education entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support, as well as children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) accessing the government-funded entitlements for children aged 2 and under.

Section 1: Context – What is this data for?

1.1. Expansion of early years entitlements

The 2023 Spring Budget announced an expansion of the entitlement for working parents. From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds have been able to access up to 15 hours of government-funded childcare per week for 38 weeks a year; and from September 2024, eligible working parents of children from 9-months-old have been able to access this 15-hour entitlement too. From September 2025 the funded hours will increase, eligible working parents of 9-month-olds to 3-year-olds will be able to access up to 30 hours per week for 38 weeks a year.

1.2. Why is the data being collected?

The Department for Education provides 15 hours funded early education to families receiving additional forms of support. The primary purpose of the entitlement is to support children’s outcomes, and this remains a key priority for the Department. We have evidence demonstrating that early education has a positive impact on disadvantaged children’s educational outcomes, and it is imperative that we do all we can to continue supporting improved outcomes for disadvantaged children. The National Audit Office (NAO) also acknowledged that the Department should be monitoring the impact of the working parent entitlement on disadvantaged children’s access to early education, and the impact on children with SEND.

Local authorities and those responsible for providing early years provision must meet statutory requirements relating to children with SEND, this includes the SEND Code of Practice which sets out when securing funded early education for two-, three- and four-year-olds local authorities  should promote equality and inclusion for children with disabilities or special educational needs (SEN). This includes removing barriers that prevent children accessing early education.

It is therefore important for the Department to understand the impact of the expansion of the working parent entitlement on the take up of the 15-hour entitlement for families receiving specific forms of additional support and entitlements for children with SEND.

Please note this data will not be used for determining any funding allocations.

Section 2: What data will be collected?

2.1. Data required from local authorities

All local authorities in England that fund early years provision must provide the relevant data to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) on the:

• total number of children taking up the government-funded 15-hour entitlement for families receiving specific form of additional support
• total number of children with SEND accessing the 15-hour entitlement for families receiving specific form of additional support
• total number of children with SEND accessing the working parent entitlement for children from 9 months up to 3

The date of birth ranges are:

	2-year-olds	Under-2s	Maximum funded hours
Autumn 2024	Born between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 (inclusive)	Born between 1 September 2022 and 30 November 2023 (inclusive)	15 hours

Local authorities need to ensure there are no duplicate entries for children. For example, if a child splits their entitlement across more than one provider, the child should be counted only once. Any parents who meet the eligibility criteria for both the 15-hour entitlement for families receiving additional forms of support, and the working parent entitlement, must be recorded as taking up the former. This includes children eligible under the economic criteria, children with an education and health care (EHC) plan, children who are looked after (e.g. in foster care) and previously looked after children.

The scope of the termly data collection is the same as that relating to the early years census for the setting types, predominantly for the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings. In summary, local authorities should collect data from the following childcare settings:

• PVI providers, including private and voluntary providers, local authority day nurseries, registered independent schools, state-funded governor-run providers, childminders and other PVI providers
• schools with non-registered pupils of the school (for example, governor-run schools, normally completed on the early years census)
• academies with non-registered pupils of the school (normally completed on the early years census)

Local authorities are not required to undertake an additional data collection for school-based settings as we will use the data submitted by schools from the 2024 autumn school census. 

Section 3: How to submit your data and key dates

3.1. How to submit data

This data will be collected through the same digital form as the ‘Early years funding: termly data collection in 2024 to 2025’.

3.2. Timing of data collection

The data will be collected following the same timetable as the 2024 autumn term early years funding data collection. As such, we will require the number of children taking up the entitlements during count week commencing 4 November 2024.

The deadline for submitting autumn term data to ESFA is 6 December 2024.