§ Lord Hoyleasked Her Majesty's Government:
What formula was used to allocate the funding for early education places for three year-olds in 2000–01. [HL118]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Baroness Blackstone)From April 2000, £100 million will be distributed across all local education authorities, funding around 83,000 new free places for three year-olds in the greatest social need.
To allocate funds to each authority, a target participation rate was calculated based on the index of deprivation used for the Sure Start programme. This index was developed from the Government's Index of Local Deprivation, augmented by two additional factors relating to young children. Authorities with the highest deprivation rates were set the highest target participation rate. Funding was then allocated on the basis of the difference between the target participation rate and the existing number of maintained places.