AQW 25790/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 08/04/2025
Answered On Date: 10/04/2025
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail the level of per pupil funding for pre-school settings allocated to (i) statutory settings; and (ii) non-statutory settings in the 2024-25 academic year.

Answer:

The Common Funding Formula is the Department’s mechanism for allocating budgets to Statutory pre-school settings funded through Local Management of Schools arrangements. The current pupil Age Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) for statutory pre-school settings is set out below. Statutory settings are funded based on the enrolment data on the school census immediately preceding the financial year to which funding relates (i.e. 2024/25 CFF is based upon the October 2023 census).

Non-statutory providers participating in the Pre-School Education Programme receive a real-time per-pupil funding allocation (i.e. 2024/25 funding is based on 2024/25 attendance), as set out below. There is no full-time non-statutory provision for the 2024-25 academic year, so no funding rate is available.

Per-Pupil Funding – 2024-25 Financial Year

	Part-time (£)	Full-time (£)
Statutory nursery school	2,692	4,093
Statutory nursery unit	2,523	3,806
Non-statutory	2,550	N/A