Education Minister announces additional Pathway funding for early years education
Date published:
Education Minister Paul Givan has announced a further £600,000 for the Pathway Fund, to help support very young, disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
The extra funding brings the total Pathway Fund to nearly £4.4m in 2024-25 which will help support over 10,000 children.
Education Minister said:
“This additional funding has enabled the Department to offer awards this year to all 175 Pathway projects which met Fund criteria. It has also allowed funded settings to receive an additional ‘Sustainability Support Payment’ of £1,500 or £2,000 to help with the significant rise in programme delivery costs over recent years.
“This funding increase reaffirms my Department’s ongoing commitment to stabilise the early years sector and support for high-quality targeted learning for children at risk of educational underachievement.”
The application process for the next round of Pathway funding for 2025/26 and 2026/27 will open at the end of November 2024.
Notes to editors:
- The main aims of the Pathway Fund are to: improve development of children (0-4 years) who are at risk of not reaching their full educational potential; and an enhanced, more sustainable Early Years sector.
- DE introduced the Pathway Fund in 2016-17. The Fund value has increased from £2.94m in 2016-17, to £3.789m in 2024-25.
- The Pathway Fund is administered under contract by Early Years – the Organisation for Young Children.
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