Early Years Funding
Early Years Funding is available under a number o different funding programmes to help improve the education provided to early years across the UK. There are a number of schemes available depending on the needs of the provider, the community and manifestos of parties. Some schemes are designed to help improve educational providers to help provide better education whilst others offer funding extend or build new nurseries altogether.
School-based Nurseries Funding
In October 2024, the DFE announced that £15.0M will be made available to create up to 300 new nurseries or expanded nurseries across the UK by converting surplus school space into nursery space. This scheme is to support the 2025 scheme to provide 30 hours/week of government funded hours for childcare and early education to working parents.
The first round offers upto 300 allucations with £150,000 being granted per school, Schools are can register interest for future rounds if they are not ready yet
The DFE stated that in order to support the 2025 expansion of government-funded hours of childcare and early education for working parents to 30 hours a week, schools “will need to demonstrate how their proposals will respond to need in their local area.” Schools can choose to run the nursery internally or contract them out to private or voluntary sector providers.
Schools are invited to bid for the funding from next month. Successful schools will be allocated funding in Spring 2025 as part of the wider investment to create up to 3,000 new nurseries as part of the first phase.
The department plans to use the first phase to gather learnings for future years and gain a better understanding of how we can support underserved and impoverished communities in order to guarantee that the program is delivered in a way that will benefit all parents and children.
Funded Early Years Education Entitlement (FEEE)
Funded early years education entitlement (FEEE) is a capital funding programme available to help to develop nursery places. It is a government programme which provides free or funded childcare for early years children. The scheme provides 15 to 30 hours of free childcare to parents (given that they meet he set criteria for the programme) until the child is old enough to start reception or is of legal age to attend school.
Age | Hours |
|---|---|
9 months–2 years | Up to 15 hours per week, 38 weeks per year |
2 years | Up to 15 hours per week, 38 weeks per year for eligible working parents |
3–4 years | Up to 30 hours per week, 38 weeks per year for qualifying children of working parents |
Section 106 Funding
The current round of this funding was announced earlier this year, with a deadline for applications on Friday 20thDecember 2024.
Section 106 Funding is money made available by the local authorities to help develop infostructure needed to support
new housing developments. This particular funding is provided to create new early years and childcare places.
Essex is one of the local authorities who use this money to invite capital funding applications from early years providers.
Wraparound Childcare
Wraparound childcare is the provision directly before and after the school days.
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