Childcare additional needs grant

Children's Services award grants to organisations that support young people. These could be specialist counselling services, supporting young carers, young people who are not in education, employment or training, services for traveller children and young people or support services for children and young people affected by domestic violence.

Please note date for all 2024-25 requests is 28 February 2025.

Who should this grant support
To support the inclusion of children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) who attend registered pre-schools, nurseries, childminders, breakfast and after-school clubs and holiday play-schemes (within the private, voluntary and non maintained sector).
How much can I apply for?

100% of agreed revenue grant will be paid within thirty working days of the receipt of the signed grant agreement.

The maximum amount payable in a financial year is £3000.

The maximum length of grant payable will be for one academic term.

When to apply

The grant round is open from 1 April 2024 to 28 February 2025. Grants are available to fund individual support that will be provided up until 28 February 2025.

Who can apply?

Any registered provider of childcare for children aged 0 to 19 years old who provides childcare places as defined below:

  • 0 to 8 year olds place = single Ofsted registered place
  • 8 to 19 year olds place = one place before school, after school or a holiday place or any combination of these places, e.g. a breakfast and after school club opened at the same time is counted as a single childcare place. We would expect these settings to have undergone, or to be working towards voluntary registration
Grant criteria and eligibility

All applications must:

  • meet the requirements for a place as listed below, including the requirements for Ofsted registration where applicable
  • provide evidence of the need for funding including an explanation of why the setting cannot meet the cost from their own funds
  • provide information on costs and how funding will be spent by completing a CAN Grant application form
  • agree to the conditions of the grant listed below
  • agree to the additional specific conditions of grant as identified on the CAN Grant application form
  • be discussed and endorsed in principle with an Inclusion Setting Support Officer at SENCo Support Surgery

Organisations must:

What is funded
  • funding for specific resources
  • funding for targeted or bespoke training on specific issues or conditions that are not provided by the SfYC Training Programme
  • short term funding for additional staff to enable the setting to be fully inclusive - where all other support strategies have been tried/explored.
What isn't funded?
  • funding for children from the Reception Year of School (Year R) upwards to access provision during the normal school working day
  • to support a child where your setting is in receipt of SEN Inclusion Funding, unless there are exceptional circumstances. This is because this provision is already funded by the County Council from other sources
  • funding for a child accessing a setting outside of the Hampshire local authority area
  • funding to support a child that meets the short breaks criteria
  • funding to support a child in a maintained setting. This is because this provision is already funded by the County Council from other sources.
Approval process

We aim to support as many settings as possible, provided we are satisfied that the applications for funding meet the criteria and the funds are available. All applications will be evaluated by a panel and applicants notified of the decisions usually within three weeks of receipt.

Decisions made will fall into two categories:

  • applications approved
  • applications declined

Appeals process

Applicants wishing to appeal against the panel’s decision should complete this form: Services for Young Children General Enquiry Form detailing the reasons for the appeal. The appeal will then be considered by the Services for Young Children (SfYC) SEN IF and CAN Grant Panel.

Contact us
Read application notes and apply