Wraparound Sustainability Grant Fund

What is Wraparound Childcare?: Wraparound childcare refers to the before and after-school provision for primary school-age children, typically including breakfast clubs and after-school clubs.

As a provider, you play a vital role in supporting families by offering safe, reliable, and engaging care beyond the school day.

This grant recognises the importance of sustainable wraparound provision and is designed to support you in sustaining your services - helping you continue to meet local demand, improve quality, and ensure children have access to enriching, supportive environments outside of regular school hours.

Hampshire County Council is committed to supporting high-quality, sustainable wraparound childcare provision that is inclusive and continues to work with providers to strengthen and stabilise services across the county.
About the grant: Following the successful delivery of the National Wraparound Childcare Programme, which created over 4,100 new places across Hampshire, a portion of the programme underspend has been allocated to support the ongoing sustainability of provision.

A Wraparound Sustainability Small Grants Fund is now available through Services for Young Children to help eligible providers address short-term financial challenges and strengthen their long-term viability. This funding is open to all wraparound childcare providers to primary phase schools in Hampshire County Council Local Authority area.

Individual grant awards are available of up to £4,999, with funding expected to be awarded between June and November 2026 (excluding August) or until the small grants fund is fully allocated—whichever occurs first.

In recognition of the specific challenges experienced by new schools at this stage of the programme, a New School Sustainability Grant (up to £22,000) is available to the providers delivering wraparound childcare at three newly constructed schools that opened for the first time in September 2025. These schools did not have any prior cohorts before this date. The grant is intended to support providers in sustaining delivery while pupil numbers grow. Services for Young Children will contact the schools and their providers to discuss eligibility and next steps for accessing the New School Sustainability Grant.

This funding forms part of Hampshire’s continued commitment to ensuring accessible, high-quality wraparound childcare provision for school-age children.
How to apply: To access funding, providers must first engage with the Wraparound Sustainability Toolkit to support financial and operational planning. If you do not have a Moodle account, please use this form to request one.

You will need to complete the cashflow forecast and provider data templates provided in the Toolkit and send us copies of these as part of your application.

Before applying, make sure you read the Application Guidance to understand eligibility, requirements, and how to apply. It only takes a few minutes and will help you submit a strong application.

To apply, please complete the application form and send copies of the required documents to [email protected]
Decision-making: Eligible applications will be reviewed by a grant panel, with final approval via an Officer Decision Record (ODR) in line with the Scheme of Delegation (Director approval for grants under £5,000).

All funding will be subject to a formal agreement, and providers will be required to engage with ongoing business support from Services for Young Children.
Further support: For any questions regarding Wraparound Sustainability Small Grants, please email [email protected] and include ‘Wraparound Sustainability Small Grants’ in the subject line.

Providers who require further support after completing the Toolkit can submit a request via the General Enquiry form. The Childcare Development Service will then assess the most appropriate support.