How to apply for the Early Years Inclusion Fund

Please ensure you have considered the following points before beginning the application process:

  • If you are a childminder or PVI have you sought advice from your Locality team or Early Years SEND team?
  • If you are a school have you sought advice from your EYFS Schools and Educational Improvement Consultants and/or SENDCO?
  • Have you received parental consent prior to making this application? You will be required to upload this at the start of your application.
  • Are you able to evidence the assess, plan, do and review process in practice
  • Have you started an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or SEND Support Plan?
  • Do you have evidence of referrals and reports (if available) to professionals?
  • Has the setting manager been instructed to review the information on this form once it's filled out? They need to agree that all information is accurate as applications are subject to audit.
  • Have you checked the description of the funding bands?

Do not proceed until you have gathered all the necessary evidence needed for your application.

You can apply at any time up until the final deadline of Friday 23 February 2024. Following this, applications will be closed until the summer term 2024.

Please remember: you will need to reapply each term for the Early Years Inclusion Fund.

Panel dates

Applications will be reviewed by the panel on the following dates:

Summer term
Monday 19 June 2023
Monday 17 July 2023
Monday 21 August 2023

Autumn term
Monday 18 September 2023
Monday 16 October 2023
Monday 20 November 2023
Monday 18 December 2023

Spring term
Monday 15 Jan 2024
Monday 26 Feb 2024

Providers will hear back about their application 14 days after the panel date.

Funding will take 6 to 8 weeks to be processed and received by the provider.