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Capital Funding for Early Entitlement Expansion

Capital Funding is available for Early Years Childcare Providers to support the Government’s delivery of extended early years entitlements.  In the Government’s Spring Budget 2023, the Chancellor announced reforms to childcare.  These included the phased introduction of free childcare for children over the age of nine months for qualifying working parents, starting with 15 hours and increasing to 30 hours from September 2025. 

Capital Funding is intended to support the expansion of childcare places and must be used by childcare providers to create new early years funded spaces.  It is the intention that the creation of new childcare places will support parents and encourage the take up of spaces. 

The funding is subject to certain conditions and all applications will be reviewed and approved by the Early Entitlements Extension Panel. 

 Examples of how the funding can be used include:

  • Projects that increase access to early entitlement places for all eligible children, but particularly those from financially vulnerable backgrounds or children with SEND
  • Projects that adapt, re-model or improve existing early entitlement places to make them suitable for a wider range of needs
  • Central capital works required to enable delivery of the entitlements

 This could be achieved through:

  • Expansion of existing childcare provision, including expanding existing provision to a different or additional site
  • Remodelling of existing provision to create additional capacity
  • Building modifications to adapt space for use to deliver inclusive childcare
  • Improvements to storage to enable more capacity
  • New physical assets such as outdoor play equipment or tables and chairs, with a view to creating more places

 This grant funding is not intended for:

  • Routine maintenance or refurbishment of premises
  • Childcare providers not providing Early Years Entitlements

The funding is provided for capital expenditure purposes only and cannot be used for revenue expenditure of any kind, such as training, staff costs, resources/assets that do not meet the definition of capital expenditure (e.g. books, toys, clothing).  To be considered capital expenditure, the asset must bring an economic benefit and must be able to be depreciated over more than one financial year.  We are particularly interested in hearing from settings who are ready to expand their provision in order to implement the extension to 30 hours from September 2025.

If you are interested in applying for the funding, or would like to find out more, please contact Lucy Clarke lucy.clarke@lewisham.gov.uk