Childcare Support Fund: how to apply

Objectives

As set out in Bringing Hope, Building Futures: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026 to 2031, childcare is essential infrastructure which not only supports children's development but also enables parents to access work, training and learning in the knowledge their child is safe and well looked after.

As also set out in the Plan, in 2026/2027 we are investing £15 million in giving third sector organisations money to pay for registered childcare for children from 9 months to the end of primary school. This funding aims to meet the following objectives: 

• contribute to our priority of eradicating child poverty. It will do this by following the principles set out in Bringing Hope, Building Futures, including those of Whole Family Support.
• focus on the drivers of child poverty, in particular the theme of increasing earned incomes, whilst recognising that access to flexible, affordable childcare contributes to
• reducing costs of living
• supporting children and families to thrive 
• expand the availability of flexible and affordable childcare by providing short-term support to these families, at key times when the cost and availability of childcare is a barrier to the outcomes above.
• identify the key times in a family’s life when cost and availability of childcare is a barrier. These could include, but aren’t limited to, temporary disruptions in existing childcare arrangements, a change in work circumstances, a need to access training or other support, transitions such those between childcare providers, or between term time and holiday childcare, and a change in family circumstances such as a relationship ending, bereavement, disability or illness.
• engage with low-income families who are living in or at risk of living in poverty, and agree support with them which is timely, flexible, and includes access to childcare. Agreements about the type and duration of childcare support will be informed by family circumstances, and, where appropriate, professional, community and lived experience insight.
• match families with childcare services which meet their agreed needs. This will include finding and creating agreements with childcare services who are registered with the Care Inspectorate, agreeing appropriate sessions, supporting families to use the childcare services where needed, and administering funding to registered childcare services to subsidise or fully fund childcare costs.
• complement, not duplicate, existing support for families to access flexible, affordable childcare. This will include early learning and childcare (1140 hours) entitlement that families are already accessing. It will also include financial support for the cost of childcare provided through the childcare element of Universal Credit, the Flexible Support Fund and Tax Free Childcare. At a local and local authority level it will include local partnerships, statutory and non-statutory services, and employability services. Finally, it will include services provided through our other such as the Whole Family Support Third Sector Delivery Fund.