Has your Local Authority been successful? – decisions on applications to be announced this February
Local Authorities and providers have invested a significant amount of time and effort to deliver the 30 hours childcare offer, which launched universally in September 2017.
Therefore, to further support LAs with the first year of delivery, and to enable them to support their providers to deliver sufficient 30 hours places, the Department for Education (DfE) established the Delivery Support Fund (DSF). The DfE made the DSF available to LAs via a bid round. £8,650,000 is available for LAs as part of this bid round. This will be distributed between LAs that applied.
All local authorities were able to apply for the funding, using an application form within which LAs were able to request funding for one project or multiple projects.
For example; an LA may have applied for funds to
- support additional members of staff and funds to support local sufficiency mapping
or
- help improve access and secure sufficient quality 30 hours provision to support children with SEND and set up a contract with an external consultant to give providers support and advice to review their business models and explore new delivery models
or
- fund small scale capital funding and funds to improve communications to parents
Joint projects between LAs were also to be accepted as part of an application, but needed to be submitted by one lead LA.
The amount granted to each Local Authority will be dependent on the application form on how the Local Authority’s need is deemed in terms of:
- a) the challenges that it faces in delivering the 30 hours.
- b) how well the application evidences how it will deliver its projects to deliver sufficient 30 hour places.
It is expected that LAs should spend all the funding by 31st August 2018.