Now in its third year, this programme offers grants of between £5,000 and £80,000 (an increase of £30,000 from last year) to support projects across the UK which help enhance early childhood education and childcare settings of young children (from birth to 5 years) from armed forces families.
The funding, provided by the Ministry of Defence and administered on its behalf by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust, is for standalone projects being delivered over a two year period.
To be eligible in 2025-26, projects need to contribute to at least one of the following four outcomes:
- Increased capacity at the setting to allow more service children to attend.
- Better learning environments for service children.
- Have provided appropriate training and development to staff to support service children.
- Establishing collaborative networks and shared resources through clusters to address the needs of service children.
Applications will be accepted from:
- Early childhood education and childcare providers operating where armed forces families live or work. The setting must offer group-based childcare and have 50% service children (unless applying as a cluster) on roll as a minimum.
- Local authorities.
A free Early Years Lunch and Learn webinar will be held on 17 March 2025 (12:00 to 13:00). Registration is via the Trust's website.
There are two application rounds in 2025.
The first deadline for applications is 12 noon on 4 June 2025
Armed Forces Families Fund: Early Years programme 2025-26 : Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust
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