Grants of between £5,000 and £80,000 can 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.
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 projects address the needs of service children.
The funder is looking for projects that can deliver sustainable change. Applicants will need to demonstrate evidence to support the approach that they seek to take, and how people from Armed Forces communities have helped to shape this.
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 who wish to supply specific training to early childhood education and childcare providers supporting service children aged 0-5 years and provide a shared resource working across multiple settings.
This is the second of two rounds. Decisions are expected before the end of December 2025.
The deadline for applications is 8 October 2025 (12 noon).
Armed Forces Families Fund: Early Years programme 2025-26 : Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust
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