Special Education Needs Inclusion Fund and Disability Access Fund

Early years special educational needs inclusion funding

The Early Years Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund supports children aged 9 months to 4 years who are accessing their funded early years entitlement.

The fund helps Early Years settings provide additional support for children with emerging or identified special educational needs.

You can apply for funding once per term, until a child leaves your setting or starts school reception.

Applications should include evidence of the support provided and how it is expected to help the child’s development.

Apply for SEN Inclusion Funding

After you apply

Allow up to 5 working days for funds to appear in your account following the panel meeting.

If a child in your early years setting has an Education, Health and Care plan, contact eyst@bracknell-forest.gov.uk for information on available funding.

Panel dates and deadlines may change due to system updates. Any changes will be communicated through the provider portal.

Disability Access Fund

From April 2017 the government introduced the Disability Access Fund (DAF) to support access to funded entitlements for children with disabilities or Special Educational Needs (SEN).

The purpose of the fund is to support early years providers to make reasonable adjustments and build the capacity of their setting to support children with disabilities. The funding cannot be used towards childcare fees.

Information provided by the Department for Education (DfE) about the fund can be found in the early years entitlements operational guide on GOV.UK.

Eligibility

DAF will be extended to all children accessing the funded entitlements from April 2024 if they meet the following criteria:

• the child is in receipt of Disability Living Allowance
• the child receives the 15 hour entitlement

Children become eligible for funded early education at different points in the year depending on their birth date. 

Four year olds in primary school reception classes are not eligible for DAF funding.

Entitlement

The settings of children eligible for the DAF will be entitled to receive a one-off payment of £1,250 per year. The DAF is not based on an hourly rate and is an extra entitlement.

Children do not have to take up the full 570 hours of early education that they are entitled to in order to receive the DAF.

If a child eligible for DAF is splitting their funded entitlement across two or more providers, only one provider will be able to claim the DAF. Parents are asked to nominate the main provider on their parent declaration form.

If a child receiving DAF moves from one setting to another, the new setting is not eligible to receive DAF funding for this child until the anniversary of the first payment has passed. DAF funding received by the original setting will not be recouped.

In cases where a child who lives in one local authority attends a setting in another local authority, the local authority where the setting is based is responsible for funding the DAF for the child and for eligibility checking.

Identifying eligible children

Early years providers are responsible for identifying eligible children. We encourage you to speak to parents to find out who is eligible for the DAF.

Parents will need to provide the following to their nominated provider:

• parent declaration form
• copy of the child’s entitlement to disability living allowance

Provider application process

To submit a DAF application, log into the portal. You will need to provide a copy of the signed Parent Declaration form and DLA award letter to apply.

Visit the portal