Phase 2- School-based Nursery Capital Grant

As you may be aware already, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced Phase 2 of the School-based Nursery Capital Grant. In preparation for this next phase please read the guidance carefully. Additionally, the DfE has organised a webinar for schools on 16th  October. 

Previously, in phase 1, applicants were required to tick a box confirming Local Authority (LA) endorsement. To strengthen collaboration with LAs and provide an opportunity to apply specific conditions, the DfE are introducing an LA approval form for Phase 2. This is a mandatory requirement for the application to be considered eligible. 

As the LA, we will be considering the below points when reviewing applications to determine their approval: 

1. Does the proposal align with the LA’s local early years strategy and priorities? 

2. Is there a plan or proposal setting out how the setting will provide early years provision to disadvantaged children? 

3. Is there clear evidence of unmet demand for nursery places in the area, having taken into account the state of local childcare and labour markets as well as additional evidence applicants may have collated? 

4. Is there potentially unmet future demand for childcare places, taking into account planned housing development and demographic changes? 

5.  Would the proposal enhance the overall local offer without negatively impacting existing high-quality providers? 

6. If the proposal is utilising surplus teaching space, does the proposal align with wider LA strategies and need? 

In Phase 1, we previously outlined our priority areas based on the sufficiency of early years and childcare places, where we would consider supporting an application. We are currently updating our sufficiency assessment, and it is possible that these priority areas have changed since the previous phase. We will be in touch shortly to inform you of the up-to-date priority areas and how we will be supporting you. 

If you have any queries, please use the link sufficiency@bradford.gov.uk. 

Thank you for your continued support, 

Intelligence and Sufficiency Team