Early Years Funding to Support Health and Physical Development

On 8 November 2020, the government announced that the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme will be expanded across the whole of England in 2021. The programme has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged school age children since 2018.

To complement this, West Sussex County Council recognises the impact that COVID-19 has also had on health and development in children under 5, who were unable to access the food voucher scheme and are ineligible to receive HAF funding as per the requirements of the scheme.

As such, we are delighted to announce that we have secured £150,000 to support Early Years Providers to support children’s health and physical development, including making healthy choices in relation to food.

This is one-off funding, derived from the Contain Outbreak Management Fund and projects can take place anytime between now and 31 March 2022. This financial support is separate to Free Entitlement (FE) funding.

Eligibility criteria

Applicants must be a currently Ofsted-registered private, voluntary or independent early years and childcare provider, who are already offering FE places, based in West Sussex.
Applicants must be currently open as per the current government guidance (unless temporarily closed due to positive COVID-19 cases).
Only one application per registration is permitted.
Applicants must be open to all children.
Applicants must have children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium and/or 2 year old FE attending.

Who is it aimed at?

We appreciate that the expectations of the wider HAF programme are not all appropriate to Early Years Providers and acknowledge that Free School Meals are not provided to eligible children. With this in mind, Early Years Providers, including Childminders, can put forward any project which will broadly support children and families, so long as it is targeted as follows:

All projects must primarily be targeted at:

Children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium
Children in receipt of 2 year old FE

In addition to these children, funding may be prioritised to projects which also target children from the following groups:

children assessed as being in need
children looked after
children with an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP)
children assessed as otherwise vulnerable
children starting school in September 2021
children who did not attend early years provision as normal due to COVID-19

What should the funding achieve?

As a result of these projects we want children and families who benefit from this funding to:

eat more healthily
be more active
take part in engaging and enriching activities which support the development of health and wellbeing
have a greater knowledge of health and nutrition
be more engaged with other local services as appropriate
be signposted towards other information and support, for example, health, employment and education

Please note, this funding is intended to enhance your offer around physical development, as per the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework, not in place of what you would be providing as part of normal practice.

Food

Where your project includes food, our expectation is that the majority of food served by providers will be hot. However, we acknowledge that there will be occasions when this is not possible and a cold alternative may be used.

Any food provided as part of the programme must:

comply with the requirements of the EYFS Statutory Framework
comply with regulations on food preparation
take into account allergies and dietary requirements
take into account any religious or cultural requirements for food

Enriching activities

Projects must provide fun and enriching, age appropriate, activities that provide children with opportunities to:

develop new skills or knowledge
consolidate existing skills and knowledge
try out new experiences

These could include:

physical activities that meet the physical activity guidelines.

experiences, for example, nature walks or visiting a farm

Projects must include an element of nutritional education aimed at improving the knowledge and awareness of healthy eating for children and their families. These could, for example, include activities such as:

getting children involved in food preparation and cooking
growing fruit and vegetables
taste tests

How much could I get?

The expectation is that providers cost out any projects and include this within your application. These will be assessed and prioritised against the following criteria:

the number of target children the project will benefit
value for money
impact measures as outlined in the application
location of the project, prioritising areas of deprivation

How do I apply?

Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders who are registered to provide FE are invited to apply via a short online application form.
Applications can come from one provider, or a group of providers/childminders.
The application process will open on Tuesday 8 June 2021.
Applications will close at midnight on Wednesday 23 June 2021.
Providers will be informed of the outcome on 1 and 2 July 2021, including the amount they are being awarded, where successful.
Payments are planned for w/c 12 July 2021.

Applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

WSCC will reserve the right to audit applications and ask for further evidence if required. WSCC may also confirm details given in your application against details held on our database.

Accessibility statement

If you require any of this information in an alternative format, then please contact us via email at family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk or by telephone on 01243 777807 and we will do our best to assist you. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 01243 777807.

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