The Department for Education is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from local authorities who want to work with local childcare providers to bid for capital funding to expand childcare provision in their area (including through schools who currently offer, or plan to offer, provision for 3- and 4-year olds).
Capital funding is being made available through this bidding process to support delivery of the Government’s commitment to double free childcare for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours from September 2017. The EOI calls for local authorities to work with providers in their area to identify how they will evidence the level of sufficiency need in the area and how capital funding will meet this need, ahead of a full bidding process for capital funding later this year. Please forward this to the relevant leads across capital and early years policy in your local authority.
The EOI notice can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-capital-funding-call-for-expressions-of-interest. All local authorities wishing to take part in the full bidding process must submit a completed EOI form via the EFA Enquiry Form by 29th April 2016.