Under the Early Years programme the Trust will award grants of £20,000-£80,000 to nurseries on or near Armed Forces bases or units on behalf of the MOD’s Armed Forces Families Fund. We will award grants to projects lasting up to two years which help enhance Early Years learning environments to meet specific needs of children from Forces families. 

Eligibility

We invite applications from the following organisations.

• Armed Forces bases, stations or units that provide onsite childcare.
• Nurseries operated by charities or Community Interest Companies (CICs) that are located on or within five miles of an Armed Forces base. You must be able to evidence that you have at least three unrelated trustees/directors at the time of application.
• Nurseries operated by local authorities that are located on or within five miles of an Armed Forces base.
• Nurseries operated by private limited companies that are located on or within five miles of an Armed Forces base. Private limited companies will be subject to additional eligibility and monitoring checks to evidence that any grant will be fully expended on direct costs of the proposed project. You will not be able to budget for contributions to management or overheads costs (or profit/investment) in their application.
• Schools that are providing onsite nursery education for pre-reception aged children located within five miles of an Armed Forces base.

What’s available

You can apply for a grant of between £20,000 and £80,000. You will need to complete your project within two years of any grant award. We expect this programme to be competitive and that we will be unable to support all the applications we receive.

Your application should clearly show why children from Forces families will benefit from your proposal, and why this offers good value for money.

Themes and priorities

Successful applications will need to show a good relationship with the local Service community. You’ll also need a letter of endorsement from a senior officer at the base or unit.

Applications can only address the needs of children from currently serving Forces families, who are aged 0-5 years and not in primary school education.

We would like to support early years settings that are on or near an Armed Forces base or Unit. We would expect that this would generally be within 5 miles of the Base of Unit. If however you are the closest early years education setting to a base or unit, and are used significantly by Armed Forces families you are still able to apply (providing that you meet all other criteria). In the letter of endorsement; it is helpful for the CO to tell us why your early years setting is important to parents who work at the nearest base or unit.

Deadlines and dates to note

You must submit your application by midday Monday 5 December 2022.

We’ll inform you of the outcome of your application before the end of February 2023.

Successful applicants will then be expected to start their projects before 1 May 2023.

Guidance and resources