Early years and childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities

Your child will be entitled to up to 15 hours a week of funded childcare from the term after their second birthday if:

• Your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• or receives Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

Find out more on our childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities page.

Most childcare settings will be able to meet the needs of your child without the need for additional funding through making adjustments to support your child. However, for some children whose needs cannot be met through the existing provision, there is additional funding available for settings.

Disability Access Fund for 3 and 4 year olds

You can nominate your childcare provider to receive £910 of Disability Access Funding (DAF) each year. This funding is available for early years providers in Herefordshire to support children with disabilities or special educational needs. It aids access to early years places by supporting providers to make reasonable adjustments to their settings.

To be eligible for DAF, your child must be:

• In receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• Receiving Nursery Education Funding (NEF) at a childcare provider in Herefordshire

The funding is paid once a year to one childcare provider nominated by the parent. It is then up to the childcare provider to decide how the DAF is spent, however, it cannot be used to fund additional hours. Once funding for the year is paid, it will not be reclaimed even if the child leaves the setting.

Download the DAF information and application form

Early Years Inclusion Funding

We recognise that it can be challenging for early years settings to meet the needs of some children with significant or complex needs. Additional funding to support these settings is available where eligibility criteria is met. Early years providers can find out about early years inclusion funding on the early years inclusion funding and High Needs Matrix page.

Personal education budgets

A personal education budget is an amount of money identified by the council to deliver provision set out in an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) where the parent or young person is involved in arranging that provision. Personal education budgets should reflect the holistic nature of an EHCP and can include funding for special education, health and social care provision agreed in section F of the EHCP.

Who can apply for a personal education budget?

Parents and young people up to the age of 25 years old, who have an EHCP can request a personal education budget. If a child or young person has educational needs but does not have an EHCP then a request for an EHC needs assessment will need to be made before a personal budget can be considered.

Requests can also be made for a personal educational budget at any time during which:

• The draft EHCP is being prepared or
• The EHCP is being reviewed or re-assessed

Read our personal education budgets policy.