Guidance

Children, Families and Youth Grant Determination 2026 to 2027

Published 8 May 2026

Applies to England

Children, Families and Youth Grant Determination (2026-27): 31/8364

The Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness (“the Minister”), in exercise of the powers conferred by section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003, makes the following determination:

Citation

1. This determination may be cited as the Children, Families and Youth (Revenue) Grant (2026/27): 31/8364

Purpose of the grant

2. This grant is ringfenced for local authorities to provide support for children and families across England, reduce inequalities and break down barriers to opportunity. It underpins key national reforms to children’s social care through the Families First Partnership programme, will help support children and young people from low-income families receive enriching activities and nutritious meals through the school holidays, support access to childcare during term time and the holidays, and improve outcomes for post-16 looked-after children and care leavers.

3. This grant consists of:

a. Families First Partnership programme (£853.1 million) funding ringfenced for direct investment into the national implementation of Family Help, multi-agency child protection teams and support for family networks.

b. Holiday, Activities and Food programme (£213.9 million) funding, which includes £12.9 million to strengthen local authority capacity for school-age childcare during school term-time and holidays. Holidays, Activities and Food (HAF) programme funding is ringfenced for local authorities to make free places at holiday clubs available in the Easter 2026, Summer 2026 and Christmas 2026 holidays to children in their local authority who meet the eligibility as set out in HAF programme guidance. Local authorities are also expected to use part of this funding to ensure sufficient, sustainable school-age childcare.

c. Pupil Premium Plus Post-16 (£13.8 million) funding to support local authorities in implementing the role of the Virtual School Head for post-16 looked-after children and care leavers. Although this element of the grant is not ringfenced, the Department expects local authorities to continue to fund the Virtual School Head’s work to improve outcomes for post 16 looked after children and care leavers, consistent with statutory guidance.

Determination

4. The Minister determines the authorities to which grant is to be paid and the amount of grant to be paid as set out in Annex A of this determination.

5. The grant will be paid in 12 monthly instalments.

Grant conditions

6. Pursuant to section 31(4) of the Local Government Act 2003, the Minister determines that the grant will be paid subject to the conditions in Annex B.

Treasury consent

7. Before making this determination in relation to local authorities in England, the Minister obtained the consent of the Treasury.

Signed by authority of the Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness.

Suzanne Kochanowski, Deputy Director Care, Reform and Grants
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

April 2026

Annex A: Children, Families and Youth Grant allocations to local authorities 2026-27

Authorities to which grant is to be paid:

Local Authority	Children, Families and Youth Grant 2026-27 (£)	of which: Family First Partnership programme ringfence 2026-27 (£)	of which: holiday activities and food ringfence 2026-27 (£)
England[footnote 1]	1,080,830,354	853,101,014	213,889,340
Barking And Dagenham	7,012,103	5,746,486	1,188,630
Barnet	7,141,883	5,765,234	1,295,020
Barnsley	5,226,687	4,147,899	1,038,940
Bath And North East Somerset	2,180,989	1,659,965	481,950
Bedford	3,190,350	2,453,634	687,970
Bexley	4,020,015	3,159,728	809,220
Birmingham	45,517,239	36,402,614	8,806,290
Blackburn with Darwen	4,434,716	3,660,923	723,500
Blackpool	4,385,060	3,495,634	827,140
Bolton	7,966,859	6,343,979	1,553,630
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	5,348,083	4,166,305	1,049,620
Bracknell Forest	1,367,282	1,066,528	267,870
Bradford	16,948,222	13,824,648	2,944,840
Brent	8,941,060	7,735,287	1,123,370
Brighton And Hove	3,827,122	2,946,179	804,730
Bristol	9,200,718	7,189,202	1,872,630
Bromley	4,182,813	3,286,088	836,760
Buckinghamshire Council	6,902,620	5,417,167	1,384,480
Bury	3,761,273	2,981,124	731,790
Calderdale	4,480,536	3,493,457	937,560
Cambridgeshire	8,866,875	6,706,450	2,043,590
Camden	4,285,299	3,401,900	827,690
Central Bedfordshire	3,700,679	2,942,367	696,800
Cheshire East	4,850,324	3,821,019	937,230
Cheshire West and Chester	5,156,280	4,043,498	1,032,700
City of London	67,435	34,423	27,220
Cornwall	8,125,228	6,360,986	1,684,160
Coventry	9,441,016	7,652,032	1,667,120
Croydon	9,040,924	7,260,625	1,655,340
Cumberland	4,073,091	3,150,565	854,05
Darlington	2,212,399	1,710,698	473,460
Derby	7,476,608	5,801,943	1,588,780
Derbyshire	13,389,982	10,130,045	3,100,160
Devon	9,432,199	7,253,151	2,042,870
Doncaster	7,668,417	6,161,122	1,415,220
Dorset Council	4,514,366	3,491,795	949,840
Dudley	7,130,508	5,693,198	1,312,190
Durham	10,953,117	8,489,423	2,341,830
Ealing	8,711,158	7,198,740	1,426,920
East Riding of Yorkshire	4,151,868	3,166,462	929,310
East Sussex	8,433,631	6,654,973	1,673,430
Enfield	10,779,782	8,979,170	1,726,720
Essex	22,704,720	17,951,885	4,507,560
Gateshead	4,085,895	3,209,046	821,140
Gloucestershire	8,337,755	6,452,926	1,740,140
Greenwich	6,222,564	4,850,650	1,287,190
Hackney	9,222,912	7,792,289	1,349,380
Halton	3,594,722	2,816,238	727,030
Hammersmith And Fulham	2,981,840	2,386,860	540,240
Hampshire	17,213,058	13,030,715	3,883,680
Haringey	6,390,735	5,379,877	932,710
Harrow	4,467,505	3,712,879	704,720
Hartlepool	2,833,838	2,215,638	586,090
Havering	4,547,813	3,621,623	868,160
Herefordshire	2,353,846	1,817,757	481,540
Hertfordshire	16,467,546	13,115,004	3,132,800
Hillingdon	6,444,820	5,195,370	1,128,360
Hounslow	6,163,684	5,037,699	1,014,180
Isle of Wight	2,109,864	1,650,255	417,440
Islington	5,447,325	4,365,505	992,840
Kensington And Chelsea	1,837,259	1,348,453	452,440
Kent	28,286,716	21,712,473	6,129,730
Kingston upon Hull	8,091,581	6,511,444	1,478,390
Kingston upon Thames	2,062,346	1,619,029	410,820
Kirklees	9,359,580	7,426,976	1,841,690
Knowsley	4,793,968	3,842,291	906,800
Lambeth	6,191,462	4,844,315	1,245,400
Lancashire	22,403,885	17,674,554	4,478,640
Leeds	18,423,952	14,707,346	3,507,310
Leicester	9,114,513	7,337,025	1,691,990
Leicestershire	8,448,491	6,571,416	1,759,080
Lewisham	6,048,518	4,898,989	1,062,870
Lincolnshire	13,150,365	10,057,443	2,980,730
Liverpool	14,685,844	11,944,269	2,554,330
Luton	7,052,878	5,853,013	1,113,980
Manchester	20,077,614	15,421,408	4,380,160
Medway	6,016,005	4,677,787	1,278,640
Merton	3,406,173	2,686,826	686,850
Middlesbrough	5,415,394	4,243,199	1,106,040
Milton Keynes	5,549,913	4,241,043	1,244,650
Newcastle upon Tyne	7,923,216	6,128,890	1,718,500
Newham	11,746,771	9,358,057	2,291,610
Norfolk	13,566,417	10,576,101	2,787,210
North East Lincolnshire	4,038,098	3,192,939	789,450
North Lincolnshire	3,393,346	2,616,954	740,800
North Northamptonshire	6,181,690	4,926,941	1,180,470
North Somerset	2,660,812	2,082,011	539,340
North Tyneside	3,868,432	2,965,500	848,770
North Yorkshire	6,876,738	5,292,395	1,514,320
Northumberland	5,124,821	4,020,828	1,047,510
Nottingham	9,617,698	7,653,482	1,837,710
Nottinghamshire	13,980,685	10,916,651	2,879,110
Oldham	7,872,718	6,219,573	1,579,640
Oxfordshire	8,204,061	6,407,080	1,648,810
Peterborough	6,021,625	4,720,675	1,231,700
Plymouth	5,049,324	3,968,316	1,007,890
Portsmouth	4,884,963	3,813,458	1,005,350
Reading	2,924,977	2,351,496	526,670
Redbridge	6,128,950	4,984,898	1,077,510
Redcar And Cleveland	3,177,884	2,434,971	686,430
Richmond upon Thames	1,918,750	1,453,113	426,950
Rochdale	6,530,610	5,187,817	1,272,770
Rotherham	6,664,403	5,268,676	1,312,550
Rutland	340,357	229,426	103,580
Salford	7,540,664	6,043,280	1,418,850
Sandwell	10,977,625	8,644,230	2,247,510
Sefton	5,333,234	4,207,244	1,061,770
Sheffield	14,626,203	11,707,371	2,800,450
Shropshire	3,700,996	2,872,140	753,030
Slough	3,770,549	3,026,860	687,980
Solihull	4,319,326	3,257,813	985,300
Somerset	7,421,464	5,769,386	1,554,200
South Gloucestershire	3,252,213	2,525,207	657,370
South Tyneside	3,565,402	2,763,525	763,190
Southampton	5,890,174	4,505,615	1,304,090
Southend-on-Sea	3,673,837	2,913,009	707,440
Southwark	6,919,130	5,281,984	1,530,370
St. Helens	3,976,707	3,160,665	760,720
Staffordshire	12,603,326	9,797,318	2,612,960
Stockport	4,520,444	3,513,511	938,070
Stockton-on-Tees	4,328,788	3,341,767	909,260
Stoke-on-Trent	7,897,296	6,142,300	1,660,600
Suffolk	11,288,771	8,795,407	2,320,820
Sunderland	6,295,013	4,930,986	1,293,230
Surrey	12,738,947	10,084,939	2,448,580
Sutton	3,140,089	2,442,763	648,580
Swindon	3,749,196	2,913,734	775,110
Tameside	5,925,815	4,514,176	1,324,980
Telford And Wrekin	4,618,646	3,668,162	904,060
Thurrock	3,696,237	2,898,495	737,390
Torbay	2,452,120	1,891,446	512,190
Waltham Forest	5,784,585	4,645,817	1,053,270
Tower Hamlets	11,816,455	10,034,164	1,698,340
Trafford	3,464,571	2,658,077	753,880
Wakefield	7,386,029	5,853,328	1,461,130
Walsall	9,878,472	7,895,793	1,901,050
Wandsworth	5,236,676	4,292,251	889,490
Warrington	3,322,608	2,488,718	775,860
Warwickshire	8,817,242	6,693,778	1,975,680
West Berkshire	1,881,096	1,416,162	424,700
Westmorland and Furness	2,796,858	2,270,164	486,460
West Northamptonshire	5,484,380	4,178,469	1,182,500
West Sussex	10,188,694	8,083,849	1,936,170
Westminster	4,046,587	3,219,630	768,540
Wigan	6,695,628	5,199,211	1,405,890
Wiltshire	5,599,073	4,323,095	1,202,860
Windsor And Maidenhead	1,590,558	1,195,264	362,410
Wirral	7,529,056	5,907,090	1,521,380
Wokingham	1,648,707	1,277,960	338,250
Wolverhampton	9,405,633	7,287,498	2,044,630
Worcestershire	8,690,414	6,866,970	1,681,850
York	2,143,759	1,661,964	453,940

Annex B: Grant conditions

Families First Partnership

Use of the Funding

1. The Families First Partnership (FFP) programme funding is ringfenced for direct investment into the national implementation of Family Help, multi-agency child protection teams and support for family networks. This will support local authorities to rebalance spending away from accommodating children in care and increase spend on prevention, creating a virtuous circle and moving funding to a more sustainable footing.

2. New investment into FFP is not designed to displace existing prevention funding (such as targeted early help and child in need services and any other non-statutory spending). FFP funding must be used alongside existing prevention spend to provide additional investment. Department for Education (DfE) will monitor this through asking local authorities to provide additional spend data through the quarterly FFP monitoring returns to ensure existing prevention spend is not displaced, and that overall spend is starting to rebalance the system.

3. Adherence to the FFP grant conditions and prioritising prevention is crucial to local government sustainability. Where government becomes aware that an authority is not adhering to FFP grant conditions, MHCLG and DfE will facilitate engagement with that authority to obtain assurance. Where there is evidence that failure to adhere to grant conditions has had a negative impact on children’s services, and that this is a result of systemic weakness in leadership, governance and culture, MHCLG will consider whether there has been a failure to meet the Best Value duty. DfE may also engage with authorities through its improvement and interventions programme.

4. The FFP programme aligns with the government’s vision for transformation across children’s social care (CSC) and is expected to realise the four outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework:

• Outcome 1: children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need
• Outcome 2: children and young people are supported by their family network
• Outcome 3: children and young people are safe in and outside of their homes
• Outcome 4: children in care and care leavers have stable, loving homes

5. Effective prevention through Family Help, multi-agency child protection teams and support for family networks will be fundamental to reducing the number of children entering care and increasing the number of children living safely with their families. Where care is needed, family networks should be further drawn in, to consider how they can offer practical short term or longer term support, through informal arrangements or through more formal kinship routes. Beyond that every effort should be made to place a child in a family setting through effective use of foster care, using residential only in exceptional cases when it is deemed to offer the most appropriate support for the child. Local authorities should consider how to use their fostering offer as part of their broader prevention working, including through new approaches. The expected reduction in residential placements through focused prevention and improved use of kinship and fostering, will generate better outcomes and further savings for reinvestment.

6. FFP funding is intended to support local areas to build on local planning undertaken in year one of the programme (2025-26) to fund remaining transformation activity. However, DfE expects the majority of the grant to fund delivery of new and updated services, as set out in local delivery plans, using the best available evidence including Practice Guides.

7. Together with safeguarding partners, all local authorities will complete remaining transformation activity and begin or continue delivery of new services in 2026-27 (year two of the programme) with the expectation of fully operational services by March 2027 across all localities, ahead of year three.

8. Local authorities should apply funding to continue to deliver services that meet the policy principles set out in the FFP programme guide and are delivered in line with relevant statutory guidance, including Working Together to Safeguard Children and the National Framework, to:

• Strengthen their Family Help offer in collaboration with safeguarding partners, by bringing together local services under a combined, multi-disciplinary practice team and seamless offer. This means ensuring join up between the non-statutory (targeted early help) and statutory components of Family Help (Section 17 of Children Act 1989) to wrap support around the family at the earliest opportunity, streamline re-assessment points and ensure consistency of relationships by establishing the role of the Family Help Lead Practitioner. Priority must be given to offering help that is well evidenced to achieve change for families using Practice Guides where they exist.
• Work with safeguarding partners to deliver multi-agency child protection reform, including through establishing multi-agency child protection teams, with embedded social worker Lead Child Protection Practitioners, health, police and education practitioners and other agencies according to local needs.
• Incorporate systemic use of family group decision-making and family network support packages to make greater use of family networks. Where it is in the best interests of the child, local partnerships should ensure that the offer of family group decision-making is made as early as possible and repeat the offer as a child’s needs and the support they receive changes.

9. The above includes compliance with the measures set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill^{[footnote 2]}:

• offer a family group decision-making meeting at the pre-proceedings stage, where that is in the child’s best interests
• safeguarding partners to establish multi-agency child protection teams

10. Funding can also be used to complete transformation such as:

• Increase leadership capacity across the partnership to engage with reforms, in addition to funding core transformation posts to bolster project and programme management expertise.
• Actively engage a diverse range of children and families, including those with experience of child protection and the care system.
• Use their Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA) to discuss and agree their approach. DfE expects local authorities to work with health and police (as Lead and Delegated Safeguarding Partners) and other key partners to further strengthen multi-agency working to support families and protect children. Local authorities can use this funding to support other local partners to deliver transformation and/or implementation activity for these reforms.
• The selected Kinship Zone local authorities will receive significant investment the Kinship Zone grant agreement to provide financial allowances to kinship carers – this offsets any funding those local authorities already spend on their existing kinship allowance offer. The Kinship Zone local authorities are encouraged to spend some of this grant funding to deliver family network support packages in their local areas.

Delivery expectations

11. Current preventative services should continue until local authorities can implement new services. This should ensure a continuation of targeted, whole family support to help children and families overcome challenges at the earliest opportunity.

12. New and expanded service delivery must be underpinned by:

• The National Framework’s outcomes and enablers, which are foundational to good practice in children’s social care. Leaders and practitioners should be led by high quality evidence of ‘what works’ to achieve the outcomes set out in the National Framework. This includes the use of Practice Guides. Please see the FFP programme guide for further details.
• Data systems that enable and advance reforms, by facilitating effective data collection and information sharing across agencies. As part of the transformation, the FFP reforms may, therefore, require significant changes to case management systems (CMS). DfE has engaged with CMS suppliers, pathfinders, and specialists to create technical guidance to support initial system changes needed to support FFP reforms.

13. In 2026-27, Families First for Children (FFC) Pathfinder areas must align their local delivery with the FFP national programme guide and to the timetable set out in paragraph 7 above and support the ongoing FFC evaluation.

Reporting and accountability

14. Local authorities must demonstrate how they are delivering all aspects of the reforms with their safeguarding partners, via programme reporting.

15. DfE will monitor implementation in 2026-27 and, where necessary, provide a more enhanced level of support and challenge to those areas that do not demonstrate expected levels of delivery progress. Recipients must engage with DfE on matters related to delivery progress and their expected trajectory each quarter.

16. Local authorities must participate in all mandatory programme data collections and reporting requirements:

a. FFP quarterly programme monitoring data collection began in Q2 of 2025-26 with initial metrics and guidance set out in the programme reporting guidance document. There may be some small amendments to the collection including the addition of multi-agency focused metrics and capturing the experience of children and families, to enable a fuller picture of programme progress. It is expected that this data collection will continue until March 2028.

b. Spend data through the quarterly FFP monitoring returns to ensure existing prevention spend is not displaced, and to monitor an expected shift from spending on care to spending on Family Help. Government will also monitor spend through the Local Outcomes Framework in due course.

c. Reports on FFP delivery plan progress, which in turn should be developed with, and agreed by, their local safeguarding partnership.

17. DfE encourages local authorities to participate in the voluntary targeted early help data collection (TEHADC). TEHADC is a key part of the FFP data strategy which will enable DfE to monitor and evaluate the reforms. The collection and each data item in it are voluntary, however DfE will be working towards making the data collection mandatory in future. The first collection period will be 1 April 2026, and run until 31 July 2026.

18. Local authorities may also be offered the opportunity to work with DfE to test and evaluate innovative fostering practices, linked to prevention. Local authorities should co-operate with DfE as far as possible.

Holidays Activities and Food

Use of the Funding

19. The Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) funding is ringfenced for local authorities to make free places at holiday clubs available in the Easter 2026, Summer 2026 and Christmas 2026 holidays to children in their local authority who meet the eligibility as set out in HAF programme guidance; and build capacity to deliver a sufficient and sustainable school aged childcare system.

20. Local authorities must have due regard to related guidance issued by DfE, including for Holiday Activities and Food Programme and School Age Childcare: Local Authority Capacity Funding.

Delivery of HAF

21. Local authorities must fund HAF provision across the core periods of Easter, summer & Christmas and have some discretion to go further to deliver in half terms, as set out in guidance. Local authorities have flexibility about how they spend this grant and deliver this provision to best serve the needs of the children and families in their areas, but provision should remain in line with the eligibility, core offer and framework of standards set out in our programme guidance. Further information for local authorities is available on gov.uk: Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

22. All provision funded by the local authority through the HAF programme must meet the framework of standards, including quality assurance, as outlined in the programme guidance.

23. Local authorities are expected to use no more than 7.5% of their HAF funding allocation to cover the administration costs of the local coordination for the HAF programme, as set out in the programme guidance. DfE has agreed to give further flexibility in exceptional cases and relevant LAs have been notified. This total figure can be found in the column titled ‘Of which: expected HAF programme and admin spend’ Holiday activities and food and local authority capacity support: 2026 financial year allocations - GOV.UK. This means that 92.5% of expenditure is expected to be spent on the provision of free holiday club places for eligible children. DfE recognises that administration costs may represent a higher proportion of expenditure for smaller local authorities and have notified smaller authorities in writing of the maximum they are expected to spend on local administration costs. These costs are expected to be separate to the local authority capacity funding, and this is broken down separately.

24. Local authorities are expected to use no more than 15% of their HAF funding allocation, once the LA Capacity spend amount has been deducted from their total allocation, to provide free or subsidised places for school-aged children who do not meet the eligibility criteria but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision. Local authorities should ensure that these places are aligned to their local priorities. Local authorities must have in place a nominated HAF coordinator who takes responsibility within the local authority for the strategic oversight and delivery of the HAF programme in line with the expectations set out in HAF guidance including on mapping demand, commissioning, quality assurance and partnership working. The level of resource in the local authority should be proportionate to the level of funding received. Each HAF coordinator must engage with the support offer provided by DfE as set out in the “Support for local authorities” section of the HAF guidance. The HAF coordinator should work closely with the local authorities nominated school-age childcare lead (where different) to maximise efficiencies and join-up between different types of holiday provision.

25. Local authorities must produce and maintain a central register of all the providers they fund through their HAF programme and make this available to DfE upon request. This register should include the venue name, address, contact details and named key contacts along with an overview of the dates, times and the nature of activities during holiday periods. The register should be provided to DfE by 30th June 2026 (HAF 2026-27).

Capacity funding for School Aged Childcare

26. As part of the HAF allocation, the government is providing local authorities with £12.9 million of additional funding in the 2026 to 2027 financial year to support their capacity to deliver a sufficient and sustainable School Age Childcare system. Local authorities must have in place a nominated school-age childcare lead with responsibility within the local authority for  strategic oversight of the local school aged childcare market  - including driving supply and increasing awareness of local provision - so that provision of school aged childcare in their local area meets the needs of parents and carers, and children, consistent with their legal duty under Childcare Act 2006 to secure sufficient childcare. School-age childcare leads should designate appropriate proportions of their time to the activities set out in supporting guidance which local authorities must have due regard to, including supporting schools in preparing for and establishing free breakfast clubs and maximising the sufficiency and sustainability of existing and new SAC provision. The grant recipient must engage with the DfE’s sufficiency support offer as appropriate.

27. Where there is evidence that local authorities have not met expectations associated with HAF administration costs and Local Authority Capacity funding, DfE will engage with local authorities to understand why and seek to address this.

UK Government Branding

28. The grant recipient shall always during and following the end of the Funding Period:

a. comply with requirements of the Branding Manual in relation to the Funded Activities found at HM Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Branding Manual Funded by UK Government first published by the Cabinet Office in November 2022, including any subsequent updates from time to time.

b. comply with requests from DfE to use and / or cease use of the Funded by UK Government logo on demand;

c. adhere to the UK Government Branding Policy Guidance available at 2022-06-01-UKG-Branding-Grants-Policy-Guidance-v1.0.pdf (civilservice.gov.uk)

Payment and reporting arrangements

29. By 1 May 2027 local authorities must provide DfE with a Statement of Expenditure and Certificate of Grant Usage which details the cost of the HAF programme, and total Local Authority Capacity expenditure, confirmed by the nominated responsible officer.

30. In advance of each holiday delivery period, DfE will inform local authorities of the date for the submission of HAF data returns and will provide them with a template for the submission. The template will also set out what information and data the grant recipient is required to report on with core elements set out in the programme guidance.

31. Local authorities must ensure that the data and information it collects, and the data and information collected by the holiday clubs it funds, will be collected in strict adherence to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

32. Local authorities must provide an annual report on their HAF programme to DfE by 30th June 2027 and will be published on their HAF website or webpages. Further detail is set out in the “Annual Report” section of the programme guidance.

33. Local authorities will work with DfE and with any support organisation appointed to work on behalf of DfE in relation to the monitoring and delivery of the HAF Programme.

34. Local authorities must have a HAF website or dedicated pages on local authorities’ websites for their HAF programme in line with the programme guidance.

Data collection

35. Local authorities must comply with the collection of data that DfE requires and is set out in the accompanying HAF programme guidance.

36. Local authorities must provide school-age childcare data and evidence to DfE as required, in line with expectations set out in the accompanying school-age childcare guidance. This will include, but is not limited to, the Wraparound Childcare data collection process.

37. Local authorities must comply with requests from DfE to undertake additional data collection during the grant recipient’s.

38. DfE may publish data on participation and expenditure, including breakdowns of this data at local authority level.

Records

39. Local authorities must maintain reliable, accessible and up to date accounting records with an adequate audit trail for all expenditure funded by grant monies under this Determination.

40. Local authorities and any person acting on behalf of the grant recipient must allow:

a. the Comptroller and Auditor General or appointed representatives, or

b. the Secretary of State for Education or appointed representatives, free access at all reasonable times to all documents (including computerised documents and data) and other information as are connected to the grant payable under this Determination, or to the purposes for which grant was used.

41. The documents, data and information referred to in these conditions are such which the Secretary of State for Education or the Comptroller and Auditor General may reasonably require for the purposes of ‘spot checking’ administrative costs or significant amounts paid under the Scheme or a financial audit of any department or other public body or for carrying out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any department or other public body has used its resources. Local authorities must provide such further explanations as are reasonably required for these purposes. These conditions do not constitute a requirement for the examination, certification or inspection of the accounts of the grant recipient by the Comptroller and Auditor General under section 6(3) of the National Audit Act 1983. The Secretary of State for Education and Comptroller and Auditor General will seek access in a measured manner to minimise any burden on the grant recipient and will avoid duplication of effort by seeking and sharing information with local auditors.

Financial procedures and reporting

42. Local authorities must maintain a sound system of internal financial controls. If the grant recipient has any grounds for suspecting financial irregularity in the use of any grant paid under this Determination, it must notify DfE immediately, explain what steps are being taken to investigate the suspicion and keep DfE informed about the progress of the investigation. For these purposes “financial irregularity” includes fraud or other impropriety, mismanagement, and the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided.

Breach of Conditions and withholding future funding

43. If the grant recipient fails to comply with any of these conditions, or if any overpayment is made under this grant, or any amount is paid in error, the Minister  may reduce, suspend or withhold grant payments or require the repayment of the whole or any part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Minister (in consultation with the Secretary of State for Education) and notified in writing to the recipient authority. Such sum as has been notified will immediately become repayable to the Minister who may offset the sum against any future amount due to the recipient authority from central government.

44. Local authorities will be notified of any identified underspend of funding which will be repayable to the Minister.

45. This fund can only be utilised for the period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

1. The England total does not include the allocation for the Isles of Scilly (£40,660). The Isles of Scilly will receive funding for the Children, Families and Youth Grant through a separate single un-ringfenced Section 31 grant which will also include their funding for the Crisis and Resilience Fund and the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant. ↩

2. Both measures are expected to become statutory requirements subject to the Bill receiving Royal Assent and following implementation by way of further regulations. We will set out further details on implementation and commencement of the MACPT and FGDM bill measures once the Bill receives Royal Assent. ↩