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Guidance

Inclusive early years fund: 2026 to 2027

Additional funding for local authorities delivering the government’s free early years entitlements programme.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
25 March 2026
Last updated:
22 July 2026
Show all updates

  1. Added 'Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: allocations'. Removed 'Local authority inclusive early years funding calculator tool'.

  2. Added 'Inclusive early years fund: best practice guidance for local authorities'.

  3. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: allocations

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 24.3 KB

Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: conditions of grant and operational guidance for local authorities

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Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: methodology

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Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027: local authority funding

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 40.5 KB

Inclusive early years fund: best practice guidance for local authorities

HTML

Details

This guidance is for local authorities delivering the government’s free early years entitlements programme.

The additional funding will be paid to local authorities in the 2026 to 2027 financial year to support the early years sector to become more inclusive of children with special educational needs and disabilities. Local authorities will pay this to early years providers in accordance with the conditions of grant.

Allocations

Allocations have now been published and payments will be made at the end of July 2026. Further information on allocations is provided in the grant methodology.

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