Guidance

School-based nursery capital grant 2025 to 2026

Information for eligible schools about the school-based nursery (SBN) capital grant for 2025 to 2026.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 4 September 2025
• Last updated: 23 March 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 23 March 2026

     Grant applications for 2025 to 2026 and the register of interest have closed. All applicants have been emailed with the outcome of their application.

  2. 11 December 2025

     Updated to reflect that the application and registration of interest processes have closed and to set out next steps.

  3. 14 November 2025

     Updated the ‘School-based Nursery Capital Grant guidance’ to include details on application sharing in ‘Role of local authorities’, information on the School Rebuilding Programme in ‘Other key considerations’, our scoring approach if funding remains available in ‘How we will assess your application’, and revised wording on articulating project risk in ‘Project Overview’. These updates are for clarification only. The application process has not changed.

  4. 24 October 2025

     Updated the School-based Nursery Capital Grant guidance to include information about webinars and how schools can withdraw an application.

  5. 4 September 2025

     First published.

Applies to England

Grant applications

Applications for the school-based nursery (SBN) capital grant for 2025 to 2026 have now closed.

If you applied: 

• you will have been emailed with the outcome of your application 
• you can check the status of your application and download a copy of your application and any supporting documents by signing into the online application service – use the same sign-in details you used to submit your application

Registration of interest

The registration of interest has also now closed.

Any information you submitted will help develop the programme and has been shared with local authorities.

Future data to be published

We will publish additional data for each phase once all projects have completed. This may include total funding for each project, number of additional places created, age ranges covered per project, PVI partner name and the list of unsuccessful applicants.

Phase 3 

If your application is unsuccessful, you may be eligible to work with your local authority as part of phase 3. Find information about phase 3 from School-based nursery capital grant 2027 to 2030.

About the grant

The SBN capital grant for 2025 to 2026 was available for eligible state-funded primary-phase schools and maintained nursery schools to apply for up to £150,000 of capital funding to create or expand a school-based nursery.

This is phase 2 of the school-based nurseries programme. It builds on the foundations of phase 1 (the SBN capital grant for 2024 to 2025) and has an increased focus on supporting disadvantaged families to access early years provision.

For more information, read the School-based Nursery Capital Grant 2025 to 2026 (PDF, 718 KB, 50 pages) guidance.

What happens next

If your application is successful, we will:

• send you a grant funding agreement to sign before we release any funds
• give you more details about the payment process, reporting requirements and timelines before you sign it

The agreement is legally binding and outlines:

• your roles and responsibilities
• the terms and conditions you must follow to receive the funding

If your application is unsuccessful, you may be eligible to work with your local authority as part of phase 3. More information is available in the guidance.

Contact us

We encourage all applicants to sign up to receive emails about updates to this page. If you have a query about the school-based nurseries programme, use the customer help portal to contact us.