This grant is focussed on providing short term support to enable Local Authorities and its partners to boost the delivery of early intervention and prevention support to children aged 0-5 years of age. Its priority is those who are in greatest need and who have been impacted most by Covid-19.

The fund is targeted at children aged 0-5 years of age and will act as a catch up fund to boost the delivery of services and ensure needs are identified as soon as possible before they escalate to a point of crisis or no return.

Each grant application will need to be for a minimum £500 or maximum of £10,000 the grant can be used to fund but not exclusively the following areas of activity:

• Initiatives to support outdoor play to aid fine and gross motor skill development e.g., street play, family play, parks, built up areas, leisure centre grounds, forest school set ups
• Projects which address specific needs such as parental attachment, perinatal mental health, nutrition, or obesity.
• Extending the reach of Family support services such as Team Around the Family / Families First / Flying Start and parenting support services to deal with increase in referrals and additional needs identified
• Speech, Language and Communication support, in line with the Talk with Me SLC Delivery Plan (https://gov.wales/talk-me-speech-language-and-communication-slc-delivery-plan)
• Peer support-based activity – support to families, who as a result of lockdown have been unable to receive support from families and friends (eg. training packages to train peer supporters)
• Projects aimed at digital exclusion, ensuring families can access services and support digitally.
• Develop and roll out training packages for early years’ practitioners to provide additional support/ideas for making adaptations and alerting practitioners to early warning signs of fine and gross motor delay

Childcare Providers please see below some examples of that could be included on your application:

• WelcComm kits
• Resources to support IY training such as puppets and books
• Equipment to develop gross motor skills (see attached)
• Play packs to support Language (see attached)
• Forest school training and resources

Each grant application will need to be for a minimum £500 or maximum of £49,000 the grant can be used to fund but not exclusively the following areas of activity:

Deadline: 26th November

For more information and the Application Form see the documents below