The Quality and Access Capital Grant has three aims:
1. To improve the quality of the learning environment in early years settings to support delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), with a particular emphasis on improving play and physical activities, and Information and Computer Technology (ICT) resources;
2. To ensure that all children, including disabled children, are able to access provision; and,
3. To enable providers in the private, voluntary and independent sectors to deliver the extension to the free offer for 3 and 4 year olds and to do so flexibly.
Our expectation is that the majority of the grant is used to improve the quality of the environment in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) early years and child care settings, both to support higher quality experiences for young children and to ensure that all children can access services and benefit fully from them.
However, spending on the maintained sector is not precluded and we have not set a percentage split between PVI and maintained settings. Providing that spend is in line with the three aims set out above, it is for local authorities to decide how to distribute the grant to providers.