Disability Access Fund (DAF)

What is the Disability Access Fund?

The Disability Access Fund (DAF) is intended to aid access to the early education funded entitlements for children with disabilities.

Children in receipt of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) could be eligible for additional funding through DAF. Childcare providers would receive a one off payment of £938 per calendar year for each eligible child.

The purpose of DAF is to help providers make reasonable adjustments or increase capacity within their provision to support children to access their funded hours. DAF could be used for a child in question or for the benefit of all children attending the provision.

Providers are encouraged to raise awareness of DAF with parents in order to identify eligible children. The parent declaration form should be used to ascertain if a child meets the relevant criteria for DAF. 

Eligibility

Children claiming Disability Living Allowance could be eligible if they access one of the following:

• 15 funded hours for children aged from 9 months to 2 years old who are eligible for the working parent entitlement, or
• 15 funded hours for disadvantaged 2-year-olds, known as Think2, or
• 15 hours through the universal entitlement for 3 and 4-year-olds.

Children do not have to take up the full annual entitlement of 570 hours of early education funding to which they are entitled in order to receive DAF.

The Disability Access Fund is not accessible for the following:

• Four-year-olds attending a primary school reception class,
• The Schools and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2023 prohibits that DAF cannot be paid to some school settings funded under regulation 14. This is applicable to specialist school provision.

How do providers apply for DAF and how is it paid?

Providers can apply for DAF via the Early Years Provider Portal. Providers must outline on their application how DAF will be used and it must include the child's current and in date DLA award letter (preferably by a copy being uploaded to the EY Portal), or the application will be refused.

• Staffordshire providers can submit DAF applications for eligible children who attend their provision but reside outside of Staffordshire.
  
  
• Applications are normally reviewed within 5 working days.
  
  
• Applications received and approved before the 20th of the month will be paid in a lump sum by no later than the 20th date of the month thereafter.
  
  
• If a child, eligible for DAF, is splitting their funded hours across more than one provider, parents will need to nominate the provider with whom they wish to receive DAF.

• Providers must liaise with parents during the application process and agree as to how DAF will be spent and used.
  
  
• DAF applications can only be made if the child is still attending the provision. Retrospective applications will not be considered.
  
  
• DAF will only be paid to providers once a year for an eligible child.
  
  
• If a child receiving DAF moves from one provider to another, the new provider is not eligible to apply for and receive DAF until a year after the date that the council approved the original application. If an eligible child remains with the same provider for more than a year, that provider can re-apply for a second payment a year after the original application.

Guidance on how providers can apply - DAF- how to submit an application (for childcare providers) (588 KB)

What can funds be used for?

Providers should consider what reasonable adaptations are required to ensure the child has the same equity of access to the provision as any other child. Resources required to ensure basic entry and reasonable adjustments to the learning and physical environment should be the priority for DAF.

• Providers must involve the child’s parent(s) and engage with other professionals working with the family to ensure DAF is spent appropriately.
  
  
• If providers choose to ‘pool’ funds with other providers, they may choose to enter into an agreement regarding ownership, use and maintenance of resources. This may only be possible for non-static items and is at the discretion of the provider who purchased the resource.
  
  
• Providers who have more than one child eligible for DAF at the same time may wish to ‘pool’ DAF. This may provide an opportunity to support an adjustment or purchase of equipment that benefits more than one child.
  
  
• Providers are encouraged to forward plan in utilising DAF to ensure a child’s needs are met for the duration of time that the child will be attending their provision before they start school. However, providers are advised that where possible to spend DAF within the term it is awarded.
  
  
• Any resources purchased as part of DAF remain the property of that provider. However, if a child is moving onto another provider, they may wish to make arrangements for the transfer of any resources.
  
  
• Providers may wish to allow parents to take resources home for weekends and holiday periods if they feel they would benefit the child.
  
  
• DAF can be used to aid one to one support for children if it helps a child who needs additional support to access more funded hours at the setting.
  • However, early years settings should be aware that DAF cannot be used for 121 care for children who already receive Early Years Inclusion Funding for 121 support on their funded hours. Providers may need to consider an alternative use for DAF in these cases.
    
    
• Early years providers can use DAF for the purchase of specialist staff training that can be attributed to improve the access and experience of children eligible for DAF. The organisation NASEN has past case studies to show how DAF can be put to good use. 
  
  
• DAF must only be used for the benefit of children gaining access to their funded hours and should not be used just to top up extra hours of childcare or to supplement what are the normal day-to-day running or staffing costs of the setting.
  
  
• Providers must evidence for the use of DAF should be recorded if it is used for one to one support or staff training and keep receipts and proof of spend for audit purposes which are normally conducted by Staffordshire County Council.

 Further advice can be provided by the Early Years Inclusion Team

Timeframe to spend DAF

Effective from 1 September 2025, providers will have six months to spend DAF from the date an application has been approved as eligible by Staffordshire County Council.

Providers may be audited to ensure that funding has been spent in an appropriate and timely manner.

Staffordshire County Council will only consider reclaiming DAF if a provider has not spent it within the required timeframe and cannot show their plan for an appropriate spend of the funding.

Definitions

Definition of ‘Access’ and responsibility to make ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ for the purpose of DAF and early years, access refers to:

• the means or opportunity to enter the provision of space where early education is to take place. This includes either domestic or non-domestic premises. 
• the means or opportunity to engage with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) with reference to the seven areas of learning and development and welfare requirements.

Substantial disadvantage can be avoided by making reasonable adjustments for disabled children. This means making positive steps to ensure that disabled children can fully participate in early education and enjoy the other benefits, facilities and services offered by the provision.

The reasonable adjustment duty consists of three requirements:

• Provision, criteria and practices 
• Auxiliary aids and services 
• Physical features

Definition of ‘Disability’: A person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. (Equality Act 2010).

A physical or mental impairment includes learning difficulties, mental health conditions, medical conditions and hidden impairments such as dyslexia, autism and speech, language and communication impairments.

It is important to note that because a pupil has a disability; it does not necessarily mean that he/ she has special educational needs.