Disability Access Fund (DAF)

Service

DAF supports access to early years places for children with disabilities by supporting providers to make reasonable adjustments to their settings and/or help with building capacity and accessibility.

The DAF initiative in West Sussex runs alongside the Early Years Inclusion Funding to help settings better address the needs of individual children with special educational needs and disabilities. For more information, visit our website using the link in the Contact Details section on the right.

What we do:

Children will be eligible for the DAF if they are in receipt of child Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and also receive Early Years Funded Entitlement for two, three and four-year-olds. From September 2024, this will extend to over 9-month-olds.
The settings of children eligible for the DAF will be entitled to receive a payment of £910 every 12 months, regardless of the number of hours attended by the child.
If the child attends more than one setting, you as the parent will need to choose which setting should receive the DAF payment for the year. This must be recorded on the Parent Declaration form.
Please note that four-year-olds in primary school reception classes are not eligible for the DAF. For more information on the DAF please contact the Family Information Service on the contact details provided, or speak to your child’s early years setting.
Day nurseries, preschool playgroups and childminders who offer Early Years Funded Entitlement childcare places are all able to apply for both the DAF and Inclusion Funding.