Frequently asked questions: Streams A and B

A statutory setting is not eligible to apply to the Pathway Fund. Some settings may however use the title of “nursery unit” or “nursery school” but not be a statutory setting, these services would be eligible to apply to the Pathway Fund.

The Pathway Fund does not provide funding to support statutory settings.

You are eligible to apply if, as an organisation, you are a provider or facilitator of Early Years education and learning for children aged 0-4 years. Your proposed project would need to support only children in the 0-4 age group – and the evaluation and scoring would only take account of the service delivered to this age range.

Yes, applications are welcomed from those who have previously applied to the fund and were unsuccessful.

Yes, the Pathway Fund welcomes new, current and previous applicants to apply. In their application, current recipients should either propose a new project or seek to demonstrate improvement (e.g. a deepening of practice to demonstrate increased capacity or enhanced delivery) of their existing project.

Yes, you can still apply but you must submit your most recent unaudited accounts and your projected income and expenditure.

Applicants must be a registered provider or facilitator of early years education and learning, focused on children 0-4 years. If a provider, please record your HSCT registration details. If a provider does not complete the section in the application form for the registration number the application will be deemed ineligible. Please include the registration details for the project for which you are applying for Pathway Fund support.

You do not have to be a registered charity to apply for the Pathway Fund. Details of who is eligible to apply is outlined in the guidance notes.

In 2025/26 and provisionally for 2026/27 the Pathway Fund will be administered over three streams and applicants can apply to one. Only one application per organisation will be accepted.

• Stream A is for applications from £20,001 - £40,000 per year (applications will be evaluated against the six fund criteria).

• Stream B is for applications up to £20,000 per year (applications will be evaluated against the four priority fund criteria).

The online application and guidance documentation will be made available on the Early Years website on the official opening date of Monday 25th November 2024.

Acknowledgement of receipt of your application will be issued within 24 hours of submission of your application. You should contact EYO if notification is not received by this time. No further update will be provided until the assessment process is complete and we will then issue notification of outcome.

You must describe how the project you are proposing meets each of the criteria of the Pathway Fund. Whilst your project does not need to meet all criteria, the more criteria your project meets and the higher level of score you achieve, the more likely it is to receive funding.

You may want to tell us about quality improvement targets that will be in practice to confirm incremental quality development.

The criteria (i) – (iv) highlighted in bold are most heavily weighted in the assessment process. Please refer to the guidance document for further details regarding the Pathway Fund criteria and minimum threshold scores for both Stream A and Stream B applications.

Debrief clinics will be available to all unsuccessful applicants.

There is no capital funding available within the Pathway Fund. Funding for resources may be available for some small items of equipment (which would not be capitalised in the applicants’ accounts) subject to the project outlined in the application. There is no money for new buildings, extensions to current buildings, refurbishments or similar.

The Pathway Fund team will run a series of information sessions.

The Pathway Fund team will be available to answer general queries, by phone or email, relating to eligibility, completing and submitting an application. They cannot provide specific guidance about a project for which you are seeking funding.

You can contact the Pathway Fund office on (028) 9066 2825 (option 2) or email thepathwayfund@early-years.org.

Beyond the information sessions the Pathway Team will not be able to meet with you in person during the application period.

Subject to availability of DE funding, it is anticipated that the fund will commence and Letters of Offer will be issued in April 2025. Indicative Notifications of Outcome will be issued in advance of this.

Applicants are advised to factor in costings from April 2025 to March 2026 in their submissions and budget information questions relate to Year 1 only. If successful, the amount awarded will form the basis of Year 2 funding and will be dependent on confirmation of circumstances in Year 2 for the period 2026/27 (subject to DE budget availability). Payments will be made in line with Code for Reducing Bureaucracy in Grant Funding in the Community and Voluntary sector.

Yes. The Pathway Fund provides a contribution towards the overall cost of your project. You will therefore be asked to provide income (current, projected and applied for) for your organisation and for the project you want Pathway Funding for. This will be taken into consideration in respect of your financial need.

The fund will not duplicate activity funded under the Pre-School Education Programme (PSEP) or other such sources of funding, but can be used to enhance or extend existing non statutory PSEP provision. The project for which the setting is seeking funding from the Pathway Fund must be in respect of provision which is additional to, and does not interfere with, that funded under the PSEP. Please refer to Guidance Notes, Page 13.

The application must be in respect of provision which is additional to, and does not interfere with, that funded under the PSEP.

The application would have to show clearly how it meets the criteria and objectives of the Pathway Fund, demonstrating a quality service with an appropriate curriculum in place for children in the pre-preschool year.

Yes, provided that the application supports provision which is additional to that funded under the PSEP including any provision that has been, or may be being considered for, transition to full-time (min 22.5 hours per week) through the Department’s Pre-School Standardisation Programme. The full preschool curriculum must be provided within the period funded under the PSEP to ensure that children who do not choose to participate in the extended provision are not disadvantaged in terms of their access to PSEP funded provision.