How should nurseries spend their Inclusive Early Years Fund allocation?

Where should nurseries start with IEYF spending?

Early years providers are seeing an increase in the volume and complexity of children’s needs. An independent report commissioned by the Local Government Association found the most significant change described by practitioners was the growth in the number of children with communication and interaction needs, and an increase in the complexity of what those needs are.

This highlights the challenge for nurseries. The complexity of needs across early years settings is evolving, and there is growing pressure on providers to have the skills, resources and confidence to respond.

It’s also why I believe that instead of starting with: “What should we get with our funding?”, a better question to begin with is: “What are the three or four barriers that come up most often across our rooms?”

When are children most confident? Where do they find it harder to join in? What could be causing barriers?

By identifying the challenge a setting is trying to address, you can make more informed decisions about where funding can make the biggest difference.

How can a nursery review its everyday environment for inclusion?

An inclusion review can help nurseries put this into practice by enabling staff to identify barriers to participation, and to build a clearer picture of where support is needed.

With these insights, nursery teams can better prioritise spending decisions. The funding covers the procurement of physical tools and learning equipment that can strengthen communication, sensory regulation, and early intervention.

If a review, for instance, identifies children are facing barriers to communication, nurseries could look to invest in visual timetables, now-and-next boards or picture cards.

Nurseries may also consider what adaptations need to be made to their classrooms. A review of noise, for example, could highlight useful changes, like rugs or acoustic wall panels.

Growth is another opportunity. New sites and refurbishments are the moment to build inclusive environments from the start, rather than adapting them later.

Should IEYF funding go on training as well as resources?

While resources are crucial to creating more inclusive settings, staff training and knowledge to use them are equally important. A resource nobody feels confident using returns very little.

Staff training and workforce development are also outlined as permitted uses of the IEYF. Where several staff would benefit from a shared approach to supporting children’s needs, investing in training or coaching may do more than equipment. There are various accredited or short continuing professional development courses in early identification, speech, language and communication needs.

Findel’s EuHu SEND Hub also has a library of resources available on topics like school readiness, transitions and working memory, which can provide starting points for teams considering how to strengthen their practice.

Can IEYF allocations be pooled across settings?

Department for Education guidance allows allocations to be pooled across settings within the same local authority area, provided nursery groups can demonstrate how each individual setting has benefited.

This is where scale can be a real advantage. Many larger nursery groups may already have central SEND or inclusion teams who can help identify common needs across multiple sites. Here, pooled funding could support a consistent training programme or specialist coaching.

It also presents an opportunity to develop group-wide baselines, like a common core of communication and regulation resources that sit alongside local choices made by individual settings.

How does the IEYF fit with other SEND funding?

A final point for consideration is that the IEYF is additional to existing funding. It is intended to complement rather than replace the existing Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding, the Disability Access Fund, Early Years Pupil Premium and high needs funding.

In my opinion, how a setting sequences spend across those streams matters more than the IEYF figure in isolation, and can make a nursery’s budget go a lot further.

Reviewing these other streams can help nursery managers identify where best to invest their IEYF funding, so that any new purchases work alongside existing support.

Related: Hope Education SEND & Inclusion hub | Communication and interaction resources

About the author

Rav Gehlon is Head of SEND Proposition and Growth at Findel. This article was first published in Nursery Management on 21 October 2026 as “Make inclusion funding count”.