Grants available for OSCAR providers

This page is for OSCAR providers. There is more information for parents and caregivers here:

Who can get it

You may be able to get a grant to help cover some of your operating costs if:

• you're an accredited OSCAR provider
• your programme operates 5 days a week
• you get income from parent fees or contributions
• your programme is listed in the MSD Family Services Directory

Your programme also needs to meet the operating hours and attendance requirements.

	Minimum weekly number of hours	Minimum daily average attendees
Before-school	5	5
After-school	10	10
Holiday programmes*	30	10

*Holiday programmes must be run for at least 4 weeks a year, with at least 1 of those weeks in each school holiday period.

Attendance

The average attendance is worked out by taking the total number of children who actually attended each day and dividing this by the number of days the programme operated for the period.

What counts as attendance

Attendance includes:

• children actually at the programme
• public holidays where the child would have otherwise attended on that day
• children temporarily away for any reason, but due back within 3 weeks
• children temporarily away because of ill health for up to 6 weeks, who have either provided a medical certificate, or receive Child Disability Allowance or Group Special Education funding

What you can get

How much you get depends on the number of children you have attending your programme.

You may be eligible for a top up grant if your programmes:

• operate in a high deprivation area
• operate in an isolated area
• have fluctuating attendance due to seasonal work, or
• need to relocate as a result of a civil defence emergency.

How to apply

Applications are currently closed. We'll update this page when applications open again.