This document provides guidance notes to support the completion of the ISG Application Form, including eligibility criteria for the funding streams available.

Page 1 of the Application Form

  • Detail your Setting’s Name or your own name if you are a Childminder and circle or highlight the type of Setting you are

Child’s Details

  • Populate the information requested about the child including their name, date of birth, address, gender, ethnicity and date they started attending your provision. Also identify if they are ‘looked after’ by the Local Authority, if they have a Common Assessment Framework in place and whether they receive 2, 3 or 4 year old funding through the Early Learning Programme for 2 Year Olds or Nursery Education Funding.

Child’s Needs

  • Detail the exceptional needs of this child that are requiring you to apply for additional financial support through ISG, including prioritising the child’s primary area of need/s.
  • All applications should detail the external agency contacts who also have active involvement with this child. This is an eligibility requirement of the ISG Funding, if the child is aged 0-5 years they need to be at SEN Provision (ie have outside agencies involved with them).

Page 2 of the Application Form

Funding Requested

  • Please detail whether your application is for childcare, education or childcare and education by ticking the relevant box.

The following rules of eligibility apply for each funding stream;

Childcare /
  • Support for childcare for disabled children/young people whilst their parents are working or in training
  • The child / young person is attending provision specifically for childcare purposes
  • Provision registered with Ofsted on either the Early Years Register or the Compulsory or Voluntary Childcare Register
  • Child/young person is under 19 years of age (support is available until the end of the school year in which the young person reaches their 19th birthday)
  • The child / young person is resident in NottinghamCity, or is a resident in Nottinghamshire but attending provision in NottinghamCity
  • The child / young person is known to the setting’s Early Years Support Officer or Childcare Support Worker, who has already supported the setting with meeting the child’s significant and complex needs (SEN Provision or in receipt of HLN funding if in school). To be eligible for ISG funding, children of school age need to be in receipt of HLN funding at school or have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or Statement of SEN
  • Parents / Carers are in employment or attending a vocational training course. This applies to both parents or carers in the case of two parent families (funding will normally be limited to one training course and support for extended training courses will be at the discretion of the Panel)
  • Level of support requested reflects working/training patterns of the parent(s)
  • Additional Information Forms are submitted to support Out of School/Holiday Clubs and Childminder applications
  • A Parent/Carer Consent Form needs to be submitted with the application, including the Manager’s initials that evidence of the parent’s working/training status has been seen. This evidence could be in the form of a wage slip, shift patterns, company badge, etc. If the parent is self-employed evidence of the tax code and company registration number should be provided as evidence.
In addition, please note that consideration will also be given to applications for support if the child/young person’s parents / carers are;
  • On maternity leave (for up to two sessions per week, for a maximum period of nine months)
  • Preparing to take up new employment or training (for up to two sessions per week, for a maximum period of six months)
  • On long term sick leave
This should be specified on your application form and these requests will be considered at the discretion of the ISG Panel.
Education /
  • Support for disabled children aged 3 & 4 years whilst accessing their free entitlement to a Nursery Education Funded place and disabled children aged 2 years whilst accessing a funded place through the Early Learning Programme for 2 Year Olds
  • Provision needs to be on the Ofsted Early Years Register
  • Setting is in receipt of 2, 3 or 4 year old funding for the named child
  • The child is known to the setting’s Early Years Support Officer and has complex and significant needs and has other agencies involved with them (SEN Provision)
  • An Individual Pupil Profile is submitted alongside the application form (for new applications)
  • An Individual Provision Map is submitted alongside the application form (for new applications and applications requiring continued support)
  • A Parent/Carer Consent Form needs to be submitted with the application (new applications)
Please note that in the case of a child with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan, their home Local Authority will be responsible for providing funding unless the family has taken the funding as a Personal Budget, either as a Direct Payment or to be managed by a third party. In this case, the budget holder will be responsible for providing any funding that is agreed through the support plan and EHCP.
Childcare and Education /
  • Support for childcare for disabled children whilst their parents are working or in training and the child is also aged 2, 3 or 4 and is in receipt of a funded place
  • Eligibility criteria for both the childcare and the education aspects need to be met, as outlined in the boxes above
  • Application forms should be supported by the relevant documentation:
Individual Pupil Profile (new applications)
Individual Provision Map
Additional Information Form (Out of School Providers and Childminders)
Parent/Carer Consent Form
  • Applications should state if they are for term time only, holidays only or all year round (term time and holiday periods)
  • For term time only and all year round applications please state the days and actual hours/patterns of attendance the child attends during the week and on the bottom row the ISG requested. For example, the child may attend 1pm – 4pm, Monday to Friday and you may be requesting 1.5 hours support a day. Applications for term time only or all year round do not need to complete the ‘Holiday Applications’ Box
  • For holiday applications only, complete this box and ignore the term time only and all year round applications box, specifying which holidays are being applied for (please note that we will only assess applications that fall within the current funding period), the number of days this includes, the number of hours the child is expected to attend and the number of hours ISG support requested per day.
  • ISG does not fund 100% of hours attended. Please consider this when detailing the number of hours you are requesting.

ISG Hours – Detailed Support

  • For the ISG hours support you have identified in the above boxes, for example, 1.5 hours per day, please detail how these hours will be broken down to support the child. This should tally with the total hours of support you are requesting per day and should be in the format of, for example, 15 minutes x twice a day to support one to one physiotherapy programme.
  • Detail what support the setting will be providing from its own resources to support the child. It is expected that the childcare provider understands their duties under the EYFS, SEN Code of Practice and the Equality Act to ensure that they do not treat disabled children ‘less favourably’, that they make ‘reasonable adjustments ‘for disabled children and that they will work in partnership with the parent/carer and any other support agency to support the inclusion, care and development of the child /young disabled person.
  • If the child has previously received ISG support, please also detail the progress that has been made and how this new application reflects this progress. This will also be evidenced in the Individual Progress tracker data that is on the application form. Please be aware that the level of funding initially allocated is likely to be reduced over time as the ISG Panel anticipates that the Setting would be developing inclusive practices and therefore the level of need for additional support is likely to reduce accordingly.

Quality Applications

  • If your application is incomplete or unclear, or required supporting documentation is missing, your application will be returned to you identifying the omissions to enable you to resubmit a full application for the ISG Panel to consider.
  • Remember to submit the required supporting documentation alongside your application form, the information on the Application Process will help you in identifying which documents to send.
  • All children for whom you submit an ISG Application Form need to have significant and complex needs and must be known to your Early Years Support Officer or Childcare Support Worker who will need to approve your application. Ideally, for new applications, the child should have been visited by your Early Years Support Officer or Childcare Support Worker prior to the submission of your Application Form. If this has not happened, any award made by the Panel may be split into 2 payments pending a visit to allow the support allocated to be assessed. This may result in the level of support being increased or decreased accordingly.
  • Settings need to discuss the ISG Application with the parent/carer and obtain their permission to submit the application to the ISG Panel. Applications are shared with Panel members and possibly other professionals who may be supporting the child and family; this is why it is important for parents to be fully aware of the processes and agree to these discussions taking place. Any discussions regarding the ISG application are for the benefit of the child and the family and their inclusion within the setting. All parents/carers need to complete Parent/Carer Consent Form before the application can be considered by the ISG Panel.

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