Welsh Medium Childcare Qualifications Programme Grant Scheme: guidance

Strengthening the Welsh medium childcare workforce through the provision of Welsh medium childcare qualifications

Giving children the best possible start in life has always been a priority for Welsh Government. That means making sure our services are designed with young people and families at their heart. 

To support and grow Welsh-speaking communities, we recognise the essential role our childcare workforce plays. The availability of Welsh medium childcare qualifications is pivotal in supporting the Welsh medium workforce. Cymraeg belongs to us all – and it’s central to our national identity, culture and future.

This grant will support Welsh Government in reaching its programme for government commitments to:

• Deliver a phased expansion of early years provision to include all two-year-olds, with a particular emphasis on strengthening Welsh medium provision.
• Reach one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

1.1 Aim

The overarching aim of this grant scheme is to strengthen the Welsh-medium childcare workforce through the provision of high-quality Welsh-medium childcare courses in accredited qualifications. This equips the workforce with high-level skills and supports the expansion of high-quality Welsh-medium childcare provision across Wales.

1.2 Eligibility

We are seeking applications from organisations/colleges/charities or companies who are able to deliver accredited Welsh medium childcare qualifications recognised in the Social Care Wales’s Qualification Framework | Social Care Wales. Successful applicants must be able to deliver the following qualifications as a minimum:

• City and Guilds Level 3 Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development Practice
• City and Guilds Level 5 Leadership and Management of Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development Practice.

A target of 300 learners is set for the three-year programme for Level 3 and Level 5 learners achieving their qualifications (225 Level 3 and 75 Level 5). 

Qualifications in Wales (QIW) provides detail on the qualification/relevant awarding bodies. To be eligible for this grant award, organisations must be an accredited centre with one of the awarding bodies who offer this qualification in Wales. 

Search qualifications - Results | Qualifications in Wales.

Organisations will be asked to provide confirmation of the number of experienced and accredited assessors and trainers available to deliver the programme, and support systems in place to deliver the provision across Wales.

1.3 Calls for proposals: 14 October 2025

When considering developing a proposal to meet the aims of the grant scheme, please note the following.

• Proposals which do not directly address the Priority Criteria set out in Section B will be rejected.
• Proposals must include plans for support and deliverable targets to start from April 2026 and run through to March 2029.
• Proposals must have regard to the following indicative funding limits:

2026 to 2027: £1,108,800.00

2027 to 2028: £1,108,800.00

2028 to 2029: £1,108,800.00

This guidance must be read in advance of completing the application form. We invite applications to be submitted through the medium of Welsh.

The application form has the following sections which must be completed in full. A word count is applied throughout the application form. Words exceeding the applied limit will not be assessed. 

2.1 Section A: Proposal summary

Briefly and clearly identify:

• what the aim of the proposal is
• how it meets the overarching aims of the grant scheme
• what is offered within the proposal and how they will be delivered.
• any specific groups (practitioners, learners, others) that would directly and indirectly benefit, and how?
• Data and research to support your proposal
• How your proposal supports achieving wider Welsh Government aims such as the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, Cymraeg 2050 and Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. 

Include evidence against each of the 7 goals that relate to the proposal and against each of the 5 ways of working.

2.2 Section B: Priority Criteria 

In this section, the applicant will need to demonstrate evidence against the required priority criteria: 

Priority Criteria

1. The delivery of high-quality Welsh medium childcare qualifications and training, ensuring learners are fully equipped for the workforce. The training provision must include both Level 3 in Childcare, Play, Learning and Development, and Level 5 in Leadership and Management of Childcare, Play, Learning, and Development qualifications as a minimum.

Provide evidence here of the quantity of City and Guilds Level 3 and Level 5 childcare, play, learning and development qualifications you will be able to deliver within the funded programme, and the range of qualifications you will be able to deliver within the grant scheme. A target of 300 learners is set for the three-year programme for Level 3 and Level 5 learners achieving their qualifications (225 Level 3 and 75 Level 5). Outline here if you are setting a more ambitious target. 

It is critical that the proposal demonstrates how high-quality Welsh medium qualifications will be delivered across Wales. Provide evidence of your experience of delivering accredited City and Guilds Level 3 and Level 5 childcare, play, learning and development qualifications. Please outline any potential risks to deliverability and detail the mitigating actions you will implement, where applicable, to ensure successful delivery of the proposed training.

2. The delivery of teaching, mentoring and support, including utilising a work-based approach, and career pathway support. 

Please provide evidence of your expertise and experience in delivering teaching, learning, and mentoring across Wales through the medium of Welsh within the early years and childcare sector. Demonstrate your capacity to support work-based learning and career pathway development. Include details of your delivery methods, how you will tailor your approach to meet the diverse needs and circumstances of learners to ensure maximum accessibility and inclusion, and how you will actively support and monitor learners to maximise course completion and graduation rates.

Outline how you will deliver this support for learners, including methods, resources and engagement strategies. Provide evidence here of capacity, experience and expertise in delivering support for learners undertaking childcare qualifications through the medium of Welsh. Outline here development opportunities you will be able to deliver.

If your proposal includes an offer of post qualifying support, please outline here.

3. Collaboration with other relevant networks and partners as part of a clear strategy for recruiting new learners to increase the Welsh medium childcare workforce and to support the delivery of the programme. 

Provide evidence here of how and who you will collaborate with and build links within and across the sector to meet the overarching aims of the programme.

Outline here if you currently involved in any established networks related to your proposal

4. Provide transition support for learners who have begun but have not yet completed Welsh medium childcare Level 3 and Level 5 qualifications prior to April 2026. How will you take into account learners’ progression and ensure continuity of learning to complete qualifications.

Provide evidence of capacity and approach to support the transition and on the boarding of learners who have begun and not completed Welsh Medium Childcare Level 3 and Level 5 childcare qualifications. 

The successful applicant will be required to on board 47 Level 3 learners and 8 Level 5 learners and support them to complete their learning to achieve the required qualifications. Learners will be located within the Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast regions in Wales.

5. Please outline the expected outcomes and approach to collecting and presenting monitoring data across the duration of the programme, covering at a minimum both Level 3 and Level 5 qualifications data.

Outline the expected outcomes from your proposal.

Set out here all measures, targets or indicators that would be used to gauge impact and performance in the form of a quarterly monitoring report and an annual progress report to measure expected outcomes. 

Provide your approach to monitoring data to assess the progression of the programme in relation to, but not limited to, the number of learners recruited to Level 3 and Level 5 Welsh medium childcare qualification courses, completion rates, early course leavers, and the number of learners securing employment in the childcare sector upon qualification. Monitoring provision of learning and development and mentoring sessions is also required, a suitable frequency of meetings is to be proposed and is expected to effectively track progress, ensure quality, and to ensure learner milestones are successfully met. 

6. Please outline your approach to planning for programme closure.

As this is a three-year funding programme, outline how you will manage the closure of the programme alongside supporting learners to complete qualifications.

2.3 Section C: How do you propose to deliver the support set out above?

This section provides space for the applicant to build on the previous sections and set out information on the means through which they plan to deliver the childcare qualifications and support to learners, considering relevant information provided in this guidance.

Within this section build on previous sections by providing further detail on how you will deliver your proposal considering the following questions:

1. How will you ensure successful delivery? 

This should provide an overarching narrative on the delivery arrangements and methodology to be used, including options you have considered and rationales for your proposed approach. 

Please include a description of the deliverables you expect to achieve in each financial year, clearly outlining the timeline and scope of activities. These deliverables should be explicitly linked to your proposed monitoring arrangements in Section B and the cost breakdown provided in Section E, ensuring transparency and alignment across all components. Additionally, provide information or evidence that demonstrates how quickly your initiative can be mobilised, including details on the time and cost implications of the initial setup phase.

2. How will you ensure delivery of your proposal through the medium of Welsh?

This should explain your in-house capacity, alongside any necessary 
sub-contractual arrangements you will put in place.

You will need to include a statement here confirming the capacity to deliver your proposal through the medium of Welsh.

3. What delivery risks have you identified in the development of this proposal and how are you planning to mitigate them?

Information here should cover a broad range of factors and include, but not be limited to, finance, recruitment and retention, engagement, capacity, availability of expertise, third party suppliers, collaboration arrangements, communications, the agility of the support arrangements to respond to needs as they evolve, etc.

4. What is your approach to communicating with and engaging schools, colleges, settings, learners, or other key stakeholders essential to delivery of your proposal? 

While Welsh Government communications channels will be available to any successful grantees, this section should set out your plans for how these would be used alongside any direct actions you would take to ensure such engagements. 

5. How will you ensure equity of access to support across Wales?

Outline your approach to ensuring equity of access for learners across Wales irrespective of location, background, etc.

2.4 Section D: Your organisation 

This section is to provide specific and more detailed information on your organisation. It should build on the information identified above on how your proposal will be delivered.

Complete the table provided within the application form fully with details regarding your organisation. The lead official from your organisation must complete this section. 

Within this section you will also be asked the following question: 

1. Provide information on your team and organisation’s track record in providing support, as set out in your proposal.

Please include information on and evidence of the relevant professional expertise and experience of the course leader(s) and each member of teaching staff. 

Please include information on the capacity and previous successful delivery of Welsh medium childcare qualifications by your organisation (or consortia). This may include evaluation evidence and feedback from stakeholders.

2.5 Section E: Financial management and planning

This section is to provide specific and more detailed information on the financial aspects of your proposal. It should build on the information identified above on how your proposal will be delivered, including a detailed breakdown of costs for proposed activity against your measures, targets or indicators.

Within this section you will be asked questions relating to your delivery approach to ensure value for money and effective use of the funding. Provide information on any additional resources, including funding, or support that will contribute to the delivery of your proposal.

1. Provide a brief breakdown of costs within the annual allocations for each financial year, mapped against the programme priority criteria and key outputs of your proposal. 

This should include a minimum of annual headline delivery targets and associated costs.

2. How does this proposal provide value for money?

Building on information supplied, this should briefly explain the processes you will employ to ensure value for money in use of public funds. It can cover, but is not limited to, issues such as your approach to procurement, staff costs, travel and subsistence, etc. Evidence here how your approach provides a sustainable means for ongoing support, building system capacity and how it helps towards the expansion of Welsh medium childcare workforce and provision through the delivery of Welsh medium childcare qualifications.

3. Provide information on any additional funding or support that will contribute to the delivery of your proposal. 

This can include match funding or in-kind support. You should set out the level of funding, the financial year(s) it relates to, and who is providing it (including any specific requirements they place on use of that funding). 

2.6 Section F: Quality assurance and governance 

This section is to provide any further information needed to support the appraisal of your proposal, covering measures for safe recruitment of learners, ensuring staff have the required skill and competence to ensure high quality teaching and support, and the safety and well being of all learners and staff.

Within this section you will be asked the following questions:

• Explain any due diligence checks you have undertaken in the development of this proposal.
• How will your organisation manage personal data arising from the proposal?
• Outline how you ensure and maintain the quality of trainers/teachers, including any investment in staff development, training, and support.

2.7 How to apply

We recommend you follow this guidance carefully in order to provide all information requested within the application form 

The application process for the Welsh Medium Childcare Qualifications Programme grant scheme is in 3 stages.

1. Detailed review should be undertaken by grant applicants of the programme criteria and requirements as set out in this guidance.
2. A fully completed application will be submitted to childcareandplaymailbox@gov.wales by midnight on 6 January 2026 at the latest. Applications must be made on the Application form and be in Word format. (Confirmation of receipt of correctly submitted applications will be issued via email).
3. Once the application window is closed, appraisal of your full application will commence. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of application appraisal within 90 days of the application window closing.

3.1 Appraisal Process

The full application will be appraised in accordance with the programme guidance and priority criteria. Where a word count has been applied, words exceeding the limit will not be assessed as part of the appraisal process. Appraisal will be undertaken by Welsh Government early years and childcare policy officials, with advice from corporate governance colleagues.

The information provided within the application will be assessed and given a rating against the following criteria.

• High: the applicant has provided robust and detailed responses against all evidence requirements, with proposals providing strong focus on meeting support priorities.
• Medium: the applicant has provided satisfactory and detailed responses against most of the evidence requirements, with proposals providing sufficient focus on support priorities.
• Low: the applicant has provided potentially incomplete or insufficient responses against 1 or more of the evidence requirements, with proposals providing insufficient focus on support priorities. 

The minimum quality threshold to award a grant is a rating of ‘Medium’ across all categories. 

To decide whether a grant should be awarded, the appraisal criteria will consider the following factors:

• eligibility and compliance with the programme priority criteria set out in this guidance
• aims and objectives of the proposal, and how it aligns with Welsh Government Programme for Government commitments
• evidence of clear and realistic performance measures, targets and outcomes
• implementation of the proposal, including management arrangements and how you propose to work with other key stakeholders
• technical aspects of the proposal, including evidence of expertise and capacity to deliver
• evidence of value added by the proposal, over and above support being made available
• assessment of any risks associated with the proposal in terms of financial viability, safeguarding and stewardship of public funds
• value for money and quality assessments
• contribution towards our sustainable development, Welsh language and Well-Being of Future Generations Goals

The application will also be subject to full due diligence (where required) and eligibility checks before any final decisions are taken to offer a grant or reject an application. 

3.2 Appraisal outcome and grant offer

There is no guarantee that a proposal will be approved for a grant. We will aim to complete the appraisal of the application within 90 days of the application window closing. 

There are 2 possible outcomes from application appraisal.

1. Your proposal has not been approved for an award. You will be notified by email. You may reapply if a future application window becomes available. Feedback on your application is available upon request
2. Your proposal is eligible and approved for an award. A grant offer will be issued to you by email setting out the grant terms and conditions. You will need to accept or decline the grant offer within 21 business days. Failure to do so will lead to the offer being withdrawn. Only a formal grant offer agreed, signed and returned by you provides you with the authority to start work.

Full details on accepting a grant offer, when activity can be initiated and claiming the funding will be set out in the grant offer. 

Welsh Government policy officials will also seek a meeting with you to initiate ongoing grant management arrangements. 

Successful applicants will be provided with a pro-forma monitoring form to be completed and reviewed at quarterly intervals agreed as part of the grant monitoring process. 

A final completed pro-forma monitoring form and overview report on the successful bid must be provided to the Welsh Government at the end of the grant period.

All applications will need to provide evidence of how their process will be evaluated in meeting the aims of the grant criteria.

3.3 Conditions of the grant

The grant award is made on the basis of statements and declarations made by you or your representatives in the application form and, subsequently, the claim form and any related correspondence. The making of false or misleading statements is an offence.

You are required to read and understand the relevant programme rules and guidance.

You must not begin any work on the project without first obtaining written authority from the Welsh Government through a grant offer which has been formally accepted by you. 

No alterations may be made to the project without the written approval of the Welsh Government.

The Welsh Government may need to update rules and conditions to take account of changes to the UK’s legislative requirements. 

You must meet any legal obligations imposed and UK law.

You agree to abide by any changes following notification by the Welsh Ministers.

You have given details that are true, accurate and complete to the best of your knowledge and belief on the applications and any supporting documentation.

You acknowledge that neither the Welsh Government nor any adviser appointed by the Welsh Government shall be responsible for any advice given, including without limit any advice given in relation to the applications and that you are solely responsible for all business decisions undertaken.

You are required to comply with the rules on eligible costs as detailed in the programme guidance and the grant terms and conditions.

Projects should be completed within the timetable agreed with the Welsh Government. You should not deviate from this without prior written agreement from the Welsh Government.

The grant can only be paid on expenditure that has been defrayed, that is, on payments that have cleared from a bank account. We will not approve claims for activity in advance of your expenditure. A monitoring report will need to be submitted alongside quarterly claim forms outlining data regarding learners’ progression and activities undertaken to support learners as set out in Priority Criteria 5. Within the funding remit a target number of 300 learners within the 3 years is set in line with Priority Criteria 1. 

You must provide confirmation that no other public funding has been sought in relation to the activities included in the proposal. If it is found that you have received public funding from another source for the proposal your claim may be rejected, payments may be recovered, and penalties may be applied.

You must undertake to meet any statutory obligations such as health and safety, employment, hygiene, environmental management and protection, animal or crop health and welfare that apply during the time of this project.

You must ensure any staff engaging directly with learners undertake any necessary Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and all associated settings are made aware in advance of your staff’s status in this regard. 

You must allow representatives of the Welsh Government, the Auditor General for Wales, or their representatives to access and inspect. On request, you must provide them with information and(or) access to original documentation in relation to the project.

The information provided in the application, and any supporting documentation is subject to the requirements of the Welsh Government’s Code of Practice on Public Access to Information, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

You should be aware that, if successful, the Welsh Government reserves the right to publish the name of your business, company or organisation, the amount of grant you were awarded and a summary of your project. We also reserve the right to publish evaluation reports on the effectiveness of activity funded through the grant.

The information provided in the application is subject to the Privacy notice: Welsh Government grants. The privacy notice explains the Welsh Government’s processing and use of your personal data and your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

3.4 Payments 

All claims for payment must be made on the programme’s claim form and submitted to the childcareandplaymailbox@gov.wales . 

A template claim form will be issued to you if you are offered, and accept, a grant award. A completed claim form will need to include monitoring information for activity during that period, as agreed with the Welsh Government grant manager. 

Claims must be submitted quarterly and will be subject to validation. Claims will only be paid when the Welsh Government is satisfied the monitoring report submitted relating to delivering Welsh medium Level 3 and Level 5 childcare qualifications and the support provided to learners is in accordance with the grant offer. Payment will be made by electronic transfer to your bank account.

A claim is not considered valid unless it has been submitted to the childcareandplaymailbox@gov.wales with all supporting documentation.

All Welsh Government grant awards are monitored, and the impact of grant funding is evaluated. 

3.5 Timeline

• 14 October 2025: grant application window opens.
• 12 midnight 6 January 2026: grant application window closes.
• Week commencing 12 January 2026: applications will be considered.
• Week commencing 19 January 2026: grant applicants will be informed of funding decision.
• Week commencing 19 January 2026: successful grant applicants announced by the Minister for Children and Social Care

No extension to the deadline for submission of 6 January 2026 will be granted, late applications will not be considered.