Gaelic Early Years Grants Guidance 2026/27

About the Fund

The Gaelic Early Years Grants scheme is run and funded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig and is available to support voluntary and third sector Gaelic early years groups to provide sessions through the medium of Gaelic to children aged 0-3 in the 2026/27 school year. The scheme supports the objectives of the National Gaelic Language Plan 2023-2028 with regard to use of Gaelic in the home and early years education.

Following on from Professor Wilson McLeod’s report on Gaelic early years provision, Bòrd na Gàidhlig intend to transition through 2026/27 towards an officer-led model of early years session delivery, and will work closely with existing funded groups to ensure continuity of provision going into the 2027/28 school year. Further information on these changes will be released through the course of the year.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig has developed guidance for establishing and running 0-3 early years groups that is useful for groups expecting to make an application, which is available here.

This year’s scheme would specifically like to support groups that can show how they will achieve the following outcomes:

Ensuring that children and families have sustained access to Gaelic early years provision
Increasing the number of children continuing with Gaelic-medium learning at key transition stages
Helping more families in Scotland become aware of the benefits of bilingualism and the opportunities offered by Gaelic-medium education
Helping parents become better informed on resources and opportunities to support and interact with their children through Gaelic in homes and communities

In assessing your application, we will be looking at:

How strongly the group will achieve the outcomes of the fund
The ability of the group to deliver high-quality Gaelic early years sessions
How well the group supports the wider usage, learning and promotion of Gaelic in the community
The success of the group in growing attendee numbers, numbers progressing to GME and promoting Gaelic in its area
The ability of the group to monitor and assess its progress
The value for money demonstrated by the application

Detailed assessment guidance can be found on Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s website.

Rules of the scheme

Who can apply?

Any third-sector or voluntary group that runs Gaelic early years (0-3) sessions can apply to the scheme.

All organisations must have a constitution, active committee and an open UK bank account in the name of the organisation to be eligible for the scheme. If your group does not have an active and open bank account you will not be eligible to apply.

Applications will not be accepted from local authorities or individuals through this scheme.

Use of Gaelic

Support is only available for sessions that are run through the medium of Gaelic. We intend in 2026/27 to reduce support for any organisations not meeting high standards of Gaelic session delivery.

All playleaders supported through this fund should be able to deliver sessions entirely through the medium of Gaelic and therefore should be at the minimum proficiency of B2 (Independent User) on the CEFR/FICE scale. More information and a self-assessment tool can be accessed here. Any playleaders who have not yet achieved B2 should be actively working towards achieving this or we would not be able to support wages for these playleaders.

Timeframe

The fund will support Gaelic early-years sessions which will take place and be fully completed between 1 August 2026 and 2 July 2027. Support outwith this timeframe may be provided in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

Funding levels

The estimated budget allocated to this fund is £100,000. It is expected that this year’s fund will be competitive and that it may be the case that not all suitable applications will be able to be supported, or that you may not receive the level of funding requested.

Organisations will be limited to making one application to the scheme but may apply to support multiple Gaelic early years groups (if applicable to their organisation).

Groups that deliver only 1 session per week can apply for a maximum of £4,000, while groups that deliver more than 1 session per week can apply for a maximum of £15,000. For applications where an organisation is applying to deliver multiple early years groups, up to £20,000 can be requested in total for these groups in total.

It is expected that each group will raise money from other sources (i.e. attendance fees or other funding) and that these sources should be estimated and identified in your application.

You must ensure that no income from other Bòrd na Gàidhlig funding schemes, the Gaelic Arts Fund run by Fèisean nan Gàidheal, Seachdain na Gàidhlig’s Small Grants Fund or Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s Delivery Partners is used to pay for any expenditure for the group. We may also decline your application, reduce a grant amount awarded or decline to fund part of your group’s activity if this would involve paying an organisation for costs we already fund. Any grant awarded to organisations supported via our Gaelic Officers Scheme cannot be used towards any staff costs.

Applicable costs

All groups that pay wages or fees to those delivering sessions must pay at least the real Living Wage (currently £13.45 per hour).

In-kind/volunteer costs are permitted as part of a contribution towards total group costs. Any in-kind support for volunteered time can be calculated with a minimum value of the real Living Wage or an appropriate industry rate, if available, and should be budgeted as both income and expenditure.

All costs must relate to the running of Gaelic early years groups only, and we will specifically not support costs relating to:

Equipment with a total value of over £500
Parties
Trips
Competition prizes; or
Gifts

Group monitoring and evaluation

If your application is successful you will need to monitor and evaluate how your group meets the aims of the scheme and show the impact of the group in reports requested from you. At a minimum we will ask all groups to note how many children attend sessions and to ask parents and children how the sessions are providing an impact on the attending children’s use of Gaelic.

In the application form we’ll ask you how you intend to monitor the group, what targets you will use to assess whether the group is successful, and how you will gather feedback from children and parents.

You will be required to submit a short progress report in January 2027 and a final report will be required in August 2027. We may request further progress reports if we believe this is required.

In your reports, you will be asked to provide a summary of activities, explain any changes to your group from what you set out in the application, provide information as to how you are achieving targets/conditions set out in your letter of offer, provide an account of income/expenditure for the group and related evidence and also to confirm how you are implementing Fair Work requirements.

Reports will be available to submit via the Fluxx grants portal at https://bng.fluxx.io, and will be viewable if your application is approved.

Insurance

As part of the scheme, Bòrd na Gàidhlig can optionally arrange insurance for your group with an insurance agency for the period of 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027. Coverage will include both employers liability insurance (cover of up to £5 million) and public liability insurance (up to £10 million).

If you wish Bòrd na Gàidhlig to arrange insurance for you, you will have the option in the application form to request this, and we will use the details provided within the application form to arrange insurance. Bòrd na Gàidhlig may request further information from you if this is not included within the application.

Please note that you will need to accept terms and conditions provided for the insurance separately to the grant offer. Further, if you request that insurance is provided for you that we will do so regardless of the outcome of your application.

Child protection and wellbeing responsibilities

PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) Scheme membership

All playleaders must hold membership of the PVG scheme as a legal requirement for undertaking a “regulated role”, as this is a legal requirement. This requirement also extends to the chair, treasurer and secretary of your organisation’s committee, as well as any other key personnel with an influence on the way sessions are run.

You will be asked as part of your application to confirm PVG membership of playleaders and committee members and to provide their membership numbers. Your application may be declined without assessment if this information is not provided.

If there are any questions regarding this, please contact Bòrd na Gàidhlig as soon as possible.

Corporate Parenting

Bòrd na Gàidhlig has a responsibility under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 to promote opportunities for young people who are, or have been, in care under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

We would like the organisations and projects that we fund to also consider how their work can contribute to these aims and will ask in the application form how your group will seek to do so.

For further information, please consult the links below:

The UNCRC

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the base standard for children’s rights and sets out the fundamental rights of all children. The UNCRC has 54 articles. Articles 1 – 41 sets out rights about how children & young people should be treated so that they are happy, safe & healthy. These articles can be found here.

All Gaelic early years groups have a duty to promote and support the rights of children accessing their services.

Social Responsibilities

Bòrd na Gàidhlig has a responsibility to promote good practice in:

Reducing impact on the environment
Promoting equality of opportunity for those with a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act 2010
Promoting opportunities for young people who are, or have been, in care under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

We would like the organisations and projects that we fund to also consider how their work can contribute to these aims and will ask in the application form how your proposed activity will seek to do so.

For further information, please consult the links below:

Fair Work

Organisations in receipt of public funding in Scotland are required to adhere to the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First policy, and as such must:

Pay at least the real Living Wage; and
Provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition

You will be asked as part of your application and reporting to confirm that you are adhering to the policy and provide evidence of doing so.

Further guidance as to how Bòrd na Gàidhlig is implementing the Fair Work First policy is available here, and guidance from the Scottish Government on the policy is available here.

Subsidy Control

As a public body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig must comply with the subsidy control rules as a result of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK Government and the European Union. More information can be found on the UK Government’s website.

As part of assessing your application, we will need to assess whether the grant would be classed as a subsidy and will ask questions in the application form to help us determine this.

If you are awarded a grant that is deemed as a subsidy, you will need to ensure that you comply with Subsidy Control rules, with further guidance available at that stage.

Submitting an application

Applications can be submitted via our Fluxx application portal at https://bng.fluxx.io. An account can be registered for free on the website and it is possible to save the progress of an application whilst working on it. We require at least one of the named contacts to be a committee member. All supporting documents can be submitted via the portal.

If you applied for support in 2025/26, you will have a pre-populated application form in your Fluxx account to begin with, to reduce the workload of a new application, but will still require to complete new questions and update any existing information.

You can also download a copy of our application form in Word format and submit this to us by email at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot or by post to Bòrd na Gàidhlig, Great Glen House, Leachkin Road, Inverness, IV3 8NW along with the required supporting documents.

We must receive your completed application by 3pm on Tuesday 30 June 2026. Late applications will only be permitted in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

Detailed support is available on our website as to what information we are looking for from each question.

We recommend beginning your application at least a week in advance of the submission deadline to allow you to get in touch if you have any issues with the portal or have any questions about the application. We can be reached by email at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot.

When submitting your application you must include the required supporting documents, as follows:

Essential

Constitution or Memorandum and Articles of Association
Most recent annual accounts (if not a recently constituted organisation)
A bank statement from the last three months, or if a new bank account has been opened in that period a letter to confirm this has been opened
Child Protection or Safeguarding policy

Recommended (if available)

Latest annual report
Gaelic policy
Equal opportunities policy or Equalities, diversity and inclusion policy
Environmental policy or statement

How we will handle your application

You will receive an automatic email acknowledgment from the Fluxx portal to confirm that we have received your application. If you do not receive this, please check that you have submitted the application rather than only saving the application.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers will then screen applications after submission to ensure they comply with the rules of the fund and have provided required information. If your application is deemed ineligible for a technical reason, you will be asked to correct this (if this is considered possible). If you do your application is not compliant with the rules of the scheme by 10am on Tuesday 14 July 2026, your application may be declined without assessment.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig may request additional information or clarification of details as part of the assessment process. If this additional information is not submitted within 10 working days of being requested we reserve the right to decline your application if we feel we cannot effectively assess your application without this information.

All eligible applications will be assessed by a panel of Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers according to the assessment guidance, and they will make recommendations to the Bòrd na Gàidhlig Senior Management Team who will decide on the outcome of applications.

We expect that you will be informed of the result of your application in the first two weeks of August 2026.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your application, while we do not offer an appeal process you may make a complaint if you believe your application has not been dealt with in accordance with this guidance and the assessment guidance. For more information, our complaints handling procedure is detailed online here.

If you are successful

If you have been awarded funding, a letter of offer will be sent via Docusign to your nominated signatory (or signatories if you are an organisation with staff and required to complete a Fair Work Declaration). You will have up to 30 days from the date of issue to accept the offer (including standard grant conditions, which are also available here) or the offer shall lapse. The letter of offer will also be accompanied by a bank details form to complete to confirm the details used to pay you.

How will we be paid?

If your application is successful, , it is expected that 50% of the grant will be paid upon return of the signed letter of offer, confirmation of your bank details and submission of any previous reports due to us for grants awarded in previous years.

A payment of 25% of the grant will be made in January 2027, conditional on receiving a satisfactory progress report based on the first two terms of the school year.

Payment of the final 25% of the grant will be in April 2027, subject to us being satisfied that the remainder of the grant is required. You may be asked to provide financial information to confirm how the grant is being used and will be used to the end of the year in order to receive this payment.

Please note within your application or contact Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s funding team at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot if you would like to arrange for a different payment schedule.

Please note that groups are funded on a break-even basis, so that you will be required to return to us any Bòrd na Gàidhlig funding that is not utilised by the group through the year, and we may vary the payment amounts if it appears you will not require the full amount.

Acknowledgement of funding

As a public body it’s important to us that the public know where our funding is spent, and that’s why it’s important that you acknowledge where appropriate that Bòrd na Gàidhlig provided funding for your group. If your application is successful, you will be required to acknowledge our grant in various ways throughout the year and to provide information to us in your reporting as to how you have carried this out.

For further information please read our Acknowledgement Guidance and our Brand Guidance on our website.

More information

For more information about this fund, please visit the Bòrd na Gàidhlig website or contact Bòrd na Gàidhlig at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot.

You can also find answers to frequently asked questions about our funding on our website.

Privacy information relating to our funding schemes can be found on our website, and you will be required to confirm at the point of applying that you have read and accepted the terms included – particularly relating to publication of information about your grant if you are successful, and the requirements upon us under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Alternative forms of this guidance and application forms can be made available on request and may be published at: https://www.gaidhlig.scot/en/funding/funding-schemes/early-years-grants/

File history

v1 – 14 May 2026 – Published