Funded Hours for Childcare 

Who gets it at the moment (before September 2025)?

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All 3 and 4 year olds are entitled to 15 funded hours a week during term time, most are entitled to 30. In addition most younger children are entitled to 15 hours funding a week during term time, from September 2025 this will increase to 30 hours a week.​

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Here are the rules for the different types of funded hours. Please note the website childcare choices is an excellent resource for working out if you qualify for any of the below and has most of the links you need to apply.

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15 hours free childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds

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This scheme is universal and open to all 3 and 4-year olds. There are no earnings or work requirements.

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You should be able to start receiving the childcare from 1 January, 1 April or 1 September following your child’s 3rd birthday.

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Contact us or your local council if you need further guidance.

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30 hours free childcare for 3 and 4-year olds

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Please note the ‘30 hours’ is actually an additional 15 hours (the extended entitlement) which most parents qualify for on top of the 15 hours (the universal entitlement) that all 3-5 year olds qualify for.

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To be eligible for 30 hours free childcare for your 3 or 4-year-old, you and your partner must each expect to earn (on average) the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at your national minimum wage (approximately £166 per week, less if you are under 23).

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You will still be treated as meeting the earnings requirement if you or your partner are on maternity, paternity or adoption leave – this applies whether you are single or a couple. The earnings requirement also does not apply if you are self-employed and you started your business less than 12 months ago.

You are not usually able to use the scheme if either you or your partner has a taxable income over £100,000.

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To receive 30 hours free childcare you will need to apply online through gov.uk. After registering for an account, you will get a code that you can take to your childcare provider. IMPORTANT - YOU MUST HAVE A WORKING CODE TO RECEIVE THE 30 HOURS FUNDING. You need to have a working code before the term starts or you will have wait until the beginning of the next term.

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There is a government helpline if you need help with the application.

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15 hours free childcare for younger children

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​In order to be eligible for free childcare for your child aged between 9 months and 3 years, you must match the same criteria as for the 30 hours funding for 3 and 4 year olds (see above) to qualify, OR your child must be 2 years old and you must either be in receipt of a qualifying benefit or your 2-year-old child must fit into one of the categories of children who have additional needs. This alternative scheme just for 2 year olds is run by the local councils so you need to get qualifying codes from them

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The qualifying benefits are:

• Income Support

• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)

• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

• Universal Credit – if you and your partner are on a low income from work (this usually means a combined income no more than £15,400 a year after tax)

• Child Tax Credit and your family have an annual income of no more than £16,190 before tax

• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit

• Support through part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act

• The Working Tax Credit 4-week run on (the payment you get when you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)

Note: If you do not qualify for the benefits above because you are subject to immigration control, you may still qualify for 15 hours free childcare. You must still be on a low income (see FAQ below).

 
Even if you are not receiving a qualifying benefit your 2-year-old can still get free childcare if any of the following apply:

• They’re looked after by a local council

• They have a current statement of special education needs (SEN) or an education,health and care (EHC) plan

• They get Disability Living Allowance

• They’ve left care under a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or adoption order

• You can’t claim benefits because of your asylum seeker status or a no recourse to public funds condition. This only applies in specific circumstances – see FAQ below.

Contact your local council to find out how to apply or if you need further guidance.

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Common misconceptions

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It’s not all year round. 

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Although it is called 15 or 30 hours ‘free childcare’, this is not completely true. Unless you only attend during term time the hours will actually be less than this, as they are only paid to us for 38 weeks a year, and will be ‘stretched’ across 52 weeks.

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It doesn’t start immediately when your child turns 2 or 3

If you qualify, funding always kicks in the term after your child turns 2 (for 2 year olds funding) or 3 (for 3 and 4 year olds funding). So if your child turns 2 in November and you qualify for 2 year old’s funding, it will not start coming off your bill until January.

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What can you do proactively? When is this all arranged?

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If you think you will qualify for any funding next term, don’t wait for us to contact you, go to the Childcare Choices website and find out what if anything you have to do and what, if any, funded hours you will be entitled to - https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

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Near the end of each term (so roughly October and July each year) we will contact any parents we think might be going onto funding next term, but we don’t know everyone’s circumstances so be proactive, find out yourself and get in touch with us.

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All the council’s have different systems for the funded hours but in all cases it is much harder to get funding for the full term for you if we don’t know about it until the term has started and in some cases you may miss out on funding for the whole term if we do not know that you qualify, so please make sure if you are expecting funding for a term that you have received the email from us at the end of the previous term and responded to it appropriately.

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Finally, and this is very important, if you have a code from HMRC for the 30 hours funding you MUST renew it every 3 months. This is particularly important when we move into a new term - if you don’t have a working code on the first day of the term you cannot receive funding for that term (even if you renewed it on the 2nd day of the term). 

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Key things you will need to do when we ask about funding

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When we do contact you about funding for the next term we will ask you to fill in an online form to sort you into the category of funding you will be getting (if at all) and ask you to download from there a parental declaration form and to email us the following:

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• A SCAN (I'm afraid a photograph won't be accepted) of the parental declaration form filled in and signed

• A copy of your child's passport or birth certificate - photo is fine for this one - this is to prove their age

• A copy of a recent bill or bank statement - photo is fine for this one - this is to prove your address

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The key is to do all this in as timely a manner as you can.