Funded Childcare

What you're entitled to

• Working families with a child aged 9 months to 4 years – up to 30 funded hours a week during term time (38 weeks a year), if you meet the eligibility criteria below.
• All 3 and 4 year olds – 15 funded hours a week (38 weeks a year), regardless of your income or working status. Every child qualifies from the term after their 3rd birthday.
• Some 2 year olds – 15 funded hours a week where the family receives certain government support (such as Universal Credit below an income threshold), or the child has an EHC plan or receives Disability Living Allowance.

Hours can be used at any of our settings, and can be split with another childcare provider if that suits your family. If our standard term-time pattern doesn't fit your needs, talk to us about stretching your hours across more weeks of the year.

Eligibility for the working entitlement

To qualify for the working-family entitlements, you (and your partner, if you have one) must each:

• be working and expect to earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Minimum or Living Wage over the next 3 months (self-employment and zero-hours contracts count), and
• have an adjusted net income of no more than £100,000 a year.

You may still be eligible if one of you is on parental, sick or annual leave, or if one of you works and the other receives certain benefits such as Carer's Allowance or incapacity benefits. The universal 15 hours for 3–4 year olds has no eligibility conditions at all.

Not sure? The Childcare Choices website has a simple eligibility checker – or just ask us and we'll point you in the right direction.

How to apply

1. Apply online at GOV.UK – apply for free childcare if you're working. You'll need your National Insurance number and your child's details.
2. You'll receive an 11-digit code when your application is approved.
3. Give us your code, your National Insurance number and your child's date of birth, and we'll validate the code and confirm your funded place.

Timing matters: your code must be in place before the start of the term in which you want to use your funded hours. The application deadlines are 31 August (autumn term), 31 December (spring term) and 31 March (summer term) – we'd recommend applying well before these dates.

For the 2-year-old entitlement for families receiving additional support, applications are made through Leicestershire County Council – we're happy to help you with this.

Reconfirming your code

Once you have a code, you must reconfirm your eligibility every 3 months through your GOV.UK childcare account. HMRC will send you a reminder when reconfirmation is due. If your code lapses, there is a short grace period during which your child keeps their funded place – after that, sessions become chargeable at our standard rates until your code is valid again, so please don't ignore the reminders!

Our charging policy for funded hours

In line with the Department for Education's statutory guidance:

• Funded hours are free. We do not charge fees, top-ups or registration charges for the government-funded hours themselves, and paying for extras is never a condition of accessing a funded place.
• Optional extras are itemised. Charges for additional services – such as our breakfast club (£5) or hot dinner (£2.50) at Burbage Preschool – are voluntary, and always shown separately on your invoice. Children are welcome to bring a packed lunch instead of taking the hot dinner.
• Hours beyond your entitlement are charged at our standard rates, which you can see on our fees page.
• Invoices are itemised so you can always see exactly which hours were funded and what any additional charges were for.

If anything on your invoice is unclear, or you'd like to discuss how your funded hours are applied, please contact the office on 01455 701777 or office@greenacreschildcare.co.uk.

Further information

If you have a concern we can't resolve, our complaints procedure is published on our policies page. You can also contact Ofsted, our regulator, on 0300 123 1231.