Government Funding

Government Funding

When does this start ?

  • From Sept 2024 - Up to 15 hours for eligible working families in England with a child between 9 and 23 months old.
  • From Sept 2025 - Up to 30 hours for eligible working families in England with a child from 9 months old up to school age.

When can my child start?

  • Your child can start in their childcare place the term after they are eligible and have received a valid eligibility code, whichever is later. Term start dates are 1st September, 1st January and 1st April.

Eligibility criteria for working families

  • You, and any partner, must each expect to earn (on average) at least £167 per week (equal to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage).
  • If you, or your partner, are on maternity, paternity or adoption leave, or you're unable to work because you are disabled or have caring responsibilities, you could still be eligible.
  • You can't get 15 hours childcare if you, or your partner, each individually expect to earn £100,000 adjusted net income or more.
  • To keep your 15 hours childcare place you need to check your details are up to date every 3 months.

Deadlines for working families applications
To ensure that your child can receive the working families entitlement, parents must apply and have their codes validated by the Local Authority by the following deadlines:

  • 31st March to receive the funding in the Summer
  • 31st August to receive the funding in the Autumn
  • 31st December to receive the funding in the Spring

Entitlement checklist

  • Set up an online Government Gateway account
  • Complete a parent declaration form provided by us with your 11 digit code for each child accessing the additional hours.
  • Any additional services or hours above entitlement must be agreed for and paid for by you the parent.
  • Parents need to re-confirm eligibility every 3 months with HMRC.
  • If you fall out of eligibility, you will enter a grace period which will enable access to the funded place until that grace period ends.
  • If you are still not eligible after the grace period, then alternative payment for 15 hours must be funded by you, the parent.
  • You can re-apply when you become eligible again and give the code to us.

Funded places at Woodlands
Due to the resultant higher costs of our staff, and the external teaching Woodlands offers, we apply an 'Agreed additional service package' to allow us to pass the benefit of the funding to all our parents.

  • Food and Snacks (we source our lunches from Zebedees, food is freshly prepared offsite daily).
  • Nappies, Wipes and Suncream.
  • Ofsted stipulate that excluding management only 50% of staff must be Level 2 qualified in childcare, instead we have employed more than 50% with a minimum Level 2, and some of the staff are QTS (Qualified Teachers).
  • At Woodlands we offer external teaching that is not included in the funding we receive;

Over Twos

Under Twos

Stretched funding

  • We have opted as a Nursery to apply “stretched funding”, this means that we use the 30 hours or 15 hours x the 38 weeks that the government provides, to be stretched over the 51 weeks we are open to spread the benefit and to also ensure that the children can use the facilities as much as possible all year round.

Helpful links