Eligible working parents and carers of children aged 3 – 4 can get an additional 15 hours of childcare support, bringing the total support they can get up to 30 hours a week. Eligible working parents of 2-year-olds can also access 15 hours of childcare support.
From September 2024 15 hours childcare support will be extended to eligible working parents of children from the age of 9 months to 3-year-olds.
Some parents of 2-year-old children may also be entitled to 15 hours childcare support, if they receive some additional forms of government support. Please note, if you’re eligible for both the working entitlement and the 15 hours for families receiving support, you cannot take up both offers, and should apply for the 15 hours for families receiving support. You can do this by contacting your local authority.
You can use Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare whilst claiming your 15 or 30 hours of childcare support.
Although this is often advertised as ’15 free hours’ or ’30 hours funding’ the actual calculation works out during term time only (38 weeks of the year). As Honeycroft is open and offers childcare for 48 weeks of the year we stretch this allocation to ensure as many of the hours can be used as possible, resulting in an offer of 12 hours (15 hours funding) or 24 hours (30 hours funding) per week for 47.5 weeks.
You must check your eligibility and apply for a special code which Honeycroft then needs to verify BEFORE we can confirm your funded hours. To find out what funding you are eligible for go to www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Download our Early Years Funding Entitlement information and frequently asked questions here.