Your child will be entitled to funded hours from the funding period (term) after both of the following conditions are satisfied:

• Your child has reached the age of 9 months
• You have a current confirmation of eligibility from HMRC

The eligibility criteria can be viewed on the government's childcare service website.

Applications for working parents of children under the age of 2 eligible from 1 September 2024 are being accepted from 12th May 2024 on the Childcare Choices website.

If the application is approved, parents will be given an 11-digit code by HMRC via the Childcare Service.

You must reconfirm your eligibility every 3 months even if you haven't started claiming.

You should apply for funding and get your code the term before you wish to claim your child’s place. This code must be given to your childcare provider.

You can apply outside of these recommended dates but you might not receive your code in time. If you apply more than three months before the term starts, you’ll have to reconfirm your eligibility in your account in order to keep your code valid.

If you become eligible for funded hours part-way through the term, you can start claiming the additional hours from the funding period after you got your code.

HMRC are responsible for checking whether a parent is eligible and issuing the 11-digit code. This is not done via childcare providers or BCP Council, nor do BCP Council use any discretion to overrule entitlement decisions made via the HMRC Childcare Service (e.g. late applications).

Contact the HMRC Childcare Service helpline if you need help with:

• applying for an eligibility code
• using your childcare account

Telephone: 0300 123 4097

Textphone: 0300 123 9232

The phone line opening hours are:

Monday to Friday: 8am to 6pm. Closed on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Eligible children can access 15 hours a week (increasing to up to 30 hours per week by September 2025 for working families) of Early Education, for 38 weeks of the year from the funding period following their second birthday. You may be able to stretch these hours by taking less hours over more weeks, for example 11 hours per week over 51 weeks of the year.

You can access a place at a day nursery, pre-school, independent nursery school, school nursery or childminder that is approved to provide early education funding for 2-year-olds. Check the full list of registered providers.

If you can't use all your weekly hours with one provider, you can split your entitlement with a second provider.

Many childcare providers will have specific times of day where they accept government funded hours, so check in advance. Funded hours can be used between 6am and 8pm (subject to availability at your chosen provider - the provider does not have to be open during these hours).

If your child attends a childcare provider outside of your local authority area the funding will be paid by the local authority where your child attends.

If your child attends more than the allocated funded hours you will be charged for these at the provider’s rate.

Additional services such as meals, snacks and drinks, trips, and extra activities such as music and dance are not covered by early education funding, and the childcare provider may ask you to pay for these.

At the beginning of each new term, the childcare provider should tell you about any charges that may be incurred, enabling you to make an informed choice as to whether the childcare provider is right for you and your child.

Early education funding does not affect benefits received. However, the funding does mean that your childcare costs will be lower, so if you're claiming the childcare element of Working Tax Credit, you should only claim for the childcare fees you're paying to prevent an overpayment.

Find out more on the government website or call 0345 3003900

You can search for registered childcare in the childcare section of this directory.

Alternatively, if you would like help in find childcare contact us on 01202 093131 or by email at familyinformation@bcpcouncil.gov.uk.

Foster carers may be eligible for the Expanded Entitlements for children who they foster, where the foster parent(s) are engaged in paid work outside of their fostering responsibilities. Foster parents should contact their social worker to enquire about this.

When a previously looked-after child has been placed with the prospective adoptive parent(s) but the formal adoption order has not yet been granted by the courts, the parent(s) are no longer considered to be the child’s foster parents.

The adoption agency (i.e. the relevant local authority) must notify the prospective adopter(s) in writing of the date on which the child is placed for adoption with them (this is the adoption placement order).

If they wish to apply for the working parent entitlement, these prospective adopter(s) must then apply through the online Childcare Service rather than via the local authority as they can no longer apply via the foster parent route. If they do not hold the child’s birth certificate, they can provide HMRC with the adoption placement order from the adoption agency during the application process.

As with other parents, they must meet the eligibility criteria for the working parent entitlement, including the minimum income requirement and the requirement to reconfirm via the Childcare Service every 3 months. This remains the same when the adoption order is granted by the court.

You can apply for the child that is the subject of the parental leave, though when you return to work will affect when you can take up the childcare. If you plan to return to work from parental leave or start a new job by the end of September 2024, you can apply for a funded childcare code from 12 May 2024 at the same time as everyone else.

Parents in this situation will need to apply online as normal but will then receive a letter in the post within 1 to 2 weeks, enabling them to access their entitlement.

From 1 October 2024, the below dates will apply: