30 Hours Funding
30 hours free childcare for working parents of three and four year olds was made available from September 2017. This can be used alongside tax-free childcare or childcare vouchers.
The government funds the extension of free childcare to support parents who currently work, wish to return to work or to increase their working hours, by making childcare more affordable. The 30 hours extended entitlement is double the pre 2017 provision for working parents of all 3 and 4 year olds and double the standard 15 hours entitlement for families who do not qualify for the extended hours.
Eligibility:
To be able to access 30 hours both parents need to be working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and;
- Each parent earns on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage
- Earns less than £100,000 per year (when one parent in a household has an income of £100,000 or more, that family will not be eligible to take up the extra free hours).
‘Working’ means both employed and self-employed persons may be eligible.
You do not need to actually work 16 hours a week, but your earnings must reflect at least 16 hours of work at National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage.
Families may also be eligible where one parent gets benefits relating to caring responsibilities or a disability and the other parent is working.
The standard entitlement of 15 hours per week for 38 weeks will still be available even if you aren’t eligible for the additional entitlement.
Eligibility checking can be accessed via the HMRC website:
https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare
From April 2025, due to changes in Government Guidance regarding funded hours and additional charges, the following attendance patterns will be available to children in our school nursery;
For children entitled to 15 hours funding;
Morning sessions 8:45am-11:45am 5 days per week
or
Afternoon sessions 12:30pm-3:30pm 5 days per week
For children entitled to 30 hours funding;
Full day session 9:30am-3:30pm 5 days per week
or
Extended day session 8:45am-3:30pm 5 days per week, this carries a £2 per day surcharge for 8:45am – 9:30am, which can be paid via card, childcare vouchers or tax free childcare
Parents who are eligible for 15 hours but would like a 30 hours place can purchase the additional sessions at £81 per week (15 hours @ £5.40 per hour).
The above are our standard sessions. We have recently seen a dramatic increase in the demand for more flexible places. We may be able to offer attendance patterns which differ from those above, depending on availability. This could include, for example, 15 hours funding being used for 2 full days and 1 half day session, rather than 5 half day sessions. It may also be possible to use funding to cover fewer, longer days by making use of our Wraparound Provision and using your funding to cover these hours.
Our Wraparound Provision is available to all nursery children, whether sessions are in addition to your funded hours and paid for by parents or, if possible, included in your funded hours. Breakfast club runs from 7:30am-8:45am and After School Club runs from 3:30pm – 6pm.
Please contact the office to discuss an attendance pattern which works for you and your family and we will try our best to accommodate you wherever possible. Please note however that we can only agree attendance patterns which are a combination of sessions (morning, afternoon, full day, extended day, breakfast club and after school club), not per hour.
