Funded hours eligibility - days in nursery - how does this work?

[Hann376]

Hi

i know it will be nursery / childcare provider dependent but I can’t find any standard guidance which says how eligibility for 15 or 30 free funded hours (and tax free childcare) is affected by the number of days you use childcare provision.

for example if you put your child in nursery for 2 or 3 days a week would you only be eligible for part of the 15 or 30 hours (and less of the tax free childcare funding) otherwise you could potentially be getting childcare completely free if you also factor in tax free childcare?

As long as you meet the income criteria, you're eligible for the full amount.

As you say, settings may have their own rules on how you can use that, it's up to you to find the right settings for your needs.

I don't believe there is a standard, each nursery will decide on a minimum number of days/sessions/other criteria for claiming/using the funded hours.

You're eligible for full amount but each nursery will do the sessions differently, one nursery I've used just took the 22hrs off my total each week, another had sessions that meant you could only use all 22hrs if your child was full time due to the way the sessions were done

In my county you can use a maximum of 10 hours per day. Other than that, it's up to each setting how they administer their funded hours.

For example, at the setting where I work, if you do 7.45 to 5.45 (10 hours), 3 days a week, it's completely free. We ask for a contribution for snacks, cooking ingredients etc of £5 per day, so £15 per week in this case.

It varies a lot but many settings only allow you to use a max of 6 hours per day do you need to be in full time to use 30 hours