30 hours free childcare
All information and user guides regarding the early years portal can be found on the website at:
Hertfordshire County Council: Childcare providers information
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This is an entitlement for working parents of three and four year old children which was introduced in September 2017. This is an additional 15 hours per week entitlement in addition to the child’s existing 15 hour free early education place.
This entitlement of 30 hours free childcare can be offered term time only (over 38 weeks) or can be stretched across the whole year to meet parental needs.
Parents of three and four year olds will need to meet the following criteria in order to be eligible for 30 hours free childcare.
- they earn or expect to earn the equivalent to 16 hours at National Minimum or Living Wage over the coming three months.
- this equates to £120 a week (or c.£6,000 a year) for each parent over 25 years old or£112.80 a week (or c.£5,800 a year) for each parent between 21 and 24 years old.
- this applies whether you are in paid employment, self-employed or on zero hours contract.
- the parent (and their partner where applicable) should be seeking the free childcare to enable them to work.
- where one or both parents are on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, or if they are on statutory sick leave.
- where disabled, have caring responsibilities or have been assessed as having limited capability to work.
- where a parent is in a ‘start-up period’ (i.e. they are newly self-employed) they do not need to demonstrate that they meet the income criteria for 12 months.
- if a non-EEA (European economic area) national, the parent must have recourse to public funds.
A parent will not meet the criteria when:
- either parent has an income of more than £100,000
- either parent is a non-EEA (European economic area) national and subject to immigration control (and has no recourse to public funds).
For up to date information on eligibility please visit:
Hertfordshire County Council: Childcare and advice for parents
It will be a parent’s responsibility to apply for 30 hours free childcare via the online HMRC eligibility checker. Parents will receive an eligibility voucher code if they are eligible which they will be told to show to their chosen provider. To check that the eligibility voucher code is valid (which is 11 numbers long) the school will input this code, parents national insurance number and child’s date of birth into the early years portal.
The Early Years portal will confirm the validity of the code and start date for eligibility so a place can be confirmed with the parent. It is advisable that schools do not offer places to families without the eligibility code being checked first. This voucher code will enable you to claim funding from the local authority.
No, parents have a responsibility to re check their eligibility every three months with HMRC. The voucher code number will not change and once it is reconfirmed by HMRC it will display the new eligibility end date in the Early Years portal. HMRC will send parents reminders to re check their eligibility during a term. However, we advise schools to remind eligible parents to undertake this re check.
The Department for Education has built into the process a grace period allowing parents the opportunity to re check their eligibility in a given time frame. If a parent falls out of eligibility due to either no longer being in employment or just forgetting to re check the grace period is activated. The grace period can be checked via the Early Years portal for any parent by the school.
All claims for funding will be made via the early years portal. To access the portal and find out more you can visit the following webpage
Hertfordshire County Council: Childcare providers information
The hourly rate paid to providers can be found on the following webpage
Hertfordshire County Council: Childcare providers information
The statutory guidance issued in March 2017 states that no artificial breaks should be imposed on families who are eligible for the 30 hours free childcare. The offer should be continuous throughout the day. However if parents are receiving more than 30 hours in a week the school can charge for additional hours, outside of lunchtime.
Providers need to make sure parents are aware they are offering 30hours. Providers are expected to clearly outline how they offer the 30hours and how a parent can access these hours.
Information will be shared with parents via social media and websites. The Early Years Service has a Best Start in Hertfordshire Facebook page for parents and information can also be found at the following links
Hertfordshire County Council: Childcare and free early education
It will be a governing body decision if schools extend their provision to include 30 hours free childcare for eligible parents. Participation is optional.
How children are funded will make no difference to how the ratios set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework apply. For the maintained school day (9.00am - 3.00pm) if the children (age 3 and 4) in a nursery class are pupils then paragraph 3.37 in the EYFS applies. If they are not registered pupils in the school the ratios set out in paragraphs 3.33 or 3.34 will apply.
Where nursery pupils (age 3 and 4) attend provision run by the school that operates outside of the school day, footnote 22 on page 23 in the EYFS can apply. This says that ‘where children in nursery classes attend school for longer than the school day or in the school holidays, in provision run directly by the governing body or the proprietor, with no teacher present, a ratio of one member of staff to every eight children can be applied if at least one member of staff holds a full and relevant level 3 qualification, and at least half of all other staff hold a full and relevant level 2 qualification’.
- what is the demand for 30 hours free childcare likely to be from your parents?
- how could your nursery class space be utilised to support high quality experiences for children to attend for 30 hours per week as well as 15?
- review your staffing arrangements to ensure that EYFS conditions are met with your Early Years advisor.
- ensure your governors have considered the financial implications for your school; seek support from Financial Services for Schools
Schools are not required to turn all their current 15 hour free early education places into 30 hours free childcare places. However schools do need to consider the current offer to parents, the nursery environment and impact on staff ratios and financial implications in the school decision making process.
Schools are not required to offer the full 30 hours free childcare and have to consider the above factors in their decision making process. An alternative approach a school can take is to work in partnership with other local early years and childcare providers who can offer the additional hours a school cannot offer.
They can, as long as you make this absolutely clear in your admission arrangements and on HCC website/publications.
The decision to offer parents 30 hours free childcare is a governing body decision. Once the decision is taken to offer the 30 hours free childcare parents should be informed at the earliest opportunity and information made available to parents on what will be offered. The school should also post this information on the online nursery admissions system so parents are aware at application stage.
In order for Hertfordshire County Council to plan places across the county we would ask schools to inform the Early Years Service (earlyyears@hertfordshire.gov.uk) of their decision to offer 30 hour free childcare places.
The Early Years Service offer regular updates via their Best Start for Providers newsletter and via their webpages. You can contact the service at earlyyears@hertfordshire.gov.uk for additional advice and support.
The impact on your school will be determined by the needs of local parents. We advise that schools undertake their own market research. If you have many local parents that want 30 hours free childcare and the school does not offer it, they may apply for a place at a setting that can meet their needs, which would impact on your admission numbers.
Please make parents aware at the earliest opportunity if you decide not to offer the 30 hours free childcare so they can make an informed choice. An alternative approach a school can take is to work in partnership with other local early years and childcare providers who can offer the additional hours a school cannot offer. The partnership can be developed with other schools, childminders, pre-schools and day nurseries.
In the first instance please contact the Early Years Service who can discuss the options for the school: earlyyears@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
If a school decides to offer this entitlement to parents it would mean the school has to lower its published admission age. This is a statutory process and takes a significant amount of time to complete.
Please email earlyyears@hertfordshire.gov.uk and a member of the Early Years Service will respond.