Working families with children from 9 months old

If you are working and have a child aged between 9 months and 4 years old, you may currently be receiving 15 hours funded early education and childcare over 38 weeks.

From September 2025 this will increase to 30 hours, over 38 weeks.

The timescale for applications depends on the number of applications. This is managed by Childcare Choices and the council is unable to deal with this. We would suggest that you apply at the earliest opportunity. 

If your application has been approved you’ll get an 11-digit code you will need to share with your chosen childcare provider, along with your National Insurance number and your child’s date of birth.

You’ll need to confirm your details are up to date every 3 months. You will get reminders sent.

You don't need to do anything, you’ll automatically get 30 hours of free childcare from September 2025, as long as you’re still eligible. You’ll need to confirm your details are up to date.

If you are applying for the first time, you will now be applying for the 30 hours of funded childcare from September 2025.

You can check if you're eligible on the government website.

If you think you may be eligible you can also apply on the government website.

Things you need to be aware of before applying:

• You will need to set up a Government Gateway user ID and password and this can take around 20 to 30 minutes.
• You will need your National Insurance Number or your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), if you’re self-employed.
• the UK birth certificate reference number (if you have one) of any children you’re applying for.
• the date you started or are due to start work (this can be approximate if it’s more than 3 months ago.)