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At Kids Planet Day Nurseries, we believe in providing quality, early years education for all. For many however, the costs associated with childcare can often be a concern, especially with the cost of living crisis impacting many families day to day. Whether considering a nursery place for the first time, or trying to understand your eligibility at different stages of your child’s education, we want to help demystify some of the myths associated with ‘free childcare’ and ‘funded childcare’.
Within each of our Kids Planet nurseries, we strive for the best quality care and always ensure that we go above and beyond with the services we offer. This includes helping parents, caregivers and early years practitioners all the knowledge they need when considering what additional costs to consider when applying for a nursery place or when looking at ‘free’ funded childcare.
All parents of 3- and 4-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours funded childcare. At Kids Planet, we also offer 15 hours funded childcare to some 2-year-olds if parents are receiving certain benefits, a child has Special Education Need (SEND) or has Disability Living Allowance if a child is being looked after by a local authority or has a kinship or guardianship order.
For working parents with 3- and 4-year-olds, you may be able to get 30 hours funded childcare depending on eligibility. Eligibility criteria includes work requirements, salary, age of children, and location.
Tax free childcare is a government scheme to help working parents with the cost of their childcare. Aimed at families with children aged 0-11 or up to 17 if their child has a disability, the scheme can save families up to £2,000 per child per year or £4,000 for a child with a disability.
The funded childcare scheme the government has currently in place in England offers free childcare for children aged two, three and four:
These schemes are only available to families living in England, although similar schemes are available in Scotland and Wales.
On 15th March 2023, the Government announced they are helping parents with childcare so they can return to work more easily via a range of new measures set to be introduced in 2024, for children from 9 months old.
Eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of subsidised childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year, from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school. Please note that 38 weeks are ‘free’, but there is a payment for the remaining 14 weeks of the year.
This will be rolled out in stages:
Funded childcare covers children’s costs up to a certain amount and for a certain duration (38 weeks out of 52), after which the parent would have to pay, often as well as for additional costs such as consumables, food, trips, and extra hours which they use after their funded entitlement.
Free childcare doesn’t exactly mean free without stipulations, including that it doesn’t always cover all costs and is only 30 hours during term-time. With it being for term-time only, some providers (Kids Planet included) give the option to reduce the funded hours per week but spread them over a longer term (such as the full 52 weeks of the year).
When the scheme is advertised as either ‘15 or 30 hours free childcare’ it is no wonder that some parents are left confused when it’s often not quite as simple as that. Early years education and care providers are left having to support parents and help them in their understanding of funded childcare.
Kids Planet is committed to ensuring families are not paying out more than is absolutely necessary. Funding provided by the government is only for the basic cost of childcare, therefore we currently have in place a voluntary Quality Premium which covers meals and consumables. However, to save our parents money, all of our nursery fees cover the cost of nappies, wipes, and formula. We refer to this as our ‘All-inclusive’ offering, saving on average over £600 per year (for children in the first 12 months). This is a service not often offered by other early years providers and one not to be ignored.
For ‘fully funded’ families within Kids Planet, we aim to waiver the cost of food and consumables so those eligible are technically receiving ‘free’ childcare but it’s important to know what ‘funded childcare’ means in more detail.
At Kids Planet, we believe that the funded childcare provision increase being offered by the government will help our parents with the cost of childcare, and help more parents get back into work. However, for us as a provider, the key issue is around what the funding rates are and if all ages will be adequately funded.
Free childcare can be misleading, which is why at Kids Planet we will refer to it as funded early years education and care. Funded childcare is great for families but when under-funded, it causes huge pressure. We want families to know the full impact and understand funded childcare as they can therefore be well informed and make a considered choice.
Your eligibility depends on:
For more information, visit the Childcare Choices website. On the government website, this is often referred to as 30 hours free childcare.
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