Understanding the 15 and 30 Hour Free Childcare Entitlements: A Complete Guide for Settings

Government-funded childcare entitlements sit at the heart of the UK early years sector. They shape how settings plan their intake, manage their registers, and submit claims — yet many managers still feel uncertain about the detail. This guide brings it all together.

The entitlement landscape in 2026

The funded childcare offer has expanded significantly in recent years. As it stands, eligible children may access:

• 15 hours per week (570 hours per year) — available for all 3- and 4-year-olds, and for eligible 2-year-olds
• 30 hours per week (1,140 hours per year) — available for 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents meet the working parent eligibility criteria
• 15 hours from 9 months — extended funded hours now reaching down to babies under 12 months where parents meet the working eligibility test

Each of these entitlements has its own eligibility rules, delivery requirements, and claim processes. It's critical that your setting understands each one clearly.

The 15-hour universal entitlement

Every 3- and 4-year-old in England is entitled to 570 funded hours per year, typically delivered as 15 hours per week over 38 weeks. There are no parental working requirements for this entitlement — it is genuinely universal.

Key points for settings

• Funding follows the child: the funding comes to your setting based on the actual headcount of funded children in each term
• Stretched delivery: parents can choose to stretch the hours over more weeks (e.g., 11 hours over 51 weeks), though not all settings are required to offer this
• Supplementary charges: you may charge for consumables, meals, trips, and optional extras — but you cannot charge for the funded hours themselves, and you cannot make the child's access to their entitlement conditional on taking paid-for extras
• The parental declaration: every funded child must have a valid signed parental declaration before you can include them in a headcount claim

The 30-hour working parent entitlement

The 30-hour entitlement adds 15 funded hours on top of the universal 15, giving eligible children up to 30 funded hours per week. To access this:

• At least one parent (or the sole parent in a single-parent household) must be working or expect to earn the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the National Minimum Wage
• Income must not exceed £100,000 per parent
• Parents must apply through the HMRC Childcare Service and obtain an eligibility code before the first day of the term they wish the entitlement to begin

The eligibility code and timing

This is where many settings run into difficulty. Parents must:

1. Apply and receive an eligibility code via the HMRC Childcare Service (gov.uk/childcare-account)
2. Provide that code to their chosen setting before the relevant headcount date
3. Reconfirm eligibility every three months — codes lapse if not reconfirmed

If a parent's code lapses and they fail to reconfirm in time, they lose the 30-hour entitlement for that term. Settings should proactively remind parents before reconfirmation deadlines, ideally building reminders into their admin process.

Funded hours for 2-year-olds

Two-year-olds can access 15 funded hours per week if they meet eligibility criteria, which now encompasses both means-tested criteria and working parent criteria:

• Disadvantaged 2-year-olds: children in families receiving certain qualifying benefits (Universal Credit, Income Support, etc.) or looked-after children and those with an EHCP
• Working parent 2-year-olds: where both parents (or the sole parent) meet the same income and working hour thresholds as for 30 hours

Different local authorities may administer these slightly differently. Always check your local authority's operational guidance.

Funded hours from 9 months

The most recent expansion of the entitlement extends funded hours to children aged 9 months to 2 years where parents meet the working parent criteria. Delivery requirements, funding rates, and staff-to-child ratio requirements differ for this age group — settings considering expanding to this cohort should review the operational guidance carefully before accepting these funded places.

The headcount process: getting it right

Funding is paid based on the number of eligible funded children attending your setting at the headcount point in each term. Errors at this stage are the most common cause of underpayments and clawbacks.

Before each headcount submission:

• Verify every funded child's eligibility (parental declaration, eligibility code where applicable)
• Check that codes have been reconfirmed where needed
• Reconcile your register against your funding system
• Confirm all hours are accurately recorded

Late declarations, missing codes, or incorrect hours can all result in your claim being adjusted downward — or clawbacks after the fact.

What good funding admin looks like

Settings with the fewest funding headaches typically share a few characteristics:

1. They collect parental declarations and eligibility codes as part of the registration process, before the child starts
2. They have a system that flags when codes are approaching their reconfirmation date
3. They keep a clear record of agreed funded hours per child, reviewed at the start of each term
4. They reconcile funded hours against attendance regularly, not just at headcount

An early years management system with integrated funding tools can automate much of this — surfacing upcoming reconfirmation deadlines, pre-populating headcount data from live registers, and flagging discrepancies before submission.

Summary

The funded childcare entitlements represent significant income for most settings — and significant admin risk if not managed carefully. Understanding eligibility, keeping declarations and codes up to date, and submitting accurate headcount data are the foundations of a well-run funding process.

In our next funding post, we'll look at how to reduce claim errors and recover clawbacks — including the steps to take when your local authority disagrees with your submission.

Explore Early Tree's funding portal →