Early years funding information – June 2023

Further to the Government announcement of the new funding entitlements for childcare, we are planning to produce some communications that you can share with the parents and families that use your service as well as with new enquirers. The communications will be designed to be emailed or they can be posted on your social media platforms.

The termly 30-hour update already includes template messages to parents, we encourage you to use these when communicating with families.

The 30-hour funding supports working parents; however, when a family applies late or doesn’t reconfirm their code and loses eligibility this can have a huge impact on the parents, their child and the setting.

The parent may subsequently not be able to pay for the lost funded hours, this can sometimes lead to difficult conversations with the parent. This might result in the parent reducing hours at the setting leading to a loss of income for you, or to them changing their working hours or using family for childcare instead. This can cause unnecessary stress for all, but it can be avoided. Whilst parents are ultimately responsible for applying and reconfirming their code, you can help by identifying changes in 30-hour eligibility when using the ‘expiration dashboard’ on the provider portal.

With the 30-hour entitlement extending to children under 3 over the next 2 years, this could be confusing for parents and therefore, it’s important that we help them to understand the different funding that is available and do all we can to assist with clear communications and reminders. We will communicate these with you in the Digest and through the Provider Portal.

We have produced a template letter that you may wish to share with parents.

Funding for Childcare – Information for Parents – June 2023

Universal Credit

It’s important for providers to know about other funding that families may be entitled to.

If working parents are paying for childcare and are in receipt of Universal Credit, they may be able to claim up to 85% of their costs known as the childcare element.

Currently, only around 13% of eligible households claim the childcare element.

This means families are not claiming the financial support that they are entitled to and in the current climate we want families to be able to return to work and access the funding that is available to them.

From 28 June 2023, working parents who are in receipt of Universal Credit will be able to receive more financial help with their childcare costs. They could get to up to the maximum amount of £951 per month for 1 child or up to £1,630 per month for 2 or more children.

Eligible parents claiming Universal Credit will also be able to get additional help with their upfront childcare costs when moving into paid work or increasing their working hours so that they can more easily pay for their childcare costs.

Parents who are moving into paid work or increasing their working hours should speak to their Universal Credit work coach who can provide more information.

Citizen’s Portal

Please ask families that have children who are, or will be, 2 years old this term, to check their eligibility for 2 year old funding online via the citizen’s portal.

When using the citizens portal parents set up an account and provide their contact details. Whilst not all children will be eligible for 2-year-old funding, it enables us to use parents contact details so we can share important funding information directly with them.

It also means that parents have given their consent for us to make regular checks on their eligibility for Early Years Pupil Premium funding – so you will not be required to collect or input parent/carer information on to the headcount or amendment tasks each term for these children. Encouraging parents to go through the citizens portal ultimately benefits parents, providers, and us. We have seen a significant increase in the amount of EYPP paid to providers as a result.

Please continue to share childcarechoices.gov.uk with existing parents and new enquiries. Circumstances do change and this is the perfect place to signpost families so they can see what help is available for childcare costs depending on their personal circumstances.

Early Years Funding Team