Two-year-old funding – families receiving additional support (FRAS)

There are two different funding streams available for 2-year-olds who meet the eligibility criteria.

The working entitlement is up to 30 hours per week. This is for parents that meet the minimum income requirements of 16 hours a week at the National Minimum Wage, or who have a carers role.

The targeted 2-year-old funding is up to 15 hours per week. This is for non-working, or low-income households, who are also in receipt of a qualifying benefit, for children who are in care or who have left care subject to an adoption, special guardianship or child arrangement order, for children that are in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or children who have an Education, Health Care Plan (EHCP). Targeted 2-year-old funding has previously been referred to as disadvantaged 2-year-old funding or 2gether funding in Devon.

The Department for Education (DfE) have recently updated their terminology and have started to refer to ‘targeted’ 2-year-old funding as ‘Families Requiring Additional Support’ (FRAS) and in the coming months we will be updating our systems and guidance to reflect this change. It is important that you inform your staff and update your parent literature to ensure everyone is familiar with the term ‘FRAS’ funding.

Applications for FRAS are made on the Devon Citizen’s Portal.

Parents can find details on how to apply for the working entitlement, and information on other help that is available for childcare costs by visiting Best Start in Life

To access the working entitlement from 1st January 2026 (spring term 2026) a parent must have applied and received their code by 31st December 2025.

If a family advises that they are eligible for 2-year-old funding the process remains the same.

• If they have working entitlement they will have been issued with an 11-digit code that starts ‘50’, ‘11’ (or ‘40’ if a foster carer). You will need to run a check on the code using the parent’s national insurance number via the provider portal to confirm if it is eligible for the relevant funding period.
• If a family advises that they are entitled to 2-year-old funding (FRAS), and applied via Devon County Council,  they would have been issued with a TYF878 code. They will need to show you written confirmation to confirm eligibility, and this will also show the earliest date that they can take up the funded place. You cannot run a check on this code, or add it to a task, you just need to see the evidence (the code alone is not sufficient). We suggest that you keep a copy on file in case of any query.
• If a family has been awarded the 2 year old funding by another local authority, we ask that you direct them to the Devon Citizen Portal to make an application. If their circumstances have changed since this was previously awarded, please ask them to request help and attach a copy confirming their eligibility to their Devon application so we can manually assess. If they are still deemed as eligible, they will be issued with an email/portal message which will confirm this.

FRAS funding for 2-year-olds can be used alongside the working entitlement for a combined maximum of 30 hours a week (1140 hours a year).  Information is provided in our Headcount and Amendment Guidance regarding the process for claiming hours on the headcount and amendment tasks.

There is no universal entitlement for 2-year-olds so there will be some 2-year-olds that don’t qualify for funding. If one parent is working and the household income is too high to qualify for FRAS, or parent/s are working, and their earnings exceed the £100,000 limit for working entitlements they won’t be eligible.

Please ensure that you have confirmed a child’s eligibility for the funding before offering a funded space.  Until eligibility is confirmed you should only allocate hours as fully chargeable and ensure that this is reflected in your contracts.