Funding & Eligibility
Government Funding
Little Wing’s Big Dreams Nursery accept Government funding for 15 hours and 30 hours for children aged 9 months- 5 years old, to contribute towards some of the costs of high quality, flexible childcare. Early Years funding is intended to cover to cover the delivery of childcare only with a maximum of 10 hours of funding to be claimed per day.
For all year round settings like ours which are open 51 weeks a year, the total hours are stretched and divided across the year using 10 hours of funding per day. We have a limited number of term time only spaces per Academic year, a term time only space uses funding slightly different. Term time only spaces use 7.5 hours of government funding a day.
In order to determine your eligibility for the extended hours funding you will need to complete an online application at https://www.gov.uk/apply-30-hours-free-tax-free-childcare if you are determined to be eligible you will be given an eligibility code. You must then pass this code onto us along with your National Insurance number.
This code needs to be refreshed by yourself every 3 months to remain eligible. Failure to do so will result in you losing your funding for the following term.
The extended funding must be applied for at the very latest by the last day of the previous term. The Nursery will often need it the month before the last month of the term in order to be able to claim the funding from the local Borough this is because fees are processed a month in advance.
In order to receive this funding, you will need to complete a Parent Declaration Form, which will be emailed to you via a Google Link from our Management Team in the Nursery Office. A google email account will be required to complete this and this will need to be updated per every term of Funding claimed for the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms.
Eligibility Criteria
30 Hours of Government Funding for children aged 9 months to 4-Years Old
Up to 30 funded hours a week are available for working families in England. This is a total of 1,140 hours per academic year. Please use the link below to apply. Apply for 30 hours free childcare - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
15 Hours Funding for Two-Year-Olds
For families who receive financial support, you can claim up to 15 hours childcare per week for up to 38 weeks, equivalent to 11 hours a week for an all year round setting like ours.
Please see details below on how to apply for 15 hours childcare per week for your 2-year-old.
The eligibility criteria can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/help-with-
If you meet the criteria, you will need to then apply via the Early Years Citizen Portal: https://edu.bexley.
When you register your account and add your child’s details, you will be given two different applications. The first is the ‘Economic’ application which you need to complete first. This will ask you to add your National Insurance number so the system can check to see if you claim any benefits that fit the criteria.
If eligible, you will receive an eligible reference number (begins with TYF) that you then give to your chosen Childcare Provider who will claim funding for you from the date your eligibility starts (this will be stated on your eligible application reference)
If the system says you are not eligible, but you feel you are, then you must complete the ‘Non-Economic’ application that’ll ask you to attach evidence of the benefits you receive. This then gets sent to our team for approval and then again, an eligible application reference will be emailed to you.
15 Hours Universal Funding for 3 and 4-Year-Olds
All children aged 3 in a term are entitled to 15 hours of childcare a week (or 570 hours per year) to use as you wish. A copy of your child’s birth certificate will be needed on application for this and parent/carer details.
Children can start to receive funding for the extended entitlement (30 hours from the term after the parents have confirmed their eligibility via HMRC.
