Child Care Choice

Get Help For Childcare Cost
Tax-Free Childcare
Childcare You Can Get Help Paying For

You can get help paying for childcare if it’s provided by a:
 Registered child-minder, Nanny, Play scheme, Nursery or Club
 Child-minder or nanny with a registered child-minder agency or childcare agency
 Registered school
 Home care worker working for a registered home care agency.

“It is as if we have a new child at each new plane who will require a different environment just as the new born baby requires a different environment from the womb in which she has spent the last nine months” Maria Montessori

Universal Credit
Universal Credit is a payment to help with your living costs. It’s paid monthly – or twice a month for some people in Scotland. You may be able to get it if you’re on a low income, out of work or you cannot work. How to claim You can apply for Universal Credit online. You need to create an account. You use it to make a claim. You must complete your claim within 28 days of creating your account or you will have to start again. If you live with your partner, you will both need to create accounts. You’ll link them together when you claim. You cannot claim by yourself. If you cannot claim online, you can claim by phone through the Universal Credit helpline.

Self-employment and Universal Credit
Universal Credit is a monthly payment to help with your living costs. You may be able to get it if you’re on a low income, out of work or you cannot work.

Eligibility for the extended free childcare entitlement
The current entitlement
All 3 and 4 year olds will continue to be eligible for 15 hours per week of free early education. This is a universal entitlement for all children. The new entitlement is an extension of the current entitlement and provides an additional 15 hours of free childcare for children that are eligible.

Definition of qualifying children for the new entitlement
The new entitlement to 30 hours free childcare is intended to support working parents with the cost of childcare and enable them, where they wish, to return to work or to work additional hours.
The additional 15 hours will be available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) or national living wage (NLW), and less than £100,000 per year1 . Working will include employed and self-employed persons. Parents do not necessarily need to actually work 16 hours a week, but rather their earnings must reflect at least 16 hours of work
at NMW or NLW, which is £107 a week at the current NMW rate. This includes those parents on zero contract hours who meet the criteria.
The Spending Review announced the largest ever investment in free childcare so that working families get the help they need. To make this affordable we have introduced an income cap so that, when at least one parent in a household has income of £100,000 or more, that family will not be eligible to take up the extra free hours.
Families where one parent does not work (or neither parent works) will usually not be eligible for these additional hours. However, the government intends to make provision to support families where one parent is in receipt of benefits relating to caring responsibilities or a disability and the other parent is working. Full details will be set out in regulations, but the government intends that the additional entitlement should be available in the following circumstances:
 Both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on parental, maternity or paternity leave.
 both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on adoption leave;
 both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on statutory sick pay;
 one parent is employed and one parent has substantial caring responsibilities based on specific benefits received for caring; or
 One parent is employed and one parent is disabled or incapacitated based on receipt of specific benefits.

The government believes that this will help these households to maintain one parent in employment or enable them to increase their hours of work whilst supporting the other parent with their own needs.
The government believes that including parents who are temporarily away from the workplace will help families to maintain their childcare arrangements, supporting the transition back to work at the end of their parental leave or period of ill health and avoiding disruption to the child. It also avoids placing disproportionate administrative burdens on small providers of checking and identifying periods of leave (which can be as short as 1-2 weeks) and disruption to their business.
These eligibility criteria mean that around 390,000 three and four year olds will be eligible for 30 hours of free childcare.

Checking Eligibility
The Secretary of State confirmed at Second Reading in the House of Commons that parents will be able to apply for both Tax-Free Childcare and the 30 hour entitlement through a joint application system being developed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). A joint online application system will provide a simple and straightforward way for working parents to access the schemes and will avoid the need to provide the same information twice. The government amendment tabled will place a function on HMRC to provide an eligibility checking service for the Department.

Support for Working Parents
For the free entitlement to be most effective it must be restricted to childcare arrangements that enable parents to take up paid work, to continue in paid work or to increase paid work. To ensure that it is focussed on work and to align with Tax-Free Childcare, the government intends to introduce a ‘main reason test’ through regulations. This will seek to ensure that parents take up the additional hours of free childcare for the purposes of supporting their employment. This ‘main reason’ could,
for example, include commuting time or paying for childcare in blocks of time or sessions that puts parents in a position to work.

Grace Period
The government believes it is right to ensure that there will be a short grace period for families whose circumstances change. This will give parents the opportunity to regain employment and will also give providers certainty that if they offer a place under the new entitlement they will not have to fill that place immediately if a parent’s circumstances change.

Training and Education
The new entitlement is to support parents to take up work or increase their working hours. Parents who are studying will not qualify for the new entitlement, unless they meet the criteria outlined above. Parents who are under the age of 20 and are studying a publicly funded course are eligible for the Care to Learn Scheme, which provides vital financial support for childcare costs of up to £175 per child per week. For parents over the age of 20, Discretionary Learner Support and Childcare Grants may also be available depending on the nature of the education and training that parents participate in.

Delivery Principles
The government is clear that any delivery system must make available 30 hours of free childcare to eligible parents of three- and four-year-olds in England. This childcare must be safe and of high quality. This must also be deliverable for early implementation in September 2016 and full roll-out from September 2017.
The delivery system must support and promote increased parental employment enabling parents to work or to work extra hours, supporting an improvement in the standard of living for parents and children. It must be affordable and provide value for money for government at a sustainable rate for the sector.
The government aims to deliver a high quality, free childcare entitlement according to the following design principles. These principles were agreed by the Childcare Implementation Task Force. The delivery mechanism will:
• be simple and flexible for parents to use;
• interact successfully and work with the existing entitlement and other government childcare schemes;
• create capacity cost-effectively and without driving up the cost of childcare;
• be efficient for providers to administer and not add to their costs;
• be at least as cost-effective to administer as the model for delivering the current entitlement and better value for money for government;
• promote the successful delivery of the first 15 hours for all three- and four-year olds; • be secure and possible to audit;
• ensure that as many existing childcare providers as possible are able to take part in delivery of the 30 hours; and encourage new providers
• support innovation.

Delivering Quality Childcare for all Children
The current entitlement ensures that three- and four-year-olds can access 15 hours a week of quality early education, free of charge, to prepare them for school and improve their life chances. It is the quality of provision that really makes the difference – cognitive benefits of childcare disappear by age ten if a setting is low quality, while children attending high quality provision for two or three years before school have a seven to eight month developmental advantage in literacy compared to their peers.
Evidence tells us that around five sessions or around 15 hours a week of quality early education are needed for children to gain these benefits.
This government policy is working, and the early year’s sector is delivering high quality early education for children and families. For example:
• 94% of three- and 99% of four-year-olds are taking up the current free entitlement;
• the qualifications of early years staff have continuously improved – in June 2015, NDNA reported that 88% of settings it surveyed employed a graduate, up from 80% in 20154 , and 87% of staff have a level 3 (A-level equivalent) qualification ;
• 85% of providers delivering the entitlement are rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted; and
• the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) results for 2015 showed a 14.6 percentage point increase in the proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the age of five in the last two years, and that the gap between disadvantaged children and others has narrowed .
The government is clear that these additional hours of childcare need to be high quality and delivered flexibly. All childcare must be delivered in a way that makes a contribution to a child’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, without placing inappropriate strain on young children who might be spending a significant part of their day in childcare. We know that parents want their children to learn, but also to play and have fun, and to be able to relax and rest when they need to. This is what good childcare providers deliver: supporting children to learn, socialise and develop through their play, and being attentive to their welfare. That is why we are committed to retaining the same adult: child ratios as already set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage to ensure children will continue to benefit from the same high ratios and be cared for by staff with the right skills and knowledge. To capitalise on this we are also committed to retaining the indoor space requirements as now for all 30 hours.
The government believes that the extended entitlement needs to supplement and complement the current early education entitlement. We want all children to continue to benefit from 15 hours of high quality early education.
The extended entitlement will keep children safe and well. It will need to provide positive and stimulating experiences for children, and staff will need to have the right skills and knowledge to deliver this care. We are clear that the extended entitlement hours must be safe and secure, and must never be a detrimental experience for children. The current regulatory system sets out welfare and safeguarding requirements that are designed to ensure a wide range of childcare providers deliver quality provision, and delivery is regulated and inspected by Ofsted. The quality of the early year’s workforce. We know that the quality of early year’s provision is central to ensuring benefits to children, and that good quality childcare can be found across all types of settings.

The main driver of quality in a setting is its workforce.
Alongside convenience, the quality of staff in the setting is a key factor that informs parents’ choices about childcare. That is why we are committed to ensuring that the same staff qualification requirements will apply to the additional 15 hours as apply currently. By improving the quality of those entering the workforce, parents can have confidence in the people supporting the learning of our youngest children. In recent years, pay across the sector has risen reflecting the rise in qualification levels among the early years workforce. We expect qualification levels to continue to increase following introduction of Early Years Educator qualification criteria and early years initial teacher training. The government will encourage the sector to attract highly
qualified staff with a strong aptitude for working with young children and the right mix of knowledge and skills to deliver good quality childcare. We have recently taken steps to improve the process for those training to become Early Years Educators and Early Years Teachers, and these have been widely welcomed.
In 2016, the government will review progression routes within the sector to determine what more can be done to enable good quality staff to maximise their potential and forge a successful career within early years. This will build on existing investments in staff training and development through the current Voluntary and Community Sector grants programme and the Teaching Schools grant, which has brought high performing schools and PVI providers together to share good practice and improve transition into school for young children. The government is introducing measures to significantly increase the number of staff with paediatric first aid training. We are consulting on a new requirement that newly qualified level 2 and level 3 staff must hold a paediatric first aid certificate in order to count in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) ratios. We will also be launching a new voluntary quality assurance mark to recognise those nurseries who have trained all their staff in first aid.

Special Educational Needs and Disability
The government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Parents with disabled children should have the same opportunities as other parents via increased choice and access to high quality childcare. While the legal framework is clear that all eligible children must be able to take up a place under the existing and new entitlement, in practice we are hearing that the system does not always deliver for all children.

What we have done so far:
The reforms introduced in September 2014 by the Children and Families Act 2014 build on best practice and represent the biggest change to special educational needs and disability (SEND) support for 30 years. These reforms are making a real difference for families. A key part of these reforms was introducing a system from 0-25 years old that recognises the importance of early identification and the importance of integration between education, health and social care for children across the age range. Local authorities must now offer joined up help at the earliest possible point, without false distinctions between education, health and care whilst making it very clear what help is available to children with SEND through the ‘Local Offer’.
The Government has invested £30 million in Independent Supporters to help families applying for an Education Health and Care plan and £5.3 million to sector organisations under the VCS grants in 2015-16, £3.99 million of which was on Early Years projects which supported SEND reform implementation.

What we intend to do:
We want to go further, and that is why, as part of early implementation of 30 hours from September 2016, we are encouraging innovative approaches to providing flexible childcare for working parents whose children are disabled.
We are pleased to say we have had overwhelming interest to participate. Final selection will seek to secure a mix of LAs to provide a spread that represents the different types of local authorities and localities and demonstrate how they will support SEND, homeless working families, low income families, BME and rural communities.
The Department also welcomes Isos Partnership’s research report and we are looking to implement their early year’s proposals as a minimum:
• Local authorities should ensure there are clear expectations about core funding, and the circumstances in which additional advice, training or resources will be provided.
• DfE will issue a practical reminder of the ways in which local authorities can fund
SEN provision in pre-school settings – through existing published resources or webinars.
We recognise the importance of childcare to parents with children with special educational needs and/or a disability. That is why due consideration will be given to SEND funding for early years as part of wider consultation on allocation and a fairer funding system in 2016.