Published on February 26, 2025
While 2024 marked the arrival of funded childcare hours for children over the age of two, in 2025 the access to these hours is being made more widely available – most notably expanding the age range that’s eligible for funding.
To make the process of applying for funding as easy as possible, we’ve created a quick guide to what’s available and what to expect in 2025 – outlining the application process and what to expect.
2024 marked a huge expansion in the amount of childcare support available. The UK government announced a rollout of childcare hours funded by the government, in an effort to make it easier for working parents to return to their jobs while accessing safe and supportive care for their child.
By the end of 2024, the funding covered children over 9 months of age granting them up to 30 hours of funded hours according to their eligibility. Those aged over 2 years could be deemed eligible for 30 hours of funded childcare, while younger children between 9 months and 2 years of age were eligible for 15 funded hours.
The aim for 2025 is to continue the rollout, with an end goal to make childcare hours available to all eligible families with children up to 5 years of age.
Of course, all of this depends on eligibility
While the amount of funding that you are eligible for depends on the age of your child, the criteria for application remains much the same.
If you’re in a couple and sharing parenting duties, you both need to be working
The combined income of both parents needs to be at least £8,760 per year, and less than £100,000 per year (after tax – essentially meaning that these amounts need to reflect your take-home income)
Finally, your chosen childcare facility or nursery needs to offer places to government-funded children – something that you will need to discuss directly with your chosen nursery.
Once you’ve determined eligibility, you need to put in a formal application via the government website. Successfully filling out this application will give you access to a unique code, which you will need to give to your chosen nursery to enable them to apply directly to the government for that funding.
Perhaps the most important part of the process, however, comes after this.
Once you have applied for the code, you need to resubmit an application every 3 months. Missing even just one deadline will render you ineligible for that period – making this deadline a must-add date for your diary.
This may seem excessive, and may create some admin on your end, but it’s worth it to access the funded hours – with the three month turnover meaning that the government is able to keep on top of ever-changing eligibility for the thousands of families accessing this scheme.
With all that said then, can you use the government funded hours at our My Ohana facilities?
In short, yes, we have a number of places in our nurseries to accommodate funded children.
This depends on availability, with the best approach being to contact each nursery manager to find out about the spaces available at the time your child needs to be enrolled at nursery. If we are unable to accommodate your child immediately, you will be added to a waitlist and kept informed of changing availability.
Visit the FAQs page on our website to learn more about My Ohana, our nurseries, and how we facilitate the highest level of childcare.
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