Early Years Funding Entitlement - Phase 2 : Under 2's

With the Government rolling out additional funded childcare hours for more working parents, Wirral Council needs to understand how families are using, or plan to use childcare, to ensure enough places are available.

Under phase two of a three-phase rollout, working parents with children aged from 9 months up to the age of 3 will be eligible for 15 hours of childcare where they meet qualifying criteria*, by September 2024.

This survey is asking parents of children who will be 9 months old by September 2024, to share if and how they may be planning to use the additional hours.

The expansion to childcare is being introduced nationally on a staggered timeline, to ensure that Early Education and Childcare Providers have time to prepare for the changes and increase staff, and for local authorities to ensure there are enough places available to meet demand. 

The government eligibility criteria is based on:

• Both parents working (or for the sole parent to be working if it is a lone parent family)
• Each parent has a weekly minimum income equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage
• Neither parent has an income of more than £100,000 per year

The expansion to childcare is being rolled out in three phases:  

• Phase one offers 15 hours childcare to working parents of 2-year-olds and began in April 2024. 
• Phase two will offer 15 hours childcare to working parents of children from 9 months of age up to age 3* from September 2024. 
• Phase three will offer 30 hours of childcare to children from 9 months of age up to school age where families meet the qualifying criteria* from September 2025. 

*Eligibility criteria will match the existing 3-4 year-old hours offer. 

A previous consultation which ran in February 2023 helped us determine that there were sufficient places available for the first phase roll out in April 2024.

We expect the survey to take around 5 minutes to complete. This survey is open for contributions until Monday 8 July 2024.