Important Information
30 Hours Extended Free Childcare Provision
From April 2017 Leicestershire County Council will be taking part in an early implementation scheme to introduce 30 hours of free childcare for children of eligible parents. This means that you may be able to apply for further free funding for your child's place at Worthington Preschool and may be entitled to additional free sessions.
Parents will need to contact the Early Years and Childcare Service at Leicestershire County Council towards the end of February 2017 to find out if they are eligible. A phone number will be provided shortly for parents to call when the system is in place. All parents must apply by 17th April 2017 to be eligible for the extra hours in the Summer term.
Eligibility Criteria
The extended entitlement 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 hours will be available to families where:
- Both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family);
- Both parents are working’ includes circumstances where;
- One or both parents are temporarily away from the workplace on parental, adoption, maternity or paternity leave;
- One or both parents are 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.
- Each parent has a weekly minimum income equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage; 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 national minimum wage (£111.20) or national living wage £120), and;
- Neither parent has an income of more than £100,000 per year.
The definition of ‘working’ will include employed and self-employed persons and parents on zero hour’s contracts who meet the criteria. Many parents have irregular working patterns and the government have designed the extended entitlement to be flexible enough to accommodate these.
Parents who are studying and grandparents or other family members with parental responsibility for a child aged 3 or 4 will be eligible for the extended entitlement if they meet the above criteria.
We will shortly have more information available for parents, but in the meantime you can use the resources below to find out more.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tax-free-childcare-10-things-parents-should-know
A questionnaire has been launched to determine demand across the Leicestershire area which can be accessed below. Please return completed forms to Gemma Towell at Preschool.
Extended 30 Hours Free Entitlement
Parents can combine free childcare from one provider with another. A paper setting out worked examples of how this would operate in practice is set out below: