Currently in England all three and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours of funded early education for 38 weeks of the year. Eligible three and four-year-olds are entitled to an additional 15 hours per week.
From April 2024, the Government has announced that two-year-old children of working families will be eligible for 15 hours of funded childcare. This will be extended to children from nine months old in September 2024, and by September 2025 the Government estimates 640,000 more children in working families will be entitled to 30 hours of funded childcare.
NDNA has been investigating whether all this money reaches providers since 2020 (looking at the previous year’s budget).
For 2021-22, NDNA discovered £45.8m was not spent on early years places during that year, in addition a net amount of £59.3m went back to the DfE
See the full report on this link to The National Day Nurseries Association
