Working Families: Free childcare for 9 months to two year olds (New 2024)

From September 2024, childcare support will be extended to eligible working parents of children from the term following them reaching the age of 9 months. This means children born on or before 31 November 2023 may be entitled to 15 hours free early education over 38 weeks of the year.

Dates of eligibility for under 2's (Excel doc, 12 KB)

Some providers may allow you to stretch these hours over more weeks, using fewer hours per week.

From 12 May 2024 families can apply for their code in preparation for a September 2024 start. However, please note, the code needs to be re-validated every three months, therefore, if it applied for more than 3 months in advance of 1 September it will need to be re-validated/re-checked before the end of August.

To check if you are eligible under this new criteria, please set up or log into your Government Gateway account (opens new window) and apply for a code online.