Foster carer guide to claiming 30 hours of free childcare

The criteria for the working parent entitlement for foster parents can be found on GOV.UK.

Some children in foster care may be able to receive 30 hours free childcare if:

• the hours are part of the child’s care plan
• in a single foster parent household:
  • The foster carer must be in some form of paid employment outside of their fostering role and the adjusted net income is under £100,000 a year.
  • The partner of the foster carer (if they are not also a foster carer) will have the standard income criteria. Please see the relevant age group parent guides via the Kent County council website or the Gov.uk website (add links)
• In a double foster parent household:
  • Both foster carers must be in some form of paid employment outside of their fostering role and the adjusted net income is under £100,000 a year.

Foster parent guide to the Working Parent Entitlements

If you are an eligible working parent, you can apply for 30 hours of childcare for your fostered child aged from 9 months.

If you apply more than 3 months before the start of the new term, you will need to reconfirm your details before the end of the month before the start of the new term. This is to make sure you are still eligible.

Some childcare providers may offer fewer hours per week over more weeks of a year (up to 1,140 hours). This is known as stretched funding.

The Department for Education sets the dates for when children become eligible by age.

Dates and application deadlines

Here are the dates to apply by, depending on when your child turns 9 months.

Here are the dates to apply by, depending on when your child turns 2-years-old.

Here are the dates to apply by, depending on when your child turns 3-years-old.

We administer the entitlements according to guidance issued by the Department for Education. This guidance is clear that eligibility codes must be applied for and received by set dates to allow us to apply the funding for a current term.

Codes applied for and received after this date will not be eligible to receive funded childcare until the following term (if the child is also in the eligible age range at this point). Note that you may also need to reconfirm again before the following term.

The guidance is also clear that codes need to be re-confirmed by the dates provided to families from the social worker for us to be able to apply the funding for a current term. View the section about reconfirming and grace periods for further information.

Eligibility

Some children in foster care may be able to receive up to 30 hours of funded childcare if the hours are part of the child’s care plan.

In a single foster parent household:

• The foster carer must be in some form of paid employment outside of their fostering role and the adjusted net income is under £100,000 a year.
• The partner of the foster carer (if they are not also a foster carer) will have the standard income criteria. See the relevant age group parent guides.

In a double foster parent household:

• Both foster carers must be in some form of paid employment outside of their fostering role and the adjusted net income is under £100,000 a year.

How to use your funded childcare

You need to make sure you know how you can use your free 15 hours of childcare including splitting your hours, stretch funding and when to use your funding.

Find out how you can use your funded childcare

Summary for additional costs

The funding is for early education and childcare. It is meant to deliver 30 hours of funded, high-quality childcare.

Learn more about the additional costs you may have to pay

Apply

You can apply for both the 30-hours and Tax-Free Childcare using a single application.

You must apply for and have your new 30 hour eligibility code before the start of the academic period. The dates are:

• 31 August to start claiming the entitlement in September
• 31 December to start claiming the entitlement in January
• 31 March to start claiming the entitlement in April.

Find out more on how you can apply

Reconfirm your eligibility

How to reconfirm

If you are an eligible foster carer, you must reconfirm your details every 3 months. This is completed through a Reconfirmation Statement. Speak to your social worker to start this process.

If you do not reconfirm your eligibility by the dates provided to you this may affect your funding.

Transfer of funding between providers

Providers are under no obligation to transfer funding. If you switch providers after the headcount week, you might need to pay the new one until the start of the next term.

The parental declaration form that you would have signed states in point 8:

'I understand that if I decide to change providers during the term and my child has already been funded for that term that I will have to pay the new provider for the hours my child attends for the remainder of the term.'

Childcare providers can transfer the funding themselves if they are happy to do so. This would be a private matter between the two providers and the local authority would not get involved.

An appeals process is in place for exceptional circumstances such as a move, due to adoption or domestic violence. Email kentcfis@theeducationpeople.org

Next steps

If your code is valid for the term, you will be asked to complete the parental declaration form showing how many hours funding you are going to claim. Make sure that you read through this form prior to signing.

If you are claiming funding over two settings the number of hours and funding type should show both on each form that you sign.

If after checking the validity of your code the childcare provider informs you that it is not valid, follow these steps.

1. Make sure that your childcare provider has the correct details
2. Did you apply or reconfirm in time? Check with your social worker.
3. If you have checked that your provider is entering the correct details and you have applied or reconfirmed in time for the term email kentcfis@theeducationpeole.org for further support.