How to use your Working Parent Entitlement for 9-to-35-month-olds entitlement
Choose a childcare provider
You can use this funding at a pre-school, nursery, or a childminder. The childcare provider must sign up with us to offer this service.
Request a childcare place
Before you accept a place, check with them first:
- that their offer suits your needs
- if there are any voluntary charges
- if the provider has a policy in place if you choose not to pay these.
If they offer you a place, you will need to give them:
- your child's birth certificate
- the National Insurance number of either parent who made the application
- your eligibility code (the 11-digit number supplied by HMRC).
After accepting a childcare place
They will verify and validate the code with the government’s checking system. Once they verify the code, they will ask you to fill out a Parental Declaration Form. You will then confirm a starting date for your child to begin accessing your childcare place.
The entitlement has no monetary value. However, you are entitled to up to 1,140 hours funded childcare per year. The year starts when your child first becomes eligible for funding. They must also be in the correct date of birth range.
Not all providers offer this entitlement. You may need to contact them to confirm that they do.
How to claim the funding
Headcount week
To claim the funding, your child must attend their specified hours during headcount week in Kent.
Their attendance during headcount week determines the funded hours your provider can claim for.
If you have not claimed the full hours during headcount, you cannot increase the number of the funded hours your child attends at any point in the term.
To find out when the headcount week is, talk to your childcare provider.
How to use your funded childcare
There are many patterns of funding you can have. Childcare providers can’t limit the number of fully funded places they offer. Each childcare provider will set out how and when they offer funded places.
You can use your 30 hours:
- between 6am and 8pm
- for a maximum of 10 hours a day.
- Your childcare provider will have their own pattern of delivery for the funding. A pattern of delivery is how they offer the funding by hours and days. Talk to them to see which patterns they offer.
Split your hours
You can split your 30 hours between providers. For example, a nursery and a childminder. Both must be signed up to deliver this funding, however, you can't use more than 2 sites each day. The providers must be willing to work together. You also don't have to use the whole 30 hours.
Not all providers can be flexible in how they offer the funded hours. So, check with your chosen provider to make sure their offer suits your needs.
Stretched funding
Some providers may offer a stretched pattern of hours. This means, you get fewer hours each week, but for more weeks of the year. You will need to discuss this with your chosen provider if this is something they offer.
If they offer the funding stretched over 48 weeks, the hours will reduce to 24 hours per week. If this is the case, you will exceed your entitlement hours of 1,140 by 12 hours. Your childcare provider should tell you of this. You can either remove your child for 12 hours, or your child can remain at the setting. They will charge you for the additional hours at the childcare provider’s rate.
When a provider is not open for the full 38 weeks, you cannot claim more than 30 hours each week over fewer weeks of the year. If you choose a provider that is open for fewer than 38 weeks of the year, you will not get your full entitlement.
Late joiners
You can claim funded hours if your child:
- is moving to Kent from another local authority after headcount week and not in a grace period or
- has not claimed at another setting in Kent during that academic period and not in a grace period.
Grace periods
If you or your partner (if applicable) no longer meet the criteria, you will stop being eligible.
You will have a grace period, usually until the next funded period begins, to look for a job. If your circumstances change during this time, apply again and continue to use your entitlement.
Your child cannot start a new childcare place at a provider during a grace period. This includes when a parent:
- has fallen into their grace period before their child has started their childcare place
- seeks to move their child to a different provider, when they have already fallen into their grace period.