What is 30 hours funding? All three and four year old children are entitled to fifteen hours of funded childcare for 38 weeks per year from the Government commencing the term after their third birthday, September, January or April. These hours can be increased by an extra fifteen hours of funded care, equating to thirty hours per week, for working parents. When can I apply for the thirty hours funding? You can apply from when your child is 2 years and 36 weeks old. You need to apply the term before you want to take up a place. If your child is already 3 and you apply for your code now. They can get their 30 hours from the beginning of the next term. What do I need to do? 1. The first step is to check if you are eligible for the thirty hours. Generally parents must be working to be eligible to claim for the funding, however, exceptions do apply. 2. You will need a Government Gateway account in order to apply for your thirty hours funding. If you do not have an account you can set one up following this link www.access.service.gov.uk/registration/email 3. Once you have your code you will be required to complete an 'Early Years Education - Parent Declaration form' for your local authority, this will usually be provided by the childcare setting that your child is attending. You will need to provide them with the thirty hours code and your National Insurance number. 4. The childcare setting will apply for the funding, it is then the parents / carers responsibility to ensure that the code is reapplied for every three months to ensure that personal circumstances haven't changed, the code is still valid and the child is still entitled to the thirty hours funding. HMRC will email the parent / carer before the deadline to remind them.