Applications Open for Funded Hours for 9-month-olds but Concerns Remain Over the Number of Places

Applications Open for Funded Hours for 9-month-olds but Concerns Remain Over the Number of Places 

On 12th May, applications opened for eligible parents of children, who will be nine months old by the end of August, to apply for a code to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week from September 2024. 

This is now the second phase of the government’s childcare expansion after the expanded offer for 2-year-olds began in April. The initial offering led to just under 250 thousand applications, with 85% being validated by early May. Amid reports that some providers are struggling to meet the demand, the government has urged parents to check their eligibility at childcarechoices.gov.uk and secure places with providers. 

The continued expansion comes amid doubts across the sector about the number of available places and feasibility of the expansion. Fears over whether settings will have capacity to meet the demands of the second phase are prominent, with the Department of Education recently estimating an extra 15,000 places are needed. 

These concerns were reinforced by research from the House of Commons Library that found that 56,000 fewer places were available in August 2023 compared to 2019. Warnings that parents may not be able to get the hours and places that they need and they may have to pay for additional hours for when they need them. New challenges, such as more new parents being entitled to the funded places in the second phase of the rollout compared to the first, will also need to be addressed. 

With a general election now scheduled for the 4th July, discussions on how both the Conservatives and Labour – after they committed themselves to the expansion last month – can successfully rollout the expansion will be significant for our sector.