Funding FAQs
These FAQs will provide more detail about Government Funding and what it could mean for your childcare fees.
The Government are expanding their Early Years funding programme, rolling funding eligibility out to children aged nine months over a two-year period.
There are three main types of funding available to families:
Working Family Funding
Broadly speaking you will be entitled to Working Family Funding if all parents/carers in the household are earning the equivalent of 16 hours per week at minimum wage and no more than £100,000 per year (each) and you hold a valid funding code. You can apply for Working Family Funding from the first full term after your child turns nine months old.
Two Year Entitlement Funding
Two Year Entitlement Funding is available for families who do not meet the threshold for Working Family Funding or who are in receipt of certain benefits (full list below). You can apply for Two Year Entitlement Funding from the first full term after your child turns two.
Universal Funding for 3 and 4 Year Olds
Families who are not eligible for Working Family Funding or Two Year Entitlement Funding will automatically become available for Universal Funding from the first full term after their child turns three.
Eligibility
You are likely to be entitled to Working Family Funding if all parents/carers in the household are earning the equivalent of 16 hours per week at minimum wage and no more than £100,000 per year (each) and you hold a valid funding code.
You may also be eligible if:
- You are self-employed or on a zero hours contract – HMRC will take an average of your hours worked and earnings over the last twelve months to determine this.
- You are on Maternity or Paternity Leave – SMP and SPP will count towards your income for the year.
- You are a registered carer – your Carer’s Allowance will count as one parent’s income.
- You are a Foster Parent – you can apply for funding as long as you work outside of your fostering commitments and with the support of your social worker regarding your foster child attending nursery or preschool.
How to apply
You can apply for Working Family Funding from the first full term after your child turns nine months old.
You have to apply for your funding code and renew it every three months. You can apply at beststartinlife.gov.uk.
If you are returning to work after Maternity or Paternity Leave, there are some timeframes for applying for a funding code:
| Date of starting or returning to work | When parents can apply from | Funding will be eligible from |
| 1 Oct to 31 Jan | 1 Sept to 31 Dec | Jan |
| 1 Feb to 30 Apr | 1 Jan to 31 Mar | Apr |
| 1 May to 30 Sept | 1 Apr to 31 Aug | Sept |
Once you have your code, we will need to validate it to check the date that the Council will allow us to start claiming your funding from. Please note that holding a valid funding code does not guarantee sessions with us – you will still need to apply through our waiting list.
After we have validated your code, we will ask you to complete and return funding paperwork for the Council along with a copy of your child’s ID.
How many hours ?
After we have submitted your claim with the Council, we will deduct the funding from your invoice from the agreed date. You will be eligible to claim 23 hours per week in our All Year Round Provisions (Beauley, Leighton, Stackpool, Pearl and Ruby Rooms) over 49.7 weeks of the year or 30 hours per week in our Term Time Preschool (Raleigh Room) over 38 weeks of the year.
Eligibility
Two Year Entitlement Funding is available for families who do not meet the threshold for Working Family Funding or who are in receipt of certain benefits. You may be eligible if you receive any of these benefits:
- Income Support
- Income based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- Income related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Universal Credit and have an annual income below £15,400
Or if you:
- are a Zambrano carer (derivative right to reside in the UK under European law as the primary carer of a British child or dependent adult)
- have Leave to remain with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) granted on family or private life (Article 8) grounds
- are an ‘Appeal rights exhausted’ (ARE) asylum seeker receiving asylum support from the Home Office under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Or if your child:
- receives Disability Living Allowance
- has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
- has a child protection plan
- is looked after by the Local Authority
- has left care but are not able to return home (are under a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or adoption order)
How to apply
You can apply for Two Year Entitlement Funding from the first full term (the January, April or September) after your child turns two at www.bristol.gov.uk/freeplacefortwos
Once you have applied and the Council has verified your funding status, we will be able to discuss sessions available to your child. We will also ask you to complete and return funding paperwork for the Council along with a copy of your child’s ID.
How many hours?
You will be eligible to claim 11.5 hours per week in our All Year Round Provisions (Leighton, Stackpool, Pearl and Ruby Rooms) over 49.7 weeks of the year or 15 hours per week in our Term Time Preschool (Raleigh Room) over 38 weeks of the year if your child is two years and nine months or older. All sessions are subject to availability.
Eligibility
Families who are not eligible for Working Family Funding or Two Year Entitlement Funding will automatically become eligible for Universal Funding from the first full term (the January, April or September) after their child turns three.
How to apply
You do not need to apply for this funding but we will ask you to complete paperwork and provide a copy of your child’s ID so that we can submit your claim to the Council.
How many hours?
You will be eligible to claim 11.5 hours per week in our All Year Round Provisions (Stackpool and Ruby Rooms) over 49.7 weeks of the year or 15 hours per week in our Term Time Preschool (Raleigh Room) over 38 weeks of the year. Please note that eligibility for Universal Funding does not guarantee sessions with us – you will still need to apply through our waiting list.
When the Government talks about funding hours, they refer to the number that you can claim during school term time, which is 38 weeks of the year
If your child is attending in our All Year Round provision in the Southville Centre or the Chessel Centre, you can still claim the funding, but we will stretch it to apply across our full opening period of 49.7 weeks per year, so you will be able to claim fewer hours per week, but for more weeks of the year.
Children who attend our All Year Round provisions, attending in the Beauley, Leighton, Stackpool, Pearl and Ruby Rooms, will be able to claim 11.5 hours a week or 23 hours a week for 49.7 weeks of the year.
Children attending in our Term Time Preschool (the Raleigh Room) can claim 15 or 30 hours a week as this provision is open for 38 weeks of the year.
Full terms start in January, April and September and funding eligibility is as follows:
- To be eligible from January, your child must have reached the eligible age by the 31 December preceding.
- To be eligible from April, your child must have reached the eligible age by the 31 March preceding.
- To be eligible from September, your child must have reached the eligible age by the 31 August preceding.
Mid-term changes to funding
You can also only make changes to existing funding claims at the start of a full term. If your eligibility changes, you will not be able to alter your funding or make a new funding claim outside of these three designated months.
This may include porting your funding over from one provider to another in or outside of Bristol, unless your current provider agrees to release your funding mid-term.
Eligibility for funding does not automatically mean that we will be able to offer you sessions.
We can apply funding to confirmed and booked sessions, but that does not mean that we will be able to accommodate families who have funding but are not registered with us.
Any requests to book sessions will be done in line with our Admissions, Bookings and Funding Policy and using our existing waiting list.
The purpose of the Government Funding is to enable children under five to access early education and childcare. This means that the rate that we receive from the Government does not include some pastoral elements of the care of children, nor enhanced experiences that fall outside of the Early Years Foundation Stage. To provide an enhanced and holistic experience for all children, we ask families attending in our All Year Round provision to pay a Consumables Charge on funded hours.
The Consumables Charge from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 is set at £1.80 per funded hour. This charge will be added to all funded hours, whether they fall on a fully funded session or a partially funded session. This is a standard charge, regardless of your child’s age.
Consumables Charges are broken down as follows:
| Hourly Rate (£1.80) | |
| Food Consumables | £1.39 |
| Non-Food Consumables | £0.24 |
| Enhanced Experiences | £0.17 |
As well as providing children with all meals and snacks during their fully funded sessions, and non-food consumables such as suncream, spare nappies and spare clothing, the Consumables Charge enables us to offer enhanced experiences over and above the remit of the Early Years Foundation Stage, including seasonal treats and activities, resources and refreshments for parent Stay and Plays, outings and excursions, gardening club, mindfulness activities, online learning journal, free settling in sessions, parental resources and support.
More information about our Consumables Charges can be found in our Admissions, Booking and Funding Policy, which has been ratified by Bristol City Council.
Working Family Funding
Yes, recipients of Working Family Funding can split your funding claim between no more than two providers, but you must ensure that you do not overclaim the funded hours that you are entitled to.
The maximum number of hours you can claim in a twelve month period (from when you become eligible for funding) is 1,140 (for 23 hours over 49.7 weeks or 30 hours over 38 weeks).
Providers are able to divide funding by the nearest 0.5 hour. Both your funding forms must match for each provider and in the event of an overclaim, you will be expected to pay for childcare by private arrangement.
Two Year Entitlement Funding
Please be aware that recipients of Two Year Old Entitlement (those who apply through Bristol City Council) can only claim funding with one provider, as stipulated by the Council.
Once you have identified that you are eligible for funding by emailing us, we will ask you to complete some paperwork for Bristol City Council.
You will be required to agree to the Council’s terms and conditions and to sign to allow BS3 Community to claim an agreed number of hours on your behalf. Once you have completed and signed this form, you will be required to return it to BS3 Community along with a copy of your child’s ID (birth certificate or passport).
BS3 Community will then be authorised to put in the funding claim with Bristol City Council and the funding will be paid directly to the nursery. Any invoices that you receive from us from the first full term after your child is eligible for the funding, will show your child’s funded hours as zero charges on your bill.
We are able to submit mid-term funding claims to Bristol City Council where your previous provider has agreed to release the remainder of your child’s funding for the current term.
We will require written confirmation, including a date to swap your funding over from your current provider to facilitate this change. Should your current provider decline to release your child’s funding, you will have the option to pay privately for your child to start with us until their funding is transferred.
EYPP is an extra pot of funding available to children from families who are struggling financially to support their early education to the same level as their peers from working families. This funding is paid directly to your provision to support with costs associated with trips, clothing etc.
Please note that we are unable to check your eligibility for EYPP unless you indicate that you allow us to do so on your funding form. EYPP cannot be used to pay for additional hours but can be used to cover consumables costs.
Working Family Funding
Families who are entitled to Working Family Funding are required to apply for their funding code independently. This is because you need to submit employment and salary details to HMRC which we are unable to do on your behalf. You are also responsible for continuing to validate your funding code every three months.
Two Year Entitlement Funding
BS3 Community can support families who may be eligible to receive Two Year Entitlement Funding to apply for this with the Council. If you need support to complete this process, you can make an appointment to come in and fill in the online form with a member of our team.
Universal Funding for 3 and 4 Year Olds
Families who are entitled to universal funding do not need to apply – the paperwork will be automatically be sent to you when your child reaches the appropriate age.
We can, however, support all families in completing their funding paperwork. If you need support, please email us to make an appointment.
