Parents of children aged nine months and up will be able to apply for double the amount of free childcare hours from September.
New rules have been outlined by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who said Labour want to get “behind” working families and “empower them” to have more choices the it comes to working hours and how many children to have.
At present working parents of babies aged nine months onwards can apply for 15 hours of free childcare, but from September that will be expanded across the country to 30 hours.
Ms Phillipson said the expansion will empower women to have larger families.
Starting this Monday (May 12) working parents of youngsters aged nine months and older can apply for the 30 hours of free childcare per week starting from September 1, which will continue until their child reaches school age.
Ms Phillipson said: "They will be able to make choices about the career that’s right for them, the hours that they want, but also [have] the freedom to think about family size and how many children they want to have, with support from the Government around childcare hours."
She added that she hopes the change will facilitate a "generational shift" for working women, “alleviate financial burdens” and “offer greater freedom in career and family planning.”
The announcement also stated that 4,000 childcare places are set to be rolled out at new or expanded school-based nurseries in England from September.
Ms Phillipson said she had been “flat out to make sure we’ve got as many places available as possible” with the first round funding for 300 school-based nurseries across England already approved by the Department for Education.
Schools were given the green light to apply for funding for the project back in October, and were allowed to bid for a share of £15 million funding.
Each successful school who applied, which were able to apply for up to £150,000 each, will receive the amount of funding they bid for to repurpose or extend existing spaces and deliver childcare provision.
The Department for Education said the first 300 school-based nurseries who applied will now be able to offer an average of 20 places per site and up to 6,000 new places in total, with up to 4,000 set to be available by the end of September.
Who is eligible for the additional childcare hours?
The amount of free childcare you can get depends on how old your child is, whether you’re working and your income.
You do not qualify for help if your child does not usually live with you or you or your partner have an expected adjusted net income of over £100,000 in the current tax year.
You can apply for free childcare if you are working, and this includes being on maternity leave to sick pay.
The UK Government will also look at your income.
To qualify, over the next 3 months you and your partner (if you have one) must each expect to earn at least:
- £2,539 before tax if you’re aged 21 or over (equivalent to £195 per week)
- £2,080 before tax if you’re aged 18 to 20 (equivalent to £160 per week)
- £1,570 before tax if you’re under 18 or an apprentice (equivalent to £120 per week)
The full eligibility criteria can be viewed here.
