Early education and childcare
Statutory guidance for local authorities on the provision of early education and childcare.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
TheLocal currentauthorities guidanceshould appliestake account of ‘Early education and childcare (valid until 31 March 2025.2026)’ Theuntil newthe guidancevalidity isend effectivedate.
Local authorities should take account of ‘Early education and childcare (valid from 1 April 2025.2026)’ from the validity start date. The exception to this are the references to Ofsted inspection changes in Section A3 (Quality) and paragraphs A4.15 to A4.21 and D.2 and D.3, which apply from 9 February 2026.
This guidance is for local authorities. It relates to their duties under section 2 of the Childcare Act 2016 and sections 6, 7, 7A, 9A, 12 and 13 of the Childcare Act 2006.
It contains information on:
- free childcare entitlements for 2-, 3- and 4-year olds
- 30 hours free childcare
- the introduction of 30 hours free childcare for children in foster care
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Local authorities can use the ‘Chargeable extras: template’ to help providers give information on their websites about the:
- costs for all chargeable extras
- pattern of hours that parents can take the entitlements
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authority, in respect of delivering the early years entitlements. A model agreement for free early years provision and childcare is also available.
Updates to this page
Last updated
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Added 'Chargeable extras: template'. This should be used alongside the 'Early education and childcare (effective from 1 April 2025)' guidance.
Update history
2026-04-01 09:00
Removed ‘Early education and childcare (valid until 31 March 2026)’. The current ‘Early education and childcare’ guidance is valid from 1 April 2026.
2026-02-09 09:00
The statutory guidance has been updated to provide updated on Ofsted inspections and quality, flexibility, compliance and charging.
2025-02-21 17:16
Added ‘Chargeable extras: template’. This should be used alongside the ‘Early education and childcare (effective from 1 April 2025)’ guidance.
2025-02-21 00:01
We have updated the statutory guidance for April 2025. In the charging section, our changes reaffirm that the 15 or 30 hours entitlements must be accessible free of charge to parents. They also reaffirm that there must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. Our updates also reflect changes to Ofsted inspection judgements for state schools inspected after 2 September 2024. We have also clarified the eligibility criteria for 2 year olds, for both entitlements.
2024-01-01 00:01
Updated with new statutory guidance which applies from 1 April 2024.
2023-04-12 10:00
Updated guidance for local authorities making decisions on funding providers registered at an ‘ineffective’ childminder agency to deliver the free early education and childcare entitlements. Changes are included in para A3.13.