March 2025

Expansion to early childcare entitlements: eligibility codes issued and validated

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Department for Education

Introduction

This publication provides a summary of the number of eligibility codes issued to parents of children aged nine months to two years old, and the number of codes that have been validated by providers to date. 

The data is taken from DfE’s Eligibility Checking System (ECS). 

This is management information data, aggregating codes by local authority (using child postcodes), age of child (9 months to 12 months vs one-year-olds vs two-year-olds), and the term for which the code was applied (Autumn 2024 and Spring 2025). This will be the final publication relating to the Autumn Term 2024, and the first publication of data relating to the Spring Term 2025.

This publication also presents the headcount and PTE data at local authority level collected directly at an aggregated level from local authorities (PVIs only) for the two-year-olds using codes in the Autumn Term. This has been presented as combined with the Autumn School Census data to cover the full sector. 

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About these statistics

In order to access a government-funded childcare entitlement place, parents and carers must apply for an eligibility code which is then validated by early years providers or local authorities when a place has been secured at an early years setting. This release provides the number of eligibility codes issued to parents and the number of codes validated by providers or local authorities as at the 23rd February 2025 for the Autumn term (term starting September) and the Spring term (term starting January).

Where available, this release will also include an estimate of the number of children in an entitlement place based on voluntary local authority returns.

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National codes issued, validated, and percentage validated by age of child and term

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LA Map of Validation Rates

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Time series of Validation Rates

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Autumn 2024 Local Authority Returns and School Census Headcount and PTEs data

Take-up of the government-funded hours in the 2024 Autumn term 

For the financial year 2024-25, the department is collecting termly data about the take-up of the government-funded hours for the new early years entitlements for eligible working parents of 2-year-olds for the 2024 summer term and 9 months to 2-year-olds for the 2024 autumn term. We are now publishing the data from the 2024 autumn term (see previous publication for summer term data). 

Local authorities were required to submit data from their private, voluntary and independent (PVI) childcare settings, and the data for school-based settings was collected via the 2024 autumn term school census. For the 9 month to 2-year-old working parent entitlement, we collected data on the ‘total number of children’ and the ‘total number of entitlement hours’ taken up by children eligible for the government-funded hours in the autumn term count week in each local authority. For PVI settings, the 2024 autumn term data count week commenced on the 4th of November 2024. For school-based settings, the data was collected on the autumn term school census day on the 3rd of October 2024. Further details about the termly data collection is available at: Early years data collection for the 2024 to 2025 financial year - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab). 

We are publishing the data from both the PVI and school-based settings. The data includes the total number of children accessing the 9 month to 2-year-old working parent entitlement in each LA, as well as the part-time equivalents (PTEs) hours which we have calculated using the ‘number of children’ and the ‘number of hours’ taken up in the summer term (a child taking up 15 hours a week is equal to 1 PTE). The PTEs hours will be used to determine local authorities' early years dedicated school grant (DSG) funding allocations for the 9 month to 2-year-old working parents entitlement.

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Background to the policy

All three and four-year-olds in England are entitled to 15 hours a week of funded early education for 38 weeks of the year (term-time). In addition, since September 2017 three-and four-year-olds from families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage, and less than £100,000 per year, have been entitled to 30 hours free childcare per week, for 38 weeks a year.  

In 2023 the government announced that the entitlement would be extended to 30 hours free childcare per week for eligible working families for children aged nine months and older. The rollout of this policy is staggered such that from April 2024 eligible parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours free childcare. From September 2024 eligible working parents of children from the age of nine months will be able to access 15 hours free childcare, and from September 2025 all children aged nine months and above from eligible working families will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week, for 38 weeks a year.

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Background to the data source

Parents apply and have their eligibility checked for the free childcare offer (also known as their ‘entitlement’) via HMRC’s Childcare Service. If a parent is found to be eligible, the Childcare Service will send an eligibility code to the parent and log that code in the Eligibility Checking System (ECS). Parents take their eligibility code to their chosen childcare provider and the provider checks that the eligibility code is valid. This is recorded via the ECS and is referred to throughout this publication as being ‘validated’. A parent must have generated an eligibility code, in advance of the start of term, and this must be validated to enable a child to access the offer.

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Interpreting the data

Typically, fewer eligibility codes for childcare entitlement offers are validated than are issued (see methodology). The proportion of codes validated can be impacted by several factors, including: 

  • Parental behaviour. Parents may have applied for a code in advance of the term but subsequently decided that their child was not ready to attend a formal setting by the time the term began. Similarly, the parent may have an issued code but be yet to arrange or choose a preferred provider, or their child may not yet have taken up their place at their preferred provider.
  • Provider behaviour. The local chosen provider may not have a place available to offer, or may not offer entitlement funded hours. In these cases, the code is not validated, but the child may or may not be attending. This could also reflect a delay (a) while the provider makes a decision, for example if waiting for funding rate confirmation from their local authority, or (b) if the provider routinely validates codes for places taken up later in the term. 
  • Miscellaneous. There may be issues or delays in the ECS system, meaning a code was issued but not validated. For example, the code may have been issued but the LA has not validated the code, despite a provider confirming the place. Codes issued reflect codes applied for by the application deadline, though a small number continue to be processed and issued beyond this date. This means a small number of parents may not have had chance to validate the code with their chosen provider and LA by the 23rd of February. Additionally, some codes were automatically issued to parents with Tax-Free Childcare accounts who may not have intended to apply for one (see methodology section for more details).
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Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Management information

Management information describes aggregate information collated and used in the normal course of business to inform operational delivery, policy development or the management of organisational performance. It is usually based on administrative data but can also be a product of survey data. The terms administrative data and management information are sometimes used interchangeably.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Expansion to early childcare entitlements: eligibility codes issued and validated statistics and data:

Early Years Analysis and Research Unit

Email: EY.AnalysisANDResearch@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Joe Willoughby

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