March 2026

Expansion to early childcare entitlements: eligibility codes issued and validated

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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. 

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View releases (6) for Expansion to early childcare entitlements: eligibility codes issued and validated

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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 end of 17th March 2026 (or end of term for Autumn). In addition to this, the latest release also introduces—for the first time—estimates of the number of parents who have benefited from the entitlement, as well as validation rates by area‑level deprivation using Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) deciles.

Autumn term ran from 1st September to 31st December and Spring term will run from 1st January to 31st March 2026, and so remains ongoing. 

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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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Codes issued, validated, and percentage validated by IDACI

The Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) is one of the components of the Indices of Deprivation for England. It measures the proportion of children aged 0–15 living in income‑deprived households within each Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA). Nationally, LSOAs are grouped into ten deciles, where Decile 1 represents the most deprived areas and Decile 10 the least deprived.
This section presents validation rates for eligibility codes issued for Autumn 2025 and Spring 2026 terms, broken down by IDACI decile. It shows the proportion of codes validated for existing users, new users, and all users combined, highlighting how validation patterns vary across areas with different levels of deprivation.

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Number of Parents Benefiting from the 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 was staggered such that from April 2024 eligible parents of two-year-olds were able to access 15 hours free childcare. From September 2024 eligible working parents of children from the age of nine months were able to access 15 hours free childcare, and from September 2025 all children aged nine months and above from eligible working families began accessing 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 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 30th April. 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.

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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: Thabang Nonyane

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