Do you know if you’re eligible for the 30 hours free childcare offer?

Do you know if you’re eligible for 30 hours free childcare?

In September 2018 the Welsh Government announced the expansion of its Childcare Offer for Wales to the whole of Wrexham County Borough from January 2019.

All eligible working parents living in Wrexham are now able to apply to access the Offer for children from the start of the term following their third birthday until the September after they turn four.

It provides parents of three to four years olds living in the area the chance to apply to access up to 30 hours per week of combined Childcare and Early Years Foundation Phase Education during term time and up to nine weeks of childcare (30 hours) in the school holidays through the Childcare offer.

Childcare includes:

– Nurseries
– Child minders
– Playgroups
– Out of school child care

You can choose your own childcare provider that meets your child’s needs. The setting must be registered with CIW or equivalent and must be signed up to deliver the offer.

It is worth noting that charges may still apply for things such as transport and meal costs

Who is eligible for the scheme?

– Your child must be aged three or four years old
– You must earn on average the equivalent of 16 hours a week at National Minimum Wage or Living Wage
– Each parent must earn less than £100,000 per year
– Parents of lone parent families need to be working
– Parents of two parent families must both be working
– Parents who are self employed or on a zero hours contract need to prove their status and provide relevant documents
– Parents who are employed or self employed but are on statutory leave for example, maternity leave
– Foster carers and kinship carers may also be eligible
– Families where one parent gets certain benefits may also be eligible – contact Wrexham Family Information Service for more details.

When can I apply?

Families can apply a maximum of eight weeks before the term they can access the Childcare Offer, so for spring term it would be from November 11 and for summer term it would be from February 24, 2020.

Applications are made via www.flintshire.gov.uk/wrexhamchildcareoffer

How much could you get?

You could get up to 30 hours a week of early education childcare. The 30 hours is made up of a minimum of 10 hours of early education per week and a maximum of 20 hours a week of childcare.

To break this down, it is 10 hours of early education and 20 hours of childcare and for foundation phase nursery it is 12.5 hours of nursery and 17.5 hours of childcare.

In school holidays they can also get 30 hours for up to 9 weeks of the holidays.

How to apply?

Applications are now being taken for the September start date

If you have any problems completing the online application, Wrexham Family Information Service can help. You can call into Contact Wrexham on Lord Street, Monday-Friday 10:30-2:30pm and one of the team will be happy to help.

If you would like to contact the Family Information Service about anything else you can get in touch with one of the team by calling 01978 292094 or email [email protected]

Applications are made via www.flintshire.gov.uk/wrexhamchildcareoffer