Funded childcare hours: what a nursery can and cannot charge parents (guidance valid from 1 April 2026)

In short

• The funded hours must be free to the parent. The guidance says there must not be “any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours” (A1.31).
• You may charge for meals, consumables, optional activities and additional private hours, but each must be voluntary and none may be a condition of the funded place (A1.32, A1.36).
• Invoices and receipts should split into funded hours, additional hours, food, non-food consumables and activities (A1.42).
• Publish your chargeable extras, and complete a parental declaration before a child first takes up a funded place (A1.40, A1.43).
• This is guidance to local authorities. Your own local authority’s terms sit on top of it.

1. The hours themselves

GOV.UK tells working parents in England who meet its conditions that they can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year, for a child aged 9 months to 4 years old. Eligibility has income, partner and immigration conditions, so working alone is not enough. The hours start the term after the child reaches the age and the parent holds a valid code (A1.10), which means 1 January, 1 April or 1 September, not the birthday itself. Foster parents cannot use the online application and apply through their social worker and local authority. The guidance records the date this reached the youngest children: the table in A1.10 says “Since 1 September 2025”, for children “9 months old and above”, 1,140 hours a year.

If your child is aged 9 months to 4 years old You can get 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year.

For three- and four-year-olds there is also a universal entitlement that does not depend on the parents’ work. The guidance gives it as 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks and up to 52 weeks (A1.6). Its own footnote puts it plainly:

This equates to 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year. Children may stretch their entitlement over more than 38 weeks (and up to 52 weeks). This means taking fewer hours per week, subject to a maximum of 570 hours a year.

2. What must be free

This is the rule everything else hangs on. The funding is for the hours. It is not meant to cover meals, consumables, extra hours or extra services, and it is not a reason to charge parents for the hours.

A1.31 Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high-quality, flexible childcare. The 15 or 30 hours must be able to be accessed free of charge to parents. There must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. Government funding is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.

A1.38 then lists what providers should not charge for in connection with the entitlement hours. The paragraph is addressed to local authorities, who “must take all steps available to ensure” it. The items most often met in a nursery’s price list are these:

top-up fees (any difference between a provider’s normal charge to parents and the funding they receive from the local authority to deliver free places) … non-refundable registration fees as a condition of taking up a child’s free entitlement place … non-refundable retainer fees in relation to entitlement places

general charges, including but not limited to, non-itemised enrichment charges, sustainability charges, business continuity charges, additional charges, enhanced ratios, hourly rates, or any other supplementary charges on top of the free hours … any additional fees that are not specifically identified and itemised as being for chargeable extras as described in A1.32

Read the last item twice. A fee that is not named and itemised as one of the chargeable extras is on the list of things not to charge. The same paragraph also names materials, business running costs and additional support costs for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We have not quoted those in full. Read A1.38 itself.

3. What you may charge, if the parent can say no

A1.32 Local authorities should ensure that providers are aware that they can charge parents for the following extras in connection with the free hours. However, these charges must be voluntary for the parent: consumables to be used by the child, such as nappies or sun cream; meals and snacks consumed by the child; extra optional activities such as events, celebrations, specialist tuition (for example music classes or foreign languages) or other activities that are not directly related or necessary for the effective delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework

Providers can also charge parents for any additional, private paid hours according to their usual terms and conditions provided taking up private paid hours is not a condition of accessing a free place.

In plain words: four things can be charged. Each is the parent’s choice to take up; once booked, your usual terms apply (A1.32). The guidance says what choice means.

A1.34 Parents must be able to opt out of paying for chargeable extras and the associated consumable or activity for their child.

A1.36 In all cases, these chargeable extras must not be a condition of accessing a free place, for example, parents should not be declined a free place because they opt out of chargeable extras. This is so all parents, including disadvantaged families, have fair access to a free place. A local authority should intervene if a provider seeks to make additional hours, optional services or optional consumables a mandatory condition of accessing a free place.

A1.35 puts a duty on the provider here. If you choose to offer the funded hours, you are responsible for a policy that gives parents “reasonable alternatives”. The guidance gives two examples.

A1.35 Providers should be mindful of the impact of charges on families, particularly the most disadvantaged. Providers who choose to offer the free entitlements are responsible for setting a policy on providing parents with options for alternatives to additional charges. This policy must offer reasonable alternatives that allow parents to access the entitlement for free, including allowing parents to supply their own, or waiving the cost of these items.

A1.37 asks for the same quality and the same access for every child, “regardless of whether they choose to pay for additional hours, optional extra services, meals or consumables”. A child whose parent opts out of a trip still gets provision that follows the EYFS (A1.34).

4. Telling parents before they sign

Three things the guidance asks for: publish the prices, itemise the invoice, and complete a declaration. A1.40 says where to publish, and what to show.

A1.40 The costs of chargeable extras should be published on provider websites or, where they do not have any website, on local authority Family Information Services. These should be clear, up to date and easily accessible to parents, to enable parents to make an informed choice of provider. They should set out, for each setting, the amounts charged for the chargeable extras listed, as well as the pattern of hours that parents can take the entitlements. Local authorities should ensure providers illustrate a breakdown of costs, as detailed in DfE’s Chargeable extras: template.

The template is an attachment on the guidance’s GOV.UK page (a Word file, “Chargeable extras: template”). We have not reproduced it. A1.41 lets a local authority exempt childminders, and other providers caring for 10 or fewer children at any one time, from publishing online and from using the template. A nursery with more children than that is not in that group.

A1.43 Local authorities should also ensure providers complete a parental declaration with the parent before a child first takes up a free place. This declaration should set out their free hours, the pattern of hours taken up during the week, and any additional optional charges the parent has opted to pay for. This is to ensure both parents and providers have clarity of the number of entitlements hours and any additional charges agreed.

Keep it current. DfE’s guidance on the declaration form says parents should only be asked to re-sign it if the information in the form changes, for example the hours, the days, the settings or the child’s eligibility. A fresh signature every term when nothing has changed is not asked for.

A1.43 points to a parental declaration template in the DfE’s “Free early years provision and childcare: model agreement”. We have not captured that document, so we do not describe it here.

5. The itemised invoice

A1.42 Invoices and receipts should be itemised, and local authorities should work with providers to ensure their invoices break down separately into: the free entitlement hours; additional private paid hours; food charges; non-food consumables charges; activities charges

Local authorities should ensure these itemised invoices are in place. This is to allow parents to see that they have received their child’s free entitlement hours completely free of charge and understand that any fees paid are for additional hours or optional services. Invoices and receipts should include the provider’s full details so that they can be identified as coming from a specific provider.

Below is an example of the shape. The hours are invented for illustration, and no prices are shown, because prices are yours to set and publish. The right-hand column says what the guidance does with each line.

Invoice line	Example	Charge to parent	Guidance
Free entitlement hours	30 hours a week over 38 weeks, as shown in the declaration	Nothing	A1.31, A1.42
Additional private paid hours	10 hours a week beyond the funded 30	Your published rate, on your usual terms	A1.32, A1.42. Must not be a condition of the funded place.
Food charges	Lunch and snacks, only if the parent opted in	Your published price per meal	A1.32, A1.34. Your policy must offer a reasonable alternative, such as the parent supplying their own or the cost being waived (A1.35); allergy and safer-eating rules still apply.
Non-food consumables	Nappies, sun cream, only if the parent opted in	Your published price	A1.32, A1.34
Activities	Specialist music tuition, only if the parent opted in and only if it is not part of delivering the EYFS	Your published price	A1.32, A1.34. Child who opts out still gets EYFS provision.
Provider details	Name, address, registration details	Not a charge	A1.42

6. Stretching, and codes

A parent may spread the funded hours over more weeks. The guidance sets the sums out for local authorities: fewer hours a week over more weeks, with the same total over the year.

A2.12 Enable parents to take up their child’s free place in patterns of hours that stretch their child’s entitlement by taking fewer hours a week over more weeks of the year, where there is provider capacity and parental demand, for example, just under 12 hours a week for 48 weeks of the year where the child is entitled to a total of 570 hours per year or around 23 hours a week for 48 weeks of the year where the child is entitled to a total of 1,140 hours per year (as set out in paragraph A1.10). Providers should set out how many free hours parents are getting per day and per week, to ensure parents understand what free hours they are receiving over the calendar year from when their child first becomes eligible.

A2.9 Ensure that parents and providers are aware that the free entitlement hours cannot be compressed. This means that a parent cannot take more than 15 or 30 hours per week over fewer than 38 weeks of the year.

Two points for the invoice. State how many funded hours the child gets each day and each week (A2.12). And do not leave gaps made of paid hours in the middle of the funded day:

A2.5 Ensure that children are able to take up their free hours in continuous blocks if they wish to, and there should be no artificial breaks in the entitlement hours.

For working parents, the parent applies through the government’s childcare account and gets an 11-digit code (GOV.UK). They must sign in every 3 months to confirm their details, and the code has a termly deadline: 31 December, 31 March or 31 August for hours starting the following term. If eligibility lapses there is a grace period during which the local authority keeps funding the hours (A1.23). The guidance says the code is checked before the child starts:

A1.20 Local authorities should ensure that parents and providers are aware that the eligibility code must be verified by either the local authority or provider before a child can take up the working parent entitlement

7. Whose decision is it?

A2.10 Ensure that providers are aware that they can choose not to deliver free places.

One point about the guidance itself. The wording in this page is from the version valid from 1 April 2026. Older copies still circulate and are worded differently in places (the GOV.UK page removed the version valid until 31 March 2026 on 1 April 2026), so if a document or a local authority letter quotes different paragraph numbers, check which version it is quoting.

How NurseryGuard fits in

NurseryGuard is not a billing product, and it does not issue invoices or hold your price list. It sits alongside the system you use for your children and fees. What it does keep is the policies and records that a visit or an audit asks for: signed policies, the records the EYFS requires and the staff suitability records. If you want your charging policy to be one of the documents your team and your managers can point to, that is a policy for you to write and adopt (A1.35 puts it on the provider), checked against your local authority’s terms. NurseryGuard does not write it for you.

Questions people ask

Sources

• Early education and childcare: statutory guidance for local authoritiesValid from 1 April 2026 (GOV.UK page updated 1 April 2026); retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
• Free Childcare for Working Parents (GOV.UK)Page updated 1 April 2025; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
• Parental declaration form: guidance (Free early years provision and childcare: model agreement, DfE)GOV.UK, page updated 9 February 2026; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK

Related: EYFS staff ratios explained, Ofsted early years inspections, staff files and safer recruitment, food allergies and choking.

NurseryGuard is software, not a legal adviser or an Ofsted inspector; it does not give legal advice. This page describes what the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework, Ofsted’s published guidance and the Department for Education’s guidance say, with the paragraph for each point, so you can read the source yourself. Versions and dates are those in force on the date shown; the documents change, so check the current version before you rely on any of it.