Childcare - See also Early Years & Wraparound

Nursery Admissions Policy

NFPS Nursery Admissions Policy Apr24-Jan26

All parents of pre-school children in Newcastle are entitled to some free early education and childcare before they take up a place in a Reception class.

All three-and-four-year-olds in England can get 570 hours of free early education or childcare a year - the universal entitlement.

This can be taken as 15 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year (the same weeks as school term time)

You can start claiming free childcare after your child turns three. The date you can claim will depend on when their birthday is.

Children born between 1 April and 31 August will be eligible to a free place the beginning of term on or after 1 September.
Children born between 1 September and 31 December will be eligible to a free place the beginning of term on or after 1 January.
Children born between 1 January and 31 March will be eligible to a free place the beginning of term on or after 1 April.

You can no longer claim free childcare once your child starts Reception class

30 hours free childcare for working parents

Some working parents will be entitled to an extra 15 hours early education or childcare for their three or four year old child. If you are eligible you can have 30 hours instead of the usual 15 hours over 38 weeks per year.

Am I eligible?

Families will be eligible where:

both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) or national living wage (NLW), and each parent earns less than £100,000 per year.
parents’ earnings must reflect the equivalent value of at least 16 hours of work at NMW or NLW, which is £142.56 a week at the current NMW rate. This includes those parents on zero-hour contracts who meet the criteria.
the minimum amount will always be judged against the lowest hourly rate that a person of the parent’s age could legally be paid as minimum wage rates vary by age.
working will include the employed and self-employed and those on zero-hour contracts, and also those away from work due to statutory sick pay, maternity, paternity or adoption leave and where one parent is working and the other is in receipt of benefits due to caring responsibility or disability.
the person applying for the childcare (usually the parent) is ‘resident in the UK’.
foster carers are only eligible for their paid employment in additional to their paid foster care role, so if you are a foster carer but do not work in addition to this you will not be eligible. See more at the bottom of this page.

You can use up to three different providers for instance a school playgroup a childminder and a day nursery. But you need to let each provider know you are using other provision.

You can also get help with childcare costs for older children or for hours in addition to your free entitlement. This can be through Tax Free Childcare or support through Tax Credits or Universal Credit.