Childcare sufficiency report 2024

All 3 and 4-year-olds and the most vulnerable 2-year-olds are entitled to 570 hours funded early years education a year. This is delivered as 15 hours a week over 38 weeks (school term time) but can be taken as a stretched offer with fewer hours a week over more weeks per year. In addition, eligible 3 and 4-year-olds of working parents are entitled to a further 15 hours a week. This gives them a 30 hour a week entitlement, or 1,140 hours a year.   

From April 2024, working parents of 2-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours a week of funded early years education. This is under the childcare reforms.

This will expand to:

• children aged nine months in September 2024, and
• 30 hours for working parents of children from nine months to school age by September 2025

Early years entitlements take-up rates

As of July 2024, 604 providers were registered to offer the Early Years Entitlements (EYE) 15 hours or 30 hours for eligible 2, 3 and 4-year-olds.

Lincolnshire currently has a higher take-up of 2-year-old funded places compared to regional and national statistics.  

2-year-old take-up

The Statistical First Release (SFR) is taken from the January census collected each year. The take-up of the entitlement increases throughout the academic year. By the end of the spring term, data shows that more 2-year-olds are accessing places.

3 and 4-year-old take-up

• National: 93.7%
• Regional: 93.2%
• Lincolnshire: 90.8%

The outreach work for 2-year-old funding has been successful in ensuring high take up. This year we have invested in mirroring this success and conducting outreach work for 3 and 4-year-olds. The aims will be to promote the universal 3 and 4-year-old offer across the county. 

This will help us:

• ensure the take-up rate remains high
• understand the reason why parents have chosen not to take up their entitlement and then address them. These could be:
  • costs of childcare
  • SEND needs
  • availability of childcare
  • parental choice

The above table shows that approximately 50% of parents of 3 and 4-year-olds are entitled to the extended offer for working families. This criteria has been applied to the methodology for calculating places needed for the new entitlements for working families.