Claim early years entitlement

Find out how to claim the Early Years Entitlement (EYE) if you provide early years childcare for children aged nine months to four years old.

Eligibility

Children

From September 2025, children aged nine months to four years old can claim up to 30 hours of EYE funding if they meet the Working Family Criteria.

Some two year old children can claim early learning funding if the family are in receipt of additional support and fit the eligibility criteria.

All three and four year old children can claim the universal 15 hours per week of Early Years Entitlement (EYE) funding the term after their birthday. Some children aged three and four year are eligible for an additional 15 hours per week (extended entitlement) if they meet the Working Family Criteria.

See our Childcare for children aged nine months to four years old page for further information.

Please visit the Best Start in Life Parent Hub for eligibility checking and signposting to the correct application process.

Provider

To claim the EYE, all Early Years providers need to be registered with:

• Ofsted
• Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) - This is completed by agreeing to and signing the current Provider Agreement which sets out the local code of practice.
• Please contact the Early Years Entitlement Team at B&NES to start this process on: eye@bathnes.gov.uk).

Please note, the Department of Education states that children eligible for the disadvantaged two-year-old entitlement should only be funded at Ofsted provisions inspected as "Good" or "Outstanding". 

Claim for EYE

Nine months to two years old (within working families)

For those children who are aged nine months to two years old within working families and who are eligible for 30 hours of funded childcare a week, the parent or carer will receive an 11-digit code from HMRC which is applied for on the Best Start in Life Parent Hub which confirms their eligibility. This code must be given to their provider who will be able to check the validity to confirm their eligibility. For these children, their EYE funding will start the term after they turn 9 months old.

Early learning for two year olds

For those two year old children who are entitled to the 15 hours of Early Learning EYE due to their families being in receipt of additional support and fitting the eligibility criteria, they will receive a ten-digit code which is provided by B&NES council or other local authority in which the child lives. This funding can start any date after the issue of the code once the child is eligible by age.

Three and four year olds (within working families)

For three and four year old children eligible for 30 hours of EYE, the parent or carer will need to apply and confirm their eligibility through an online checker on the Best Start in Life Parent Hub. Parents/carers will be provided with an eligibility code once the application is completed and approved. Providers will need to verify the codes through the Early Years Portal provided by B&NES. Parents/Carers will need to reconfirm their eligibility regularly. The provider will be advised if the code is past its eligibility date and still valid.

Forms

Early Years Entitlement Funding - Parental Declaration Form 

An ‘Early Years Entitlement Funding - Parental Declaration Form’ has been provided for Early Years Settings by the DfE as a way of collecting comprehensive parental and child information required for claiming the EYE. Providers are not required to use the form from a statutory stance, but it is highly recommended to ensure that all valid and necessary information is collected by providers. 

This form is for Provider’s internal use and you do not need to send completed copies to the EYE Team at B&NES. This form can be found on The Hub

Payment for EYE

Once providers register with B&NES, the team will contact them regularly to request information to support the claim for their child or children within their setting. B&NES will pay all childminders monthly and all other providers by a termly methodology of two main payments. 

Providers should accurately complete and submit their headcount and other necessary data returns by the agreed date. 
 

Estimate payment

All group providers who would like an estimate payment before the start of the term will need to send the estimated number of children and hours they wish to claim for during that term. 

All childminders claiming for a term will need to send the estimate information before the start of term as this will be used for calculating monthly payments.

No individual child details are required at this stage.

For both group providers and childminders, a full headcount is then required after the start of term which will detail and confirm all the child’s individual details and the hours being claimed for each individual child. The EYE team will contact the provider via email to confirm when this information is required.
 

Balance payment

The ‘balance’ payment is the difference between the estimate already paid and the total amount due for individual children as per information supplied on the headcount each term. 

If there are changes later in the term, providers may be paid a mid-term adjustment/amendment. Where the estimate information is not submitted on time, no estimate payment will be made and the full amount due will be paid as one actual payment later in the term. 

Childminders will be paid monthly on 20th of each month. The estimate information supplied will provide an estimated total amount for the term. A monthly payment amount will then be calculated by dividing this by the number of months in that term. The final payment of each term will be adjusted following the headcount and any mid-term adjustments. 

For each payment, the EYE team need information completed fully and returned securely via our Early Years Portal by the published dates. 

How much can be claimed?

Nine months to two years

The funding for children aged nine months to two years old is paid at a fixed hourly rate for all providers.

Two year olds

The two year old funding is paid at a fixed hourly rate for all providers.

Both of the above offers are now eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) where applicable. This will be paid at the same rate as for children aged 3 and above.

Three and four year olds

The three and four year old funding is based on a Single Funding Formula (SFF) for all providers and is made up of the following elements: 

• A basic hourly rate paid to all providers delivering EYE.
• A small deprivation supplement paid for all funded hours to all providers.
• EY Pupil Premium pays an additional rate per hour for eligible children.
• Additional deprivation supplement is paid for children identified to receive EY Pupil Premium. 
   

Amount of hours providers can offer

Providers can choose to offer the full entitlement of hours, their current number of hours or offer somewhere in between depending on what suits their business model or opening hours. The total hours providers can offer will depend on how many hours a child is eligible for. If a child is eligible for 15 to 30 hours, this doesn't mean the provider has to offer those hours. Children can split their funding with more than one provider. 

EYE is paid in three terms over the academic year this equals 38 weeks term time only (TTO) or 47.5 weeks all year round (AYR). Although if a setting is open for more weeks of a year, providers can choose to spread the total number of hours over more weeks. However, this isn't mandatory, and providers would need to agree this with the parent or carer. 

Providers are responsible for determining their own term dates. The total of hours that B&NES pay over the academic year must be allocated to the child in a regular pattern agreed with the parent. 

B&NES strongly recommend that providers set terms and funding dates for the academic year prior to September each year and ensure that this information is communicated to all parents.

The table below provides an example of TTO and AYR hourly splits: 

Term	Term time only maximum	All year round maximum (15 hours)	All year round maximum (30 hours)
Autumn	14 weeks x 15 hours or 30 hours	210 total	420 total
Spring	11 weeks x 15 hours or 30 hours	165 total	330 total
Summer	13 weeks x 15 hours or 30 hours	195 total	390 total

Although the entitlement (15 or 30 hours) is for 38 weeks, if providers are open for more weeks, they can spread the total amount of hours (for example, 38 weeks x 15 hours) over more weeks. However, this isn't mandatory, and providers would need to agree this with the parent or carer.

Working Families Entitlement for eligible children

If children are eligible to the Working Families Entitlement, the family must confirm their eligibility via the Best Start in Life Parent Hub before the start of the term. If they become eligible part way through a term, the EYE offer can only be used after the start of the next term.

If the parent has a valid code before the start of the term, providers can choose to let the funded hours start or change part way through that term, at an appropriate time, which could be the next billing period, or the next term.

How long does the extended offer last?

The parent or carer will be sent reminders to check their eligibility for the working families’ criteria every three months. In a small number of cases, the parent may no longer be eligible, but there is a grace period in which the funding can still be offered as follows.

Date parent or carer becomes ineligible	Audit date	Grace period end date
1 Jan to 10 Feb	11 Feb	31 Mar
11 Feb to 31 Mar	1 Apr	31 Aug
1 Apr to 26 May	27 May	31 Aug
27 May to 31 Aug	1 Sep	31 Dec
1 Sep to 21 Oct	22 Oct	31 Dec
22 Oct to 31 Dec	1 Jan	31 Mar

Funding split between providers

Funding can be split between more than one provider, but the parent or carer must declare on the EYE form how many hours they want to claim at all providers.

Where one provider offers funding term time and the other offers all year funding, the parent or carer should declare the total hours being claimed at each provider. This will also apply for children attending one provider in B&NES and other providers in another local authority.

A child can claim at a maximum of two providers during one day, and a maximum of three providers in total.