The Welsh Government Childcare Offer, early education funding, Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit, explained and claimed for you
Funding and the 30-hours offer
Three- and four-year-olds of working parents get thirty hours a week of funded early education and childcare for forty-eight weeks a year under the Childcare Offer for Wales. We are registered for it, we tell you when your child qualifies, we help with the application, and a funded day here costs £8 for meals and consumables. Tax-Free Childcare takes a further 20% off what is left.
Nursery funding in Wales is generous and confusing, and the confusion costs families money every year. This page is the plain version: what the offer is, who qualifies, what it is worth here, and what to do about it. If you would rather be told, ring Bethan; she has done the application with a hundred families and it takes twenty minutes.
The Childcare Offer for Wales gives working parents of three- and four-year-olds thirty hours a week of funded early education and childcare for forty-eight weeks of the year, from the term after the child's third birthday until the September after they turn four. Both parents (or the one parent in a single-parent household) need to be working and earning at least the equivalent of sixteen hours a week at the minimum wage, and neither can earn over £100,000. You apply online through the Welsh Government portal, the council confirms it, and we claim the hours directly, so nothing passes through you.
At Little Acorns a full day is ten and a half hours and we claim ten of them, so three full days use the thirty hours. Those three days cost you £8 each, which is what the food and consumables cost us; the Welsh Government pays us the hourly rate for the rest. Days four and five in the same week are charged at the full Oaks rate of £60. The offer runs for forty-eight weeks; we are open for fifty-one, and the three unfunded weeks (usually the first week of each summer holiday and two in the spring) are charged in full, with the dates published a year ahead. The fees page calculator shows the weekly and monthly figure for any pattern of days with the offer applied.
Before the offer starts, every three-year-old in Wales gets early education funding of ten hours a week in term time, which we also claim as a registered setting. If you are not working, or not yet eligible, those ten hours reduce the Oaks fee by their value from the term after the third birthday. Two-year-olds in some Cardiff postcodes qualify for Flying Start childcare, which is delivered by council-approved settings; we are not one, and we will tell you so and point you to the council's list if that is better for your family.
Tax-Free Childcare works alongside all of the above: for every £8 you pay into the government account, it adds £2, up to £2,000 a year per child, and the account pays us directly. Most of our families use it and it is the single thing worth setting up on the day you confirm the place. Universal Credit claimants can instead claim back up to 85% of childcare costs, but not alongside Tax-Free Childcare, so it is one or the other; we give you the invoices either way and will sign whatever the form needs.
What is included
- Registered for the Childcare Offer for Wales (30 hours) and early education funding (10 hours)
- A funded full day costs £8; days four and five at the full rate; three unfunded weeks a year, dated a year ahead
- Bethan walks you through the online application; the claim goes direct from us to the council
- Tax-Free Childcare: the account pays us, we are registered with it, 20% back on what is left
- Universal Credit childcare invoices and forms signed the same day
- A written statement every month showing the funded hours and what you paid
What it costs
A funded day is £8. Fees in the three unfunded weeks and for days four and five are at the full day rate; the fees page calculator works it out. The fees page has every rate side by side and a calculator for your days with the 30-hours offer applied; the day page has the routine and this week's menu.
Questions about funding and 30 hours
When does my child qualify for the 30 hours?
From the term after their third birthday: born January to March, the April term; born April to August, the September term; born September to December, the January term. It runs until the September after they turn four, when school starts. We write to you a term ahead with the application link.
Is a funded day really only £8?
For the first three full days in a week, yes: thirty funded hours cover ten hours a day, and the £8 is the actual cost of the food and consumables, which the offer does not pay for. A fourth or fifth day is £60. The calculator on the fees page shows your exact pattern.
Can I use the hours over five short days instead?
Yes. Five mornings (7:30 to 1) use five and a half hours each, so twenty-seven and a half of the thirty, and you pay £8 a day for the meals. The calculator works on full days; ring for a half-day pattern and we will send the figure in writing.
Come and see it running. Tuesday to Thursday, forty minutes, bring the child.
Tell us your child's age and the days you are thinking of, and we reply within the working day with a time to walk round every room while it is open, the garden, the kitchen and the fees. No pressure and nothing to sign; the waiting list is free to join afterwards. Or ring Bethan.