Statutory guidance

Early education and childcare

Statutory guidance for local authorities on the provision of early education and childcare.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 8 September 2014
• Last updated: 1 April 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 1 April 2026

     Removed 'Early education and childcare (valid until 31 March 2026)'. The current 'Early education and childcare' guidance is valid from 1 April 2026.

  2. 9 February 2026

     The statutory guidance has been updated to provide updated on Ofsted inspections and quality, flexibility, compliance and charging.

  3. 21 February 2025

     Added 'Chargeable extras: template'. This should be used alongside the 'Early education and childcare (effective from 1 April 2025)' guidance.

  4. 21 February 2025

     We have updated the statutory guidance for April 2025. In the charging section, our changes reaffirm that the 15 or 30 hours entitlements must be accessible free of charge to parents. They also reaffirm that there must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. Our updates also reflect changes to Ofsted inspection judgements for state schools inspected after 2 September 2024. We have also clarified the eligibility criteria for 2 year olds, for both entitlements.

  5. 1 January 2024

     Updated with new statutory guidance which applies from 1 April 2024.

  6. 12 April 2023

     Updated guidance for local authorities making decisions on funding providers registered at an ‘ineffective' childminder agency to deliver the free early education and childcare entitlements. Changes are included in para A3.13.

  7. 11 February 2019

     Removed outdated guidance documents.

  8. 21 June 2018

     Added new guidance for 1 September 2018.

  9. 21 March 2018

     Replaced 'Early education and childcare: valid from 1 September 2017' with an updated version.

  10. 16 February 2018

      Updated Part E: legal annex about free early education entitlement for two-year-olds under Universal Credit. The legislation comes into force on 1 April 2018.

  11. 3 March 2017

      Added a new version of the statutory guidance that will be valid from 1 September 2017.

  12. 8 September 2014

      First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Early education and childcare

HTML

Chargeable extras: template

MS Word Document, 46 KB

Details

This guidance is for local authorities. It relates to their duties under section 2 of the Childcare Act 2016 and sections 6, 7, 7A, 9A, 12 and 13 of the Childcare Act 2006.

It contains information on:

• free childcare entitlements for 2-, 3- and 4-year olds
• 30 hours free childcare
• the introduction of 30 hours free childcare for children in foster care

The statutory guidance sets out what local authorities must do according to legislation and what they should do to fulfil their statutory responsibilities. Local authorities must have regard to this guidance when seeking to discharge those duties and they should not depart from it unless they have a good reason not to.

Local authorities can use the ‘Chargeable extras: template’ to help providers give information on their websites about the:

• costs for all chargeable extras
• pattern of hours that parents can take the entitlements

While providers may wish to note this guidance, their responsibilities will be set out in their local arrangement that they have with their local authority, in respect of delivering the early years entitlements. A model agreement for free early years provision and childcare is also available.