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Guidance

Early years entitlements expansion: system guidance

Technical information for local authorities and software suppliers preparing for the early education and childcare entitlements expansions.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
2 April 2024
Last updated:
30 May 2025
Show all updates

  1. Updated the guidance on the September 2025 expansion of entitlements to reflect early years pupil premium policy.

  2. Added 'September 2025 early education and childcare entitlements expansion: local authority system guidance'.

  3. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

September 2025 early education and childcare entitlements expansion: local authority system guidance

PDF, 219 KB, 15 pages

September 2024 early education and childcare entitlements expansion: local authority system guidance

PDF, 282 KB, 16 pages

Details

This is technical information to support the development of digital systems, aiding the expansion of the early years entitlements.

These developments will enable eligible working parents of children aged 9 months and older to claim up to 30 hours of free early education and childcare per week.

This information is for:

  • suppliers of software for local authority management information systems (MIS), specifically those that provide early years entitlement systems
  • users of local authority MIS software

The early education and childcare statutory guidance sets out the duties on schools and local authorities.

The early years entitlements local authority funding operational guide 2024 to 2025 is the guidance that local authorities should follow when funding childcare providers to deliver the early years entitlements.

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