Nursery World - Minister sets out more details on funding rates for childcare reforms

Children's minister Claire Couthino says that national average hourly funding rate for two-year-olds will rise to £8 this September and to £5.50 for three-to-four-year-olds. When the offer of 15 hours for children aged nine months and above is launched in September 2024, hourly funding is expected to be around £11 – with promises of ‘more to come’.

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The minister's comments follow the major childcare reforms announced by the Chancellor in the Budget that will see the Government phase in more entitlements to ‘free’ childcare for working parents, starting with two-year-olds from next April.

The Budget report said the Government would ‘substantially uplift the hourly funding rate paid to providers to deliver the existing free hours offer in England’ to the tune of £204m in 2023-24, increasing to £288m in 2024-25.

However, until now there had been little detail on the funding rates that providers could expect to receive for increasing the entitlements for younger children.

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