Thirty Hour Entitlement Overview

The Thirty Hour Entitlement portal enables providers and Local Authorities to check the eligibility of working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds to an extra 15 hours of free childcare in addition to the universal entitlement of 15 hours per week.

Parents apply to HMRC for extended childcare and, if they are eligible, they are given an eligibility code to take to their childcare provider. Parents can check the validity of their eligibility code using the Citizen portal and share the information with providers. 

Providers can use the Provider Portal to check the validity of eligibility codes using the DWP Eligibility Checking Service (ECS).

The One v4 Client is updated with the check information, so that Local Authorities can see which children are receiving this benefit and the checks that have been made. Local Authorities can set a scheduled task to automatically recheck a child’s eligibility.

When the child’s forename and surname are used to perform an ad hoc check for 30 hours eligibility, if at any time in the future this child is added to the provider via the Headcount portal, the user is asked if this is the same child and the details of the ad hoc check (date of birth and eligibility code) are copied across to the Headcount portal. For more information, see Run a New Check.

Local Authorities can configure how their providers record claims for extended hours on the Headcount grid in Provider Portal.

The Thirty Hours Entitlement Portal allows the LA Early Admin Officers and Provider users to:

• Advice to Local Authorities
  Local Authorities can configure how their providers record claims for extended hours on the Headcount grid in Provider Portal.
• Set Up the 30 Hour Check Message
  To ensure that the Eligibility dates and Grace Period End dates are displayed in the 30-hour check message.
• Review Previous Checks
  To review the results of previous checks for 30 Hours funding
• Merging Children Records in One v4
  You can merge duplicate child records if only one record has the full extended entitlement information or any of the following extended entitlement information.

• Accept or Reject a Placement
  Requests submitted by parents and carers using Thirty Hour Entitlement in the Citizen portal. Such records are displayed on the Review Previous Checks page with the From Citizen Portal.

• Thirty Hour Home Page

Admin staff can use the menus to administer the portal.

Refer to: One Early Years Headcount Provider Portal, One Early Years 30 Hour Entitlement Citizen Portal  and the One Early Years - Managing Early Years Payments, for additional information.