Over a million families in the UK are entitled to support with the costs of childcare from the government, but many are missing out because childcare providers in their area haven’t signed up to accept the various offers.
This also means that many childcare providers are missing out on boosting their businesses by increasing demand, as they aren’t accessible to the families who use government childcare support.
With the school summer holidays soon approaching, it is more important than ever that parents and carers are able to access the financial aid they qualify for. It can reduce their costs, help them to stay in work, or help them work more hours.
In order to help raise awareness, we encourage all childcare providers to remind their parents to check the Childcare Choice website, where they can find out about the different offers and ensure that they’re not missing out on the support they could be entitled to.
We also encourage all providers to check that they have the correct elements in place, such as Ofsted registration and active Tax-Free Childcare accounts, to widen their potential client base by offering their services to families using government childcare support.
You can find the Department for Education’s provider toolkit on their website, which includes a step-by-step guide to ensuring you are set up to accept all the offers, along with promotional resources to advertise that your accessibility to the families using the offers in your area.