The government announced a major expansion of childcare support aiming to remove barriers to work for parents with children under three in a bid to help more parents return to work. You can read more about childcare expansion.

Expanded Entitlement is for early years and childcare providers and prospective providers who want to know how to apply for Childcare Expansion Capital Grant funding in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

We strongly recommend that you read the terms and conditions of the grant and the pre-requisites as this could save you a considerable amount of time and effort. These documents set out the conditions and requirements you must fulfil before you can apply for the grant.

Expanded Entitlement seeks to increase the availability of childcare for children aged between 9 months to 4 years old for eligible working parents. This project is split into three stages, from:

• April 2024, eligible working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access up to 15 hours per week of funded childcare from the term after their child turns two
• September 2024, up to 15 hours per week of funded childcare will be extended to eligible working parents with a child from nine months old (eligible from the term after the child turns nine months old)
• September 2025, eligible working parents of children from 9 months to school age will be entitled to 30 hours of funded childcare a week.

You can read more about this project on childcarechoices.gov.uk.

Funding available

Expanded Entitlement has capital grant funding available. The programme is designed to support the expansion of childcare places, including 30 hours early years entitlement for working families.

Capital grant funding may be awarded to childcare providers to create additional capacity for childcare places where there is clear demand, by extending existing or creating new provision. The funding is intended to create new places and not to be used for improving the quality of existing provision.