Wood Street Nursery & Forest School​

FEET Funding (up to 15 hrs)
Funded Early Education for Two Year Old’s (FEET) offers eligible families up to 15 hours of funded early education and childcare per week, for 38 weeks each year. You can find out if your child can get FEET by checking the financial and automatically funded criteria below.

Automatically funded criteria: If your child is in one of the groups below they will automatically be eligible:
•    Child looked after by Surrey County Council.
•    Child who has been adopted or has left care through special guardianship or child arrangements order.
•    Child with a Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan
•    Child getting Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

Financial criteria: If your family receives one of the following benefits then your child may be eligible to claim FEET:
•    Income Support
•    Income based Jobseeker’s Allowance
•    Income related to Employment and Support Allowance
•    Support through Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
•    The Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
•    Child Tax Credit and have an annual household income up to £16,190 before tax
•    Working Tax Credit and have an annual household income up to £16,190 before tax
•    Universal Credit if you and your partner have a combined income from work of less than £15,400 a year after tax

Funding can be applied for the term of your child’s second birthday but it won’t start until the following academic term. Your child can continue to receive FEET until the term after their third birthday when they will become eligible for Free Early Education for 3 and 4 year olds (FEE Funding) which our pre-school also supports. For a full list of the FEET criteria, and to get specific advice about your particular circumstances, visit the Surrey County Council FEET page.

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Working parent and Carers funding entailment:
•    From Sept 2024, eligible working parents and carers of children aged 9 months and above can access 15 hours funded early education and childcare (over 38 weeks a year) from the term after their child turning 9 months.
•    From Sept 2025, the offer will be rolled out in full, with eligible working parents and carers of children aged 9 months and above able to access 30 hours funded early education and childcare (over 38 weeks a year) from the term after their child turning 9 months.
•    By September 2026, all parents and carers who require wraparound childcare should be able to have access, either from their school or from another provider in their local area. The number of wraparound childcare places available for primary school aged children across the county will be increasing from September 2024 onwards in preparation for this.

You can find more information on the expansion and the different funding available in Surrey on our Funded childcare in Surrey.

Three and four year olds
All parents of three and four year olds can have up to 570 hours of funded early education a year. You can offer this as 15 hours a week for 38 weeks a year (called a term time offer) or you may want to spread the total number of funded hours over term time and school holidays by offering fewer hours each week (called a stretched offer).

30 hours childcare is available to eligible working families of 3 and 4 year olds in England. This is an additional 15 hours on top of the 15 hours available to all parents of three and four year olds. Just like the 15 hours entitlement, you do not have to offer 30 hours childcare.

Tax Fee Childcare Scheme
The government’s Tax-Free Childcare scheme enables eligible working families to save 20% of their childcare costs. It is available for working parents with children under 12 (or under 17 for children with a disability). For every £8 you or someone else pays in to the account the government will add another £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year (or £4,000 for children with a disability). This means that families will receive an extra £20 for every £80 they save towards childcare costs, totalling £100.

The scheme is available for working families where:
•    both parents are in work or it is a single parent household
•    each parent earns at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week and no more than £100,000 a year
•    parents aren’t already receiving support through Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Universal Credit or childcare vouchers.

It can also be used by parents who are:
•    self-employed (newly self-employed parents will not have to earn the minimum income levels during their ‘start-up’ period)
•    on paid sick leave
•    on paid or unpaid statutory maternity, paternity or adoption leave

If you’re not working, you may still be eligible if your partner is working, and you get Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance.

How can I register for the scheme?
You can apply for the scheme through the government’s Childcare Choices website. You, and your partner, if you have one, will need your:
•    National insurance number (s).
•    Details of one or more of the following – your UK Passport, tax credits, P60 or a recent payslip.
•    In some cases, additional checks may be needed to confirm whether you’re eligible. If you are found ineligible you will be told why.

Once you have opened your account it can be used to pay in money to use towards your childcare costs with a childcare provider who has also registered for the scheme. Grandparents, other family members and employers will also be able to pay into the account if they choose. You can find additional information about Tax-Free Childcare on the gov.uk website.