Your 2-year-old can get free childcare if you live in England and get any of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Universal Credit, and your household income is £15,400 a year or less after tax, not including benefit payments
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit (or both), and your household income is £16,190 a year or less before tax
• the Working Tax Credit 4-week run on (the payment you get when you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)

2-year-olds can also get free childcare if they:

• are looked after by a local authority or are adopted
• have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
• receive Disability Living Allowance

If you’re a non- UK citizen who cannot claim benefits

If your immigration status says you have ‘no recourse to public funds’, you may still get free childcare for your 2-year-old. You must live in England and your household income must be no more than:

• £26,500 for families resident in Torbay with one child
• £30,600 for families resident in Torbay with two or more children

You cannot have more than £16,000 in savings or investments.

If you think you may be entitled to the 2 year old funding as a non-UK citizen with ‘no recourse to public funds’ please contact the Early Years Service on 01803 207895 to discuss how to proceed with an application.

There are a large number of providers of this service within Torbay. You can use any Ofsted registered childcare providers that are judged to be good or outstanding. This could be at a day nursery, school nursery registered to care for 2 year olds, a pre-school, or with a childminder.

All providers receiving funding through this scheme are registered with us and are regularly inspected by Ofsted to ensure they meet the required standards of childcare.

 Find an Ofsted report  Opens in a new window

The hours/sessions you can book and how flexible these are will depend on your chosen childcare provider. You will normally be asked to commit to the same weekly pattern of hours for each term and changes to these will need to be agreed with them.

Although we encourage providers to offer the free hours in a flexible manner, you will need to take the hours within their available sessions.

Your childcare provider may also offer you the choice of attending during term times only (15 hours over 38 weeks of the year) or throughout the year (11 hours per week over the full year).

Your child’s first 15 hours of childcare each week will be free but anything above this will need to be paid for at whatever the normal rates charged by the provider are. 

You may also be charged for any additional services you use, for example hot lunches that are considered over and above the ‘normal’ nursery day. However, you should not have to take any of these additional services in order to receive your free hours.

Example: If your child attends a session of three hours (that is part of your free 15 hours) and the children go for a swimming lesson that costs £5 in that time, you can be charged for the swimming lesson if you want your child to attend. However, your child should not have to attend this swimming lesson (and incur the cost) as a condition of them receiving their free hours and there should be a free alternative available which allows your child to attend the session without this cost.

Within the sessions your childcare provider offers, any hours between 6am and 8pm are potentially free. The first 15 hours your child attends each week (between the hours of 6am and 8pm) at the childcare provider will be the free ones. The maximum a child can claim free in one day is 10 hours and the child should not attend more than 2 providers on different sites in one day.

It will be up to you how many free hours your child receives at each provider. You will need to complete a Parental Declaration Form for each one giving details of the hours you want to use. They will then be able to calculate any fees you owe for the childcare you use over your free hours. If you split your free hours between two providers you will still only receive a maximum of 15 hours each week.