Free early education for two year olds

North Somerset Council has funding to provide 570 hours of early education to 50 two year olds across the authority each year.

Eligibility Criteria – Health visitors and children’s centres identify families with eligible two year olds and make referrals using the Common Assessment Form which are assessed by multi-agency panels.

The Department for Education stipulates that families receiving this funding must be ‘workless’ eg, in receipt of one or more of the following - Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Child Tax Credit  at a rate higher than the family element, Extra Working Tax Credit relating to a disability, or Pension Credit.

To these criteria we have added some locally agreed eligibility criteria relating to family, parental or child characteristics. Finally we use social deprivation criteria to identify the most deprived postcodes in the authority and apply these weightings to the postcodes of the referred children to identify the 50 children who will receive the funded childcare. The table below shows when an eligible child would be able to start a two year old funded placement.

Dates when a funded two year old can start their childcare

If you wish your child to be considered for funded two year old childcare, please contact your health visitor or local Children’s Centre. Contact details are available from the Family Information Service on 01934 426 300.