Help with Fees
Fees: Help with Fees
Come in for a chat and we can explain how you could receive financial support towards your childcare costs.
How Does Funding Work?
We understand that trying to navigate childcare funding options can be difficult.
With so much to consider and a lot of options to explore, it can become confusing to know what you are eligible for.
We want to make sure that you feel fully supported and informed when it comes to the savings and financial aid you may be eligible to receive.
How Does Funding Work?
Financial support is available, subject to eligibility, from the following:
Universal Credits
Tax free childcare
Tax credits
Childcare vouchers
Support while you study (Learning grant)
Tax Credit Claimants
Universal Credit
Tax Free Childcare
Who is eligible?
Working families, including the self-employed, in the UK
Earning under £100k and at least £167 per week (equal to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage) each
Who aren't receiving Tax Credits, Universal Credit or childcare vouchers
With children aged 0-11 (or 0-16 if disabled)
For every £8 you pay into an online account, the government will add an extra £2, up to £2,000 per child per year.
You can use Tax-Free Childcare all year round to spend on regulated child care, for example, if your childcare costs are £750 per month, you would pay £600 into your childcare account and the government would pay in £150. This would be an annual saving of £1,800 per child.
15 hours for 2 year olds
For families in England, receiving some forms of support or working families in England
With 2-year-old children
15 hours of funded childcare or early education for 38 weeks this equates up to 11 hours per week stretched across the whole year (depends which term your child starts with us)
To be able to take up funded childcare for your two-year-old you or your child must meet the eligibility criteria. Please visit the Childcare Choices website or Dudley Council website for further information.
A total of 570 hours per year, that you can use flexibly with one or more childcare provider
It's available at our nurseries: Tipton Toddlers, Early Steps Dudley and Fairytales Great Barr. From the term after your child’s 2nd birthday.
15 hours for 3 and 4 years olds
For families in England
With 3 and 4-year-old children
15 hours of funded childcare or early education for 38 weeks this equates up to 11 hours per week stretched across the whole year (depends which term your child starts with us)
A total of 570 hours per year, that you can use flexibly with one or more childcare provider
It's available at our nurseries: Tipton Toddlers, Early Steps Dudley and Fairytales Great Barr. From the term after your child’s 3rd birthday.
30 hours for 3 and 4 year olds
For families in England
With 3 and 4-year-old children
30 hours of funded childcare or early education for 38 weeks this equates up to 22 hours per week stretched across the whole year (depends which term your child starts with us)
A total of 1,140 hours per year, that you can use flexibly with one or more childcare provider
It's available at our nurseries: Tipton Toddlers, Early Steps Dudley and Fairytales Great Barr. From the term after your child’s 3rd birthday.
Universal Credit
For working families claiming Universal Credit, in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales
With children under 17*
Up to 85% of eligible childcare costs
Who aren't receiving Tax-Free Childcare
*The childcare cost element in Universal Credit is paid up to the end of August following the child's 16th birthday.
You can use Universal Credits all year round to spend on regulated child care.
Universal Credit
For working families claiming Universal Credit, in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales
With children under 17*
Up to 85% of eligible childcare costs
Who aren't receiving Tax-Free Childcare
*The childcare cost element in Universal Credit is paid up to the end of August following the child's 16th birthday.
You can use Universal Credits all year round to spend on regulated child care.
Support While You Study
Weekly payments from Care to Learn if you’re at school or sixth-form college.
Help through your college if you’re in further education
A weekly grant if you’re in full-time higher education
You could get weekly payments through Care to Learn if you're under 20 at the start of a publicly-funded course, such as a school or sixth form.
You can apply for Discretionary Learner Support to pay for childcare if you're 19 or over and in further education, for example, if you're studying for an NVQ, BTEC or PGCE.
You can apply for a Childcare Grant if you're in full-time higher education to pay for childcare costs for children under 15 (or under 17 if they have special needs).
Our Parent Prospectus
We’d love to send you a FREE copy of our parent pack
that we have filled with loads of helpful information about Early Steps Dudley...
Our Parent Prospectus
We’d love to send you a FREE copy of our parent pack that we have filled with loads of helpful information about Early Steps Dudley...
Early Steps Dudley
Bank Road, Gornal Wood, Dudley,
West Midlands,
DY3 2NT