Find out more about 1140 hours and funded early learning and childcare in Scotland.
In Scotland all three and four-year-olds are entitled to 1140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare. Some two-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds receive 15 hours per week of entitlement. A pilot is currently being run in some local authorities to extend this to all two-year-olds.
Downloads: template letters to parents and MPs/MSPs – additional employer costs from 2025
Our members have asked us to provide a template letter they can send to their local MPs/MSPs and also to parents to explain about the challenges that early years providers are facing, especially regarding the higher employment costs which will come from April 2025 as a result of the Budget. Many of you are having to put up your fees as a result and need to explain why.
NDNA has put together a template letter – which you can adapt and update depending on your own circumstances – for you to send to parents. You can use the letter in full or choose sections that back up your own points. We have included national background information and statistics that should support your main arguments.
We have also written a template letter to send to your local MP/MSP(s). It would be most effective if you add in local information, how this impacts on your own setting.
Funded early learning and childcare is 'free' to parents, but funded by the Scottish Government.
Parents can receive up to 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare a year if their child is 3 or 4 years old.
Some two–year–olds are also eligible. Some local authorities are running pilot schemes to expand funded childcare to all two-year-olds. There are six early adopter communities part of this pilot: Dundee, Glasgow, Clackmannanshire, Inverclyde, Levenmouth (Fife) and North Isles and West Mainland (Shetland).
- NDNA Scotland has used the latest figures from local authorities under the Freedom of Information Act, to call for rates to increase to a level that will enable providers to meet the costs of delivering places
- See Government guidance for Scotland
- Parents in Scotland can access Tax-Free childcare
- Parents in Scotland can use Childcare Choices to determine what funding they may be eligible for.
