ℹ️ We’ve collated this information based on publicly available data and will review this article regularly.
🎯 Overview of Entitlements
Essex County Council offers funded early education entitlements for children aged 9 months to 4 years. The following entitlements are available:
| Entitlement Type | Max Hours per Year | Max Hours per week |
9-23 Month olds | Working Parent Entitlement | 1140 | 30 |
2-Year-Olds | Funded Early Education for Two Year Olds (FEEE2; Disadvantaged) | 570 | 15 |
2-Year-Olds | Working Parent Entitlement | 1140 | 30 |
3 & 4-Year-Olds | Universal Entitlement | 570 | 15 |
3 & 4-Year-Olds | Extended (Working Parent) | +570 | +15 |
👶 Eligibility & Types of Funding
Children can start using funding the term after they turn the relevant age. Here are the eligible date of birth ranges for the current and upcoming terms:
Term | 9 - 23 month olds | 2 year olds | 3 - 4 year olds | School eligible 4 year olds |
Autumn 2025 | 01/09/2023 to 30/11/2024 | 01/09/2022 to 31/08/2023 | 01/09/2021 to 31/08/2022 | 01/09/2020 to 31/08/2021 |
Spring 2026 | 01/01/2024 to 31/03/2025 | 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023 | 01/09/2021 to 31/12/2022 | 01/01/2021 to 31/08/2021 |
Summer 2026 | 01/04/2024 to 30/06/2025 | 01/04/2023 to 31/03/2024 | 01/09/2021 to 31/03/2023 | 01/04/2021 to 31/08/2021 |
Eligibility & Application Process
Process depends on age and household income
Parents should use the Best Start in Life eligibility checker
For full eligibility criteria and links to apply, see our Eligibility article here
Information on school deferrals for 4 year olds here.
📝 How to Register for Funding
How to apply
Childminders delivering funded hours with tiney will be registered via tiney and approved by Essex County Council.
Sign up with tiney and complete onboarding
tiney registers the childminder with Essex via the EYCC Provider Portal
Once approved, you will receive confirmation from tiney. You must not confirm any funded placements with parents until you have received this confirmation from tiney.
How long does registration take?
The LA will take around a week to review your application documents, and approve your registration.
You can offer funding once you’ve received an email from tiney confirming your registration.
You can offer funding starting mid-term, but note that this may impact result in missing estimate or actual headcount deadlines, which could delay payments.
🏦 Funding Rates
Funding Rates, effective as of April 2025.
Age Group | Entitlement Type | Base Hourly Rate |
9–23 Month olds | Working Parent Entitlement | £10.92 |
2-Year-Olds | Free For Two (Disadvantaged) | £8.16 |
2-Year-Olds | Working Parent Entitlement | £7.96 |
3 & 4-Year-Olds | Universal Entitlement | £5.54 |
3 & 4-Year-Olds | Extended (Working Parent) | £5.54 |
3 & 4 Year Olds | Deprivation Supplements | £ variable based on eligibility |
All | EYPP - capped at 15 hours per week | £1.00 per hour |
📅 Term Dates & Key Dates
See Essex's childminder Calendar & Payment schedule for Sep 2025 - Aug 2026 here.
Term Dates & Funded Weeks
Term Dates & Funded Weeks
Term | Funded Term Dates | Funded Weeks (Term Time Only) | Headcount Day |
Summer 2025 | 21/04/2025 - 22/07/2025 | 13 | 01/05/2025 |
Autumn 2025 | 01/09/2025 – 12/12/2025 or * 08/09/2025 - 19/12/2025 | 14 | 11/09/2025 |
Spring 2026 | 05/01/2026 - 27/03/2026 | 11 | 15/01/2026 |
*Autumn 2025 - as default tiney will apply funding on the earlier dates, from 01/09 to 12/12.
Headcount Day
Headcount Day
Funding will be payable to a Provider if the following conditions are met:
The children included in the Headcount are registered and attending the provision on the day of the Headcount.
Any children included in the Headcount who are ill or otherwise absent during that week, must be genuinely expected to take their place during that term.
If a child joins after Headcount Date a late claim can be submitted provided the conditions in the Contract are applied and they have not claimed FEEE at any other provision within Essex for that term.
Where children access their place intermittently e.g., transient families such as traveller children or refugee children, it is the local authority’s policy to fund for the duration of the term.
Parents cannot amend the number of funded hours they wish their child to take after Headcount Day. The PAF that was signed at the beginning of the term between the Provider and the Parent clearly indicates this. Increased hours can only be made on a termly basis.
Providers are required to add, amend, and delete data to their Provider record on the EYCC Provider Portal
Providers are required to update EYCC Provider Portal each term to ensure accuracy. This includes prompt notification of changes to the funding contact at the provision or any change to bank account details. This also provides up-to-date childcare sufficiency information which is a requirement of the FEEE funding contract.
Providers registered to deliver FEEE with the Council must agree to admit, at any reasonable time, authorised officers of the Council or their agents. Failure to admit staff or regularly cancelling pre-agreed appointments may also lead to the withdrawal of the FEEE Contract.
If a child moves part way through a term, it is at the discretion of the Provider where the child is attending on Headcount Day whether funding can be transferred. In these instances, the Council expects the funding to be paid forward by BACS transfer between the two Providers and adjustments should not be made via the amendment Headcount.
Where notice has been given, please refer to page 27 of the handbook for what can/cannot be claimed on the Headcount.
How to claim for a stretched placement
How to claim for a stretched placement
Claims can only be made via the portal on a Term Time Only basis, for the maximum number of term time weeks in the grid above. So the claim may be made for more hours than the child is actually attending each week, but over the year will be for the correct number of hours.
Refer to the stretching calculator here for guidance on how a stretched claim can be calculated.
📤 Headcount Submissions
Headcount submissions are required termly, for funding claims within each term. There are three main headcount types that can be completed each term, please see the guides from the LA below.
See here for more information on headcounts.
Tiney will submit the headcount information on behalf of all tiney childminders in Essex, using the contract and schedule information for all enrolled funded children.
We will contact providers before the headcount deadlines to confirm details of claims, and request any missing information (such as funding codes, parent National Insurance numbers, etc). All information is required in order for a claim to be processed for a child.
Payments will be made based on when the claims are submitted, based on the timelines below. If a contract is submitted after the headcount deadline, the child will be included on the next headcount task possible.
Headcount & Payment dates
Autumn 2025
Autumn 2025
Task Type | Task Opens | Task Closes | Payment breakdown | Payment by |
Estimate | 07/07/2025 | 11/07/2025 | 25% in months 1 & 2 | 12/09/25, 13/10/25 |
Actual | 08/09/2025 | 17/09/2025 | 50% of balance after forecast in months 3 & 4 | 13/11/25, 12/12/25 |
Amendment | 17/11/2025 | 26/11/2025 | Any additional hours after Actual | 31/12/25 |
Spring 2026
Spring 2026
Task Type | Task Opens | Task Closes | Payment breakdown | Payment by |
Estimate | 08/12/2025 | 12/12/2025 | 25% in months 1 & 2 | 13/01/26, 13/02/26 |
Actual | 12/01/2026 | 21/01/2026 | Balance after forecast in month 3 | 13/03/26 |
Amendment | 23/02/2026 | 04/03/2026 | Any additional hours after Actual | 31/03/2026 |
⚠️ IMPORTANT: For any placements where an Estimate Headcount claim is not submitted, the first payment made will be in the 3rd month of that term. See Examples of how payments work below.
💷 Payments
Payment dates are shown in the table of headcount dates (above) for each term.
Payments will be made based on which headcount tasks are completed, and the number of children claimed in them.
Examples of how payments work
Examples of how payments work
For simplicity, we’ll assume there’s 1 child in all following examples, paid at an hourly rate of £10.
Term | Claim type | Estimate Hours | Actual Hours | Payment 1 | Payment 2 | Payment 3 | Payment 4 | Payment 5 |
Autumn | Estimate & Actual match | 100 | 100 | £250 | £250 | £250 | £250 | |
Autumn | No Estimate, Actual only | 0 | 100 | £0 | £0 | £500 | £500 | |
Spring | Estimate & Actual match | 100 | 100 | £250 | £250 | £500 | ||
Spring | No Estimate, Actual only | 0 | 100 | £0 | £0 | £1,000 | ||
Summer | Estimate & Actual match | 100 | 100 | £250 | £250 | £166.67 | £166.67 | £166.66 |
Summer | No Estimate, Actual only | 0 | 100 | £0 | £0 | £333.33 | £333.33 | £333.34 |
Any claims made as an amendment will lead to a separate payment, by the end of the term after the final Actual payment.
📚 Key Documents & Guidance
Provider handbook: 2025-2026
Parent declaration form: downloadable from here
Parent guide to funding: Guide
🔗 Contacts
If you have questions about funding in Essex, please contact the tiney payments team via your app, or at payments@tiney.co, and we will coordinate with Essex County Council as necessary.