30 hours of “funded” childcare: is your invoicing compliant?

In February 2025, the government released updated guidance for all Early Years providers, around the “funded” 30 hours of childcare. Although the guidance was applicable from April of the same year, the final deadline for the changes providers must make to invoices is January 2026. 

But what’s changed, and how do you know if your setting’s invoicing is compliant? Read on to find out…

What are the rules around invoicing for the funded hours?

In section A1.36 of the guidance, it states that invoices and receipts for bill-payers should be split out into the following items: 

• The “free” entitlement hours
• Any additional private paid hours
• Food charges (these must be voluntary)
• Non-food consumables charges (such as nappies and suncream, but must be voluntary)
• Activities charges (these must also be voluntary)

Invoices and receipts should also include your full details so that they can be identified as coming from a specific provider. According to the same guidance, “Local authorities should ensure these itemised invoices are in place by January 2026.” although some have already enforced this. Now is the time to check whether your setting's invoicing meets these requirements, if you haven't already.

Are Famly’s invoices compliant with the rules?

In short, yes. The team at Famly have redesigned the invoice template so that it’s more transparent for bill-payers and meets the criteria in the guidance. As you can see from the example below, all of the charges are listed separately, as required.

Famly also allows you to set an automatic charge for chosen sessions, when they are added to a child’s plan. As long as parents and carers have agreed to the charges, you can automatically add the cost of food or consumables to your funded sessions with no extra admin.

Don't forget, Famly also has an integration with Funding Loop to make claiming funding for the children at your setting easy. If you use Funding Loop, you can easily export the data they need to send funding forms to parents, ensuring an accurate transfer of information.

What else do I need to do to be compliant?

There are other rules around compliance, on top of itemised invoices and receipts. Use our checklist below to help you out. You can find the full guidance here:

✅ We offer the 15 or 30 hours free of charge to parents.

✅ We work with parents so that they can understand which hours and sessions can be taken as free provision and ensure that (as far as possible) the pattern of the entitlement hours are convenient for parents’ working hours.

✅ We allow children to take up their free hours in continuous blocks if they wish to, with no artificial breaks in the entitlement hours.

✅ We ensure that parents know that any charges for meals, consumables, and activities are voluntary.

✅ We allow parents and carers  to opt out of paying for chargeable extras and the associated consumable or activity for their child.

✅ We have published the costs of chargeable extras on our websites or the local authority Family Information Services. The charges are clear, up-to-date, and easily accessible to parents and carers. We show the amounts charged for all the chargeable extras listed, as well as the pattern of hours that parents and carers can take the entitlements.

✅ We have a policy on providing parents and carers with options for alternatives to additional charges. It offers reasonable alternatives, so parents can access the entitlement for free, and includes allowing parents to supply their own, or waiving the cost of these items.

✅ We deliver the entitlements consistently, so that all children in our setting accessing any of the free entitlements receive the same quality and access to provision, regardless of whether their parents and carers choose to pay for voluntary hours, voluntary extra services, meals or consumables.

❌ We do not make parents and carers pay for additional private, paid hours as a condition of accessing a free place.

❌ We do not attach any mandatory charges for parents and carers in relation to the free hours., including a registration fee or non-refundable deposit.

❌ We do not charge "top-up fees".

❌ We do not charge parents and carers for the supply of or use of any materials, including, but not limited to, craft materials, crayons, paper, books, instruments, toys, or other equipment or learning resources that are necessary for the effective delivery of childcare.

❌ We do not charge parents or carers for business running costs, including, but not limited to, rent, staff wages, cleaning materials, insurance, or utility bills such as energy, gas or water.

❌ We do not levy "general charges", including but not limited to, non-itemised enrichment charges, sustainability charges, business continuity charges, additional charges, enhanced ratios, hourly rates, or any other supplementary charges on top of the free hours.