Free tool
Funded hours calculator for childminders
Stretch a 15 or 30 hours entitlement across your working year and see exactly how many hours are funded each week — and what's left to invoice parents. Free to use, no sign-up.
What to invoice
- Funded hours over the year
- 1,140 hrs
- Funded hours per week, stretched over 51 weeks
- 22.35 hrs
- Chargeable hours per week
- 17.65 hrs
- Invoice per week (51-week pattern)
- £132.35
- Even monthly invoice
- £562.50
Working: 30 hrs × 38 weeks = 1,140 hrs a year → ÷ 51 weeks = 22.35 hrs funded each week. 40 hrs attended − funded = 17.65 hrs to invoice at £7.50.
Arithmetic only, based on England's 38-week entitlement shape. Funding rates, eligibility and what you may charge alongside funded hours are set by your local authority's provider agreement — always check it. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run different schemes.
How stretching funded hours works
The English entitlements — the universal 15 hours for 3–4 year olds and the 30 hours for eligible working families — are based on 38 school weeksa year. A childminder open all year usually doesn't bill in term-time blocks, so the same annual total is stretched: 30 hours × 38 weeks is 1,140 funded hours, and spread over 51 weeks that becomes roughly 22.4 funded hours each week.
Everything the child attends beyond the stretched funded hours is chargeable at your normal rate. The mistake that costs childminders money is invoicing the term-time figure (the full 30) as free all year round — over a 51-week year that would give away around 390 hours of paid care.
On the invoice itself, itemise the funded hours at £0 alongside the chargeable hours, so parents can see both the value they're receiving and exactly what they owe. Keep any extra charges — meals, consumables, trips — as separate voluntary lines rather than folded into an hourly figure.
Fair questions
What are funded childcare hours?
Government-funded early-years childcare in England: eligible working families can get up to 30 hours a week and all 3–4 year olds get a universal 15 hours a week, based on 38 school weeks a year. Childminders offering funded places claim the money from their local authority, not the parent — so those hours appear on the invoice at £0.
What does “stretching” funded hours mean?
The entitlement is 15 or 30 hours a week for 38 term-time weeks. If a child attends all year round, you can spread the same total (for example 30 × 38 = 1,140 hours) across more weeks — over 51 weeks that's about 22.4 funded hours each week, with the rest of the attended hours chargeable to parents.
Can I charge parents on top of funded hours?
The funded hours themselves must be free at the point of delivery, but you invoice normally for hours outside the entitlement, and you may charge for consumables such as meals, nappies or trips if the charges are voluntary and clearly itemised. Your local authority's provider agreement sets the exact rules — always check it.
Do funded hours work the same in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
No — each nation runs its own scheme (for example Scotland's 1,140 annual hours and Wales's Childcare Offer), with different totals and claiming rules. This calculator uses England's 15/30-hours, 38-week shape; the stretching arithmetic is the same idea elsewhere but check your own scheme's numbers.
Funded hours, itemised correctly on every invoice — automatically
MinderHQ is the all-in-one childminder app: the diary, register, accident forms and invoices done in taps — with funded hours stretched and itemised for you, every month. First month free.