The Childcare Offer Wales

School holiday entitlement

During the school holidays, if you are eligible for the Childcare Offer you will be entitled to 30 hours a week of childcare for up to 9 weeks per year.

Holiday provision will be allocated at the beginning of each term the child is eligible for the offer. You will be allocated 3 weeks of holiday provision per term. Unused holiday weeks can be carried over from one term to the next and from one academic year to the next, providing both the parent and child remain eligible for the Offer.

Where a child is offered a full-time education place earlier than the September after their fourth birthday, that child is still eligible to receive 30 hours per week of holiday childcare provision, up until the September after their fourth birthday.

Please ensure you communicate with your childcare provider(s) when you would like to use your 9 weeks of holiday entitlement.  Your provider will then claim for the chosen holiday weeks. 

Providers should not specify to parents which of the 13 weeks are designated holiday weeks under the Offer. This is intended to give parents flexibility in terms of how they access their 9 weeks holiday provision.

You are able to view how many holiday weeks have been claimed by your childcare setting on your dashboard.

There are 4 weeks in the year that are not funded by the Offer. And these can only be taken during school holidays. If you have a term time only Agreement with your setting it is likely you will not have to fund any weeks yourself, however if you have a holiday Agreement with your setting, 4 weeks of these will need to be funded by you. You will be able to keep track of these weeks claims the provider submits weekly. The provider will claim 0 for these weeks which will mean that these are the weeks you will be require to fully fund. As the childcare setting claims the holiday weeks funding, the balance of remaining holiday weeks will reduce. This allows you to keep track of how many holiday weeks are remaining for you.