1140 Hours Early Learning and Childcare

From August 2020, you are entitled to 1140 hours of funded childcare if you have a 3 or 4 year old child. This is on a pro-rata basis depending on your child’s birthday and intake. In Inverclyde, your child will be entitled to start the first available Monday in the month after their birthday, e.g. if your child turns three in September they will receive their funded hours from the October.

All early learning and childcare places are allocated by using the Early Year’s Admission policy. Inverclyde Council uses defined areas rather than school catchment areas and priority will always be higher for applications in the defined area of the establishments. There is no guarantee of places within any defined area. For local authority establishments the application form is set out in defined areas. If there are more applications than places available the banding policy is applied to each application and a ballot conducted to allocate places when required. We will always work from your choices form. If you cannot be placed in one of your choices, you may be offered an ELC place with the availability from an establishment within your defined area that you may not have chosen or a model you may not have indicated on your form.