Free hours

As far as I'm aware, you don't get any free hours until the child is 2, then you're entitled to 15 hours free, depending on certain benefit entitlement ect. When the child is 3, it goes up to 30 free hours for anyone. Or so I have been told. But if you want to only use those hours, that's fine. You don't have to pay for extra and you don't have to use them all.

You can do a gov scheme for help with costs, for every £8 you spend, they pay £2. For certified minders/nurseries.

I need to go back to work, but even with gov help, childcare will be over half of my wage.

As above for the hours. It is possible to use only those free hours and no more but some nursery’s charge extra for food and activities so you need to ask about that

Please read this as it is changing. So by September 2024, working parents are entitled to 15 free hours for 9 months olds+ and then 30 the next September.
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/07/free-childcare-how-we-tackling-the-cost-of-childcare/

Anyone else feel like 15 or30 hours isn't a huge help when you put your child into daycare for 10 or 12 hours a day?